Robocash Review

Hands-Off 12% – 14% Annual Returns Available Investing In Short Term Loans. – Robocash Review. Is Robocash Safe? Find Out!

What is Robocash?

Robocash is a leading European short term Peer to Peer Lender, providing loans to consumers around Europe. 

With loan terms from a few days up to 12 months (however most around 30 days), and offering easy, hands-off returns between 12% and 14%. They are an excellent option for diversification when investing in short term Euro currency loans.

Also they offer a “buyback guarantee” on most of their loans, which means it will buyback loans and repay principal and interest if payments are delayed more than 30 days.

Robocash is very similar to Mintos & Grupeer where it does not originate most loans itself, but uses loan originators to provide most of the loans (although some of the originators are part of the Robocash Group). This means the loan flow is generally good, keeping cash drag to a minimum. 

The Obvious Investor – Easy-Info Table^© – Robocash Review

Overall Rating*:	(3.7 / 5)
Who can invest:
Loan Currencies:	€
Estimated Return:	Up to 14%
Target Annual Return (Platform Number):	12.00%
My Calculated XIRR:	12.36%
Risk Rating*:	5/10 - Medium
Early Exit:	No No secondary market.
Min. Investment:	€10
Deposit Funds:	Bank account (SEPA Transfer). Typically 1 -2 days.
Auto-Invest:	Yes
Manual Invest:	No
Lending To:	Borrowers (through originators)
Loan Types:	Payday Loans.
Loan Security:	No.
Provision Fund:	No provision fund. See review for "Buy Back Guarantee"
Loans Amortize:	No. Short Term (30 day) Loans.
Time to Invest:	Fast: large loan book.
Time to Mange:	None (auto-invest).
Lender Fees:	No.
Payments Received:	Monthly, weekly. Various times.
Amount Lent:	€6 million+ (P2P Platform) €100 million (Robocash Group).
Number of Investors:	5,800+
Loan/Dflt Stats:	Not Published.
Regulated:	No
Location:	Croatia.
Launched:	2017 (P2P Platform) 2013 (Group)
Website:	https://www.robo.cash
Email:	support@robo.cash
Telephone:	+385 1344-58-18
IFISA/IRA:	No
Cashback**:	Invest in Singapore loans until the end of February and earn +0.5% Learn More >>
How to Sign Up**:	Sign Up Here!

Overview

History – Robocash Review

Robocash P2P is part of the Robocash Group which was launched in 2013. The P2P platform was launched in February 2017 in Riga, Latvia but moved to Zagreb, Croatia in March 2019.

In the 2 or so years the Robocash P2P platform has been up and running, it has lent out over 6€ million Euros from 5,800 investors to consumers in 8 countries. The Robocash Group itself has lent over 100€ million Euros and has been profitable since 2015. 

To give you an idea of the Robocash Group components, here is an image of their footprint. As you can see, they are expanding rapidly.

Deposits & Withdrawals – Robocash Review

Deposits and withdrawals are made by bank transfer (SEPA transfer so IBAN number required). 

You will be provided with the relevant bank details when you go to the deposits screen.

Deposits usually show up in your account the next working day depending on what time you send it, worse case 2 days. 

Withdrawals are only to a verified bank account, and typically take 1 – 2 business days.

Time to Become Invested – Robocash Review

Robocash has a large loan book provided from its loan originators. Once you’ve set up your auto-invest strategy (the only option with Robocash, no manual invest) it usually takes just a few hours for your capital to get distributed in to loans.

Who are we lending to?

Robocash P2P is a true Peer to Peer Lending Platform. Lenders are lending directly to borrowers. Loan agreements are directly between the lender and the borrower. Robocash just acts as a middle man, managing loans, payments and debt collection etc.

Similar to Mintos & Grupeer, Robocash itself doesn’t originate many of the loans.  It has “loan originator companies” it works with (some of which are part of the Robocash Group), and they originate the loans locally, then provide the loans to the Robocash platform  for individual lenders to invest in. 

Here’s a list of current loan originators.

Loan Types

Robocash provides payday loans to consumers. Payday loans are typically smaller amounts of capital with short duration, usually up to 30 days. Interest rates borrowers are charged on these types of loans can be huge, 50% or even more at times. The number of defaults on these types of loans is typically very high as well, so the spread between what Robocash charges its borrowers, and what it pays us as investors enables it to stay in business. The Robocash Group is on target to make €31 million this year, so there should not be any problem with that side of things.

Loan Security – Robocash Review

Typically there is no loan security with payday loans, so we’re reliant on the Robocash buyback guarantee to make sure we receive our capital and interest back in the event of defaults.

Default Rates – Robocash Review

Robocash don’t publish their default rates. However speaking with them, it appears that the average is between 12% to 14% which is really high. However this is normal for the payday loan industry and is easily covered by the spread as mentioned previously.

You’ll notice on the screenshot below, a fairly large percentage of loans are overdue. This concerned me when I first started investing with Robocash. Now though, I understand it’s completely normal and expected with these types of loans.

It’s easy to go to the loans list and see which loans are late if you really want to. I don’t bother though as it is all taken care of with the Robocash buyback guarantees. 

Amortization

As most of the loans on Robocash are less than 30 days in duration, they do not amortize as they are basically paid back in full at the end of the term.

Amortization is the paying off of debt with a fixed repayment schedule in regular installments over time. It reduces the risk of the loan compared to a non-amortizing loan in which nothing is received until the end of the loan period, or only interest is received monthly, and then the capital repaid at the end of the loan period.

Selling Loans and Withdrawing Capital

There is no secondary market yet with Robocash so when you invest in loans, you’re in them for the whole duration. That being said, the maximum duration I lend on is 30 days, so selling loans is not necessary. Just wait until the loans are paid back or bought back in the 30 day time limit.

Diversification – Robocash Review

Diversifying capital into loans is easy with Robocash because of the size of their loan book.

The auto-invest portfolios diversify automatically based on the settings you give them, so you decide the amount you put into each loan.

Provision Fund

There is technically no provision fund with Robocash.  However the previously mentioned “Robocash buyback guarantee” really helps to put more confidence in Robocash loans.

Buyback guarantees in my eyes are as good as, if not better than a single provision fund. This is because we are not relying on just one company to step in if a loan goes in to default. Each originator is responsible for it’s own guarantee which Robocash regulates to an extent. The risk of course is if an originator goes out of business, which has happened once in the past with a Mintos originator, but not with Robocash so far to my knowledge. 

Tax Free Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA)

No tax free account options with Robocash.

Website – Robocash Review

The Robocash Website is simple but effective. It’s fairly easy to figure out where everything is and how to set up auto-invest portfolios. 

Return Rates

Robocash return rates are very reasonable for a Euro lender. Their website says all loans are 12% but I often see a bit more. As I’m writing this review, my XIRR is currently 13.20% which is right up there with Grupeer and Mintos, but the loans are only for 30 days which gives easier access to capital if needed. 

Robocash actually used to offer interest rates much higher (up to 15%) when they first started. However recently the rates have come down due to increased investor demand and the growing safety of the platform. 

• Unique Diversification  – focusing on consumers and businesses in many different countries in Euro currency.
• Great Returns – 12% – 14% for loans in Euros with 30 days access is a great rate.
• Auto-Invest – auto-invest options are nicely configurable enabling hands-off investment.
• Buyback Guarantee –  the “Robocash buyback guarantee” will buy back the loans if they go in to default, therefor making investments safer. 
• Made it Through Pandemic – all lenders capital repaid on time.

• No Regulation – may make Robocash a riskier proposition, however having a good history, multiple loan originators and the backing of the Robocash Group helps to lower the risk.

• Croatia Based – for UK investors this may not be as comfortable as investing in UK companies. European investors don’t seem to see this as an issue though, and I certainly don’t.

• Currency Risk – investing in a currency other than your home currency can have it’s own inherent risks if it falls. If your home currency is Euros then this is not an issue.

• No retirement account – for interest free investing.

Is Robocash Safe? I consider Robocash to be in the medium risk category.

Even taking in to consideration Robocash P2P is part of the larger Robocash Group, which is profitable, it is still an unregulated business in a foreign (to many people) county.

  Safe?

Residents of EU countries and Switzerland can invest with Robocash. Contact Robocash for more information

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