Orca is a P2P investment aggregation platform which enables returns, reduces risk and saves time.
Business overview
| Location | Belfast, United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Social media | |
| Website | orcamoney.com/ |
| Sectors | Finance & Payments Digital Mixed B2B/B2C |
| Company number | NI635108 |
| Incorporation date | 27 Nov 2015 |
Idea
Introduction
Peer to peer lending (P2P) can offer investors up to 5%+ annual returns*, but the market is fragmented with dozens of P2P platforms offering specific investments. Orca's mission is to make investing in P2P as simple and efficient as possible. The Orca aggregator platform allows people to invest across multiple P2P platforms, lending sectors and a large number of borrowers.
Our target customer group are retail investors who are searching for yield. They understand alternative investments like P2P exist, but find it frustrating to invest as the market is fragmented and diverse. We allow people to deposit funds, build portfolios and monitor their investments. Our service reduces risk through diversification, enables returns and provides easy access to the market.
As we grow we aim to evolve into the hub for alternative lending. This will enable us to fulfil our vision of driving the mainstream adoption of alternative lending.
*Actual returns may vary. Rate is reflective of platforms' advertised rates.
Intended impact
Interest rates are still really low meaning savings rates are below inflation. At the same time, more and more people have become comfortable with managing their finances online. These two factors have led to the massive growth of the P2P market, where investors can earn stable, predictable returns by lending their money to other individuals or businesses.
With massive growth we now have a complex and fragmented market where individual P2P platforms offer specific investment products. This can make investing and building a diversified portfolio time-consuming and frustrating. Either people spend time managing multiple accounts and investments or they are left poorly diversified.
We believe that our service offers a superior, differentiated investor experience in a rapidly growing market.
Substantial accomplishments to date
• Orca launched its P2P investment aggregation platform while participating in the prestigious FCA Innovation Sandbox.
• We have experienced strong initial traction and early monetisation since launching the platform at the end of March. Over 300 investor accounts have been referred to our partnering P2P platforms.
• For 2 years we provided market leading research on the P2P market. This has built an organic user base of P2P investors (avg. 6,000+ monthly web sessions and 2,000+, compliant subscribers).
• Orca currently integrates with 5 UK P2P platforms with 11 more in the sales pipeline.
Monetisation strategy
Orca makes money in two ways:
• The P2P platforms pay us referral fees on each lender account that we refer.
• The user pays us a % of the invested funds on an annual basis.
On a unit economic basis we expect that customers will be profitable in the first year and as P2P investing is generally regarded as long term we expect a high customer lifetime value.
Use of proceeds
The Orca product is live, but further development is required to progress into a market leader. This fund-raise is designed to achieve a number of key strategic aims:
• Grow our customer base.
• Integrate with more lenders.
• Enhance product features.
• Further develop Orca’s research service.
• Build the product for European expansion.
Market
Target market
OVERALL MARKET.
Our current core focus is to provide a fully-functioning P2P aggregation platform for the UK market. We also see opportunities within the European market to connect with lenders and to acquire customers. We believe that further opportunities also exist to integrate with other lenders, who are not strictly P2P.
CUSTOMERS.
Our customers are retail investors. These are people who are typically male, 45+ and are either experienced in the P2P market, or are relatively new to P2P investing. We cater to both audiences. Our customers earn returns, diversify risk and are able to access the P2P market from one platform, the Orca platform.
PARTNERS.
P2P platforms source capital from retail investors and institutions. They integrate with Orca to acquire retail investors. We have provided research in the sector for over two years which has contributed to the strong relationships that we have developed. This means that we consider our pipeline of prospective partners to be qualified and highly engaged.
Characteristics of target market
OVERALL MARKET.
The P2P market has grown substantially in the past 10 years, now reaching £12 billion of cumulative lending, £4bn of which was in 2017 alone.
CUSTOMERS.
There are approximately 200,000 P2P investors within the UK. It is estimated that there are 12 million retail investors in the UK. We plan to target both new P2P investors entering the market and existing P2P investors who require support to manage their portfolios.
PARTNERS.
There are over 30 UK P2P platforms and a larger number of investment providers offering similar investment products such as Crowd Bonds.
Marketing strategy
MARKETING OVERALL.
As an aggregator of the P2P market, we publish data and research on the market regularly. This has captured an audience of retail investors organically and we expect to scale this post fund raise.
BRAND.
For over two years we have published blogs, infographics, data, reports and investor guides. This has built a reputation and brand. We intend to continue to raise our profile as an expert in our field by producing data-driven research, analysis and insights.
ACQUISITION.
PR related activities, affiliate marketing, and paid media will be implemented post fund raise.
PARTNERSHIPS.
We're currently investigating various partnership options that can potentially open the door to a large number of customers. These include potentially partnering with IFA's, challenger banks and traditional investment platforms.
Competition strategy
Generally, people are investing directly on the P2P platforms. The aggregation market is immature and we believe that Orca is a pioneer in the space. We see ourselves as offering a differentiated solution which delivers value to both our users and our partnering P2P platforms.
We consider Goji P2P and Bond Mason as Orca’s closest comparable competitors as both offer investors a managed portfolio of loans, originated at alternative lending platforms. These businesses are more similar to that of an asset manager where the investor is relying on the manger to earn a target return. Orca is a technology platform which aims to offer choice to its investors.
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