According to data from the Banque de France's Service central des risques cited by Insee, outstanding loans drawn by SMEs reached 550 billion euros at the end of June 2026! Banks remain, by far, the pillar of financing for French SMEs. But they no longer cover every need. It is in this open space that crowdlending has established itself! This financing method allows individuals to lend money directly to companies in exchange for interest. For the SME, it is an additional source of financing, often a faster one. For you, as a saver, it is an asset class accessible from just a few dozen euros. Let's look at how all this fits together: first the financing mechanisms available to SMEs, then how crowdlending works in practice, and finally what it entails, in terms of both returns and risks, when you take the lender's side.
SME financing: how crowdlending complements bank credit
Note: this article is intended for educational purposes and does not constitute investment advice or individualized tax advice. Your personal situation (residence, income, amounts and objectives) may change the applicable rules. For significant amounts, consult a professional and check the official sources.
How are SMEs financed today?
Before discussing crowdlending, it is important to understand the ecosystem in which it operates. In practical terms, an SME has four broad families of resources, which it combines according to its stage of development and the nature of its need.
Bank credit
The business loan remains the benchmark solution and the historical foundation, still in 2026.
It allows any company (subject to the bank accepting its application) to raise large amounts, over long terms, at regulated rates that are often lower than those of alternative solutions.
And it finances everything! Both investment—machinery, premises, vehicles—and the operating cycle, through cash lines or even authorized overdrafts.
That is why, in France, companies, and SMEs in particular, are financed mainly by banks: this is a strong feature of our economy, where bank credit carries far more weight than market financing.
Equity and self-financing
The second broad family: money that comes from the partners or from the business itself.
What does this cover? Capital contributions at the time of formation, reinvestment of profits, shareholder current accounts, and then fundraising from professional investors (for the most dynamic companies).
The advantage is obvious: no repayment, no interest, no deterioration of debt ratios… The trade-off is just as clear: a fundraising round involves an equity stake, and therefore dilution of the capital and shared control with the new shareholders. Many SME managers forgo it for this precise reason.
Public aid and support schemes
Bpifrance, regional aid, European programs, honor loans, grants for innovation or the ecological transition: the public toolkit is extensive, and it has one major benefit, that of providing financing without increasing the company's debt.
Its drawback? It is administrative. The applications are heavy, the supporting documents numerous and recurring, the review times long… In short, for an SME with few internal resources, putting together an aid application represents a hidden cost that sometimes discourages them even before filing.
Alternative solutions
That leaves a fourth family, growing strongly: factoring, which turns customer invoices into immediate cash; leasing, which finances equipment without tying up capital; revenue-based financing, indexed to turnover; and participatory financing, of which crowdlending is the main variant for companies.
It is this last solution that concerns us here.
But to understand why it has developed so quickly, we first have to look at what banks do not do!
Why bank credit is no longer enough
Nothing that follows means that banks finance SMEs poorly. They finance them massively, at cost conditions that no alternative matches.
In fact, the issue lies elsewhere: there are needs that the banking model, by design, covers poorly.
Increasingly selective lending criteria
The best financing conditions today go to companies that have a solid track record, demonstrated profitability and credible guarantees.
So far, nothing shocking! This requirement is perfectly understandable from the lender's point of view, but it mechanically excludes part of the economic fabric: young companies, those coming out of one (or several) difficult financial years, or those whose rapid growth temporarily weakens their ratios.
Timelines incompatible with the pace of SMEs
Processing a bank loan application takes time: analyzing the accounts, the credit committee, putting guarantees in place, and so on. We are talking about several weeks, sometimes more.
Yet many SME needs do not fit this timetable — quite the opposite. Several recurring situations make it impossible: a spike in orders, a delay in customer payment, a stock purchase opportunity to seize. These are situations that play out in days, not months.
The blind spots of bank financing
So, of course, certain needs structurally slip through the net, such as intangible assets, software, brands, customer portfolios, and so on. All of this is difficult to finance, for lack of obvious collateral value.
Companies with revenue below 20 million euros generate limited interest among some players, as the cost of processing the application is poorly proportioned to the amount lent.
There is also a maturity mismatch that is underestimated. Factoring covers trade receivables, i.e. about two months of activity, but an industrial operating cycle can extend over six months.
The result: many subcontractors, particularly tier 3 and tier 4, remain partially excluded from conventional schemes.
It is these situations — a one-off need, an atypical asset, a tight timetable — that crowdlending addresses.
Crowdlending, participatory financing dedicated to companies
Here we reach the point where the perspective is reversed. Until now, we have looked at financing from the company's point of view. Let us now look at it from yours.
Lending to a company without going through a bank
The term comes from English: crowd and lending . Literally, lending by the crowd.
The principle can be summed up in one sentence. With a savings account, it is the bank that lends your money to companies and pays you back a fraction of the interest. Whereas in crowdlending, you are the lender yourself, you choose whom you lend to, and you receive all of the interest, while also bearing all of the risk.
Let us take a concrete example.
An SME needs 200,000 euros to finance its development. Rather than approaching only its bank, it posts its project on a crowdlending platform. Several hundred individuals take part. You lend 500 euros and you receive interest, most often monthly, for the entire term of the loan, generally 12 to 60 months.
Crowdlending, crowdequity, crowdfunding: clearing up the confusion
These three terms circulate as synonyms. They refer to three very different realities, and the confusion is costly for anyone who invests without clearing it up.
Crowdfunding with a donation or reward. You finance a project and receive, at best, a symbolic reward or a product. No financial return.
Crowdequity. You become a shareholder in the company by buying shares. Your return depends on the future valuation: potentially high, potentially zero, with no set maturity.
Crowdlending. You lend. The company owes you principal and interest, according to a contractual repayment schedule known in advance.
One further distinction deserves your attention: business crowdlending to businesses and crowdlending real estate do not have the same risk profile. The latter finances property development or property trading operations, with repayment often made in fine, backed by the exit from the operation. The former finances the activity of an operating company, with regular repayments.
Do not put them in the same bucket of your allocation.
In what legal form is the lending done?
Three vehicles coexist. The interest-bearing loan , the most common one.
The bonds, debt securities issued by the company and subscribed by investors.
The minibons, a simplified format reserved for crowdfunding. In practice, the term is capped at seven years.
Above all, remember this: whatever the form, you are a creditor, not a shareholder. If the company runs into difficulty, this places you ahead of shareholders in the order of repayment, which nevertheless does not guarantee that you will recover your stake.
How crowdlending works, step by step
The mechanism is symmetrical. Two paths converge on a platform.
On the company side: from application to disbursement
Submission of the application. The company submits its request: amount, purpose of the financing, financial statements, projections.
Analysis and rating. The platform reviews the application, verifies financial soundness, assesses the risk and assigns a rating. This is its filtering role: the majority of applications are rejected at this stage.
Publication of the project. If the application is accepted, it becomes visible to investors, with a detailed fact sheet.
Fundraising. Investors subscribe until the target amount is reached.
Disbursement and repayment. The funds are released, then repaid according to the contractual schedule.
On the investor side: from registration to repayment
Account creation and identity verification. The KYC procedure is mandatory: proof of identity, proof of address, and sometimes a questionnaire on knowledge of financial products.
Deposit of funds. By bank transfer, into a segregated account separate from the platform's own accounts.
Project selection. You review the fact sheets and make your choice. Some platforms offer an automatic investment mode based on criteria that you define.
Investment. The entry ticket is low: often 50 to 100 euros per project.
Receipt of interest. Most often monthly, followed by repayment of the principal according to the terms of the loan.
What the platform actually does
This is the point that most beginning investors underestimate. The platform is not merely a matchmaking site: it handles the selection of applications, risk rating, the structuring of guarantees, the management of repayment flows and, where applicable, debt recovery.
A few indicators appear systematically on project fact sheets, and you need to know how to read them:
LTV (loan-to-value) : the ratio between the amount lent and the value of the asset pledged as collateral. The lower it is, the better protected you are in the event of default.
Debt-to-equity : the ratio between the company's debt and its equity. It measures its level of indebtedness.
Credit history and the overall risk score, which summarize the borrower's ability to meet its commitments.
A project fact sheet that provides none of these elements is not a project fact sheet. It is a sales brochure.
Crowdlending and bank credit: complementary, not competing
| Criterion | Bank credit | Crowdlending |
|---|---|---|
| Lender | Banking institution | Individuals and institutional investors |
| Time to obtain funding | Several weeks | A few days to a few weeks |
| Granting criteria | History, guarantees, financial ratios | Analysis of the project and the collateral |
| Amounts | High | Intermediate |
| Cost to the company | Regulated, lower rates | Higher rates |
| Collateral required | In most cases | Varies by project |
| Flexibility of use | Restricted by the purpose of the loan | Broader |
The table can be read both ways. Crowdlending is faster and more flexible, but it costs the company more.
Note: no rational small or medium-sized business would replace a bank loan at a regulated rate with more expensive participatory financing.
That is precisely why the two coexist. In practice, a small or medium-sized business uses its bank for heavy, structuring investment, and crowdlending for what the bank does not finance or does not finance quickly enough: a one-off need, an intangible asset, a peak in activity, additional contribution within a broader arrangement. Crowdlending does not replace bank credit. It can be said that it fills in the gaps.
What crowdlending changes for you as an investor
Returns higher than conventional bank savings products
This is the headline argument, and it is real. The rates displayed on the business crowdlending market commonly range between 8% and 12% gross per year, with some platforms displaying even higher rates on projects deemed riskier.
Two caveats when reading these figures, however. These rates are gross, before taxes and before defaults. And they compensate for a risk: a double-digit return never exists without a trade-off. The actual performance of a crowdlending portfolio is measured after taxes and after losses, not on the headline rate.
A genuinely accessible entry ticket
With a minimum of between 50 and 100 euros depending on the platform, crowdlending makes possible something rare: diversifying seriously with modest capital. An investor who puts in 2,000 euros can spread it across twenty to forty separate projects. We will see later why this point is decisive.
Regular income, and a clear purpose
Most platforms pay interest monthly, which makes it an attractive vehicle for anyone seeking regular cash flows rather than a capital gain on resale.
There is also a dimension that many savers appreciate: you know which company you are financing, in which country, in which sector and for which project. It is financing of the real economy, in the most literal sense!
Taxation
In France, the interest received falls under the prélèvement forfaitaire unique of 31.4%, which breaks down into 12.8% income tax and 18.6% social levies.
Opting for the progressive income tax scale remains possible and may be more favorable depending on your marginal bracket.
One point deserves your attention if you invest through a platform established outside France: you are required to declare the account held abroad, and the way withholding taxes are handled depends on the applicable tax treaty. This is a subject in its own right, to be addressed before investing rather than at the time of filing.
The risks to know before lending to an SME
No investment decision is made solely by reading the returns. Here is what you need to keep in mind.
The borrower's default risk
This is the main risk: the company stops repaying, and you lose all or part of your capital.
It is useful to know how a default actually unfolds, because the reality is slower than one imagines. A late payment first opens a reminder period, with a contractual or legal deadline before recovery proceedings are initiated.
If the case moves to litigation, seizing and then reselling the collateral can take from several months to a year. And the resale value of the asset, real estate, equipment, inventory, may have fallen between the granting of the loan and the liquidation.
At this stage, you better understand why the LTV deserves your attention : it is your safety margin if everything goes wrong.
Illiquidity
Your funds are tied up until the loan matures. Some platforms offer a secondary market allowing you to sell your receivables before term, but liquidity is never guaranteed there: it depends on the existence of a buyer, and a distressed receivable finds no taker.
The rule is simple, and without exception: only commit to crowdlending sums that you will not need before maturity.
Platform risk
The platform itself is a company, and it can default. The French market has provided several illustrations of this in recent years: business closures, changes of direction, takeovers. The regulations provide that, in the event of failure, the management of outstanding loans is taken over by a third-party provider, but experience shows that these transitions can be long and complex.
How to reduce these risks
Four reflexes, in order of importance:
Diversify, then diversify again. This is the only truly effective protection. Spread your investments across many projects, and above all do not lend twice to the same borrower: you would think you were diversifying when in fact you would be concentrating.
Read the LTV and the guarantees. A well-collateralized project with a low LTV does not present the same profile as an unsecured loan, even at an identical rate.
Scale up gradually. Start with small amounts, observe a full repayment cycle, then increase.
Diversify across platforms as well. Do not concentrate your entire allocation with a single player.
Like any investment, crowdlending carries a risk of capital loss. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.
How to choose a crowdlending platform
Check the license and the regulatory framework
This is the starting point, and it is non-negotiable.
In the European Union, crowdfunding platforms must hold the status of crowdfunding service provider (PSFP), a European license issued in France by the AMF. You can verify a company's registration on the ORIAS register.
Outside the European Union, the framework differs and this nuance is worth understanding. In Switzerland, for example, crowdlending platforms fall under a self-regulatory organization (SRO). This is the case for Maclear, a Swiss platform based in Wallisellen, a member of PolyReg.
This status covers obligations regarding anti-money laundering and data protection, but it does not mean direct supervision by FINMA, the Swiss financial market authority. This is neither a hidden flaw nor a warning signal: it is simply a different regulatory regime, one you should know about before investing rather than discover afterward.
Assessing transparency and track record
A serious platform publishes its statistics: volumes raised, number of projects financed, default rate, recovery rate, and so on. A platform that communicates only about its returns and not about its defaults is telling you something about itself.
Also look at how long it has been in operation, the composition of the management team and the quality of the project information. A complete listing gives the LTV, the debt ratio, the borrower's credit history and an overall risk score, enough to form a documented opinion rather than an impression.
Understanding the protection mechanisms
Several mechanisms can reduce, but never eliminate, your exposure.
The collateral and the guarantees backing the loan constitute your recourse in the event of default. The provision fund is a fund financed by the platform that takes over interest payments if the borrower falls behind; at Maclear, it is triggered after more than three days of delay on monthly interest. Finally, milestone-based financingconsists of releasing funds as the project progresses rather than all at once, which limits your exposure at any given moment and makes it possible to observe progress before committing more.
These mechanisms improve the risk profile. They do not eliminate it, and no serious platform will tell you otherwise.
FAQ
What are the three main ways of financing an SME?
Bank credit, equity (partner contributions, self-financing, fundraising) and public support schemes. Alongside these three pillars are complementary solutions such as factoring, leasing and crowdfunding.
Is crowdlending reserved for experienced investors?
No. It is accessible to any individual of legal age after identity verification, from 50 to 100 euros depending on the platform. Some, however, apply an investment cap per project for non-sophisticated investors, precisely in order to limit their exposure.
How much can you earn with crowdlending?
Gross rates commonly range between 8% and 12% per year in business crowdlending. The net return depends on your tax situation, 31.4% under the prélèvement forfaitaire unique, and above all on any defaults in your portfolio.
What happens if the company does not repay?
The platform initiates a reminder procedure and then debt recovery, and enforces the guarantees if the loan includes any. The process can extend over several months to a year, and does not guarantee full recovery of the capital lent.
What is the difference between crowdlending and crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding is the general category of participatory financing. Crowdlending is its variant in the form of an interest-bearing loan: you lend and receive interest, without acquiring a stake in the company's capital.
SME financing is no longer the exclusive business of banks. Bank credit remains the foundation, cheaper, larger in volume, more structuring, but it leaves some needs uncovered: cash-flow emergencies, intangible assets, companies that are too young or too small to fit the analysis grids. Crowdlending occupies that space. It costs the company more, it moves faster, and it opens up to individuals a role previously held only by banks: that of lender. If you are considering it, keep three things in mind. Check the platform's regulatory framework before anything else. Diversify extensively, across many projects and several platforms. And commit only sums you will not need before maturity.
Maclear AG is a Swiss peer-to-peer (P2P) lending and crowdlending platform, headquartered in Switzerland. The company acts as a financial intermediary in the non-banking sector and is a member of PolyReg SRO, in accordance with Swiss financial regulations, particularly regarding AML, KYC, and GDPR. Maclear provides individual and qualified investors access to carefully selected business loan opportunities, with integrated risk assessment, a Provision Fund, and a Secondary Market for liquidity.
The content of this article is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute investment, financial, tax, or legal advice. Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending and crowdlending investments carry a risk of partial or total loss of capital. Past performance does not predict future results. Liquidity on a secondary market is not guaranteed. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and consult qualified advisors before making any financial decisions. The availability of products and services may be restricted in certain jurisdictions.