Heavy Finance, a Lithuanian Fintech firm has launched first crowd funding platform where anyone can invest in loan requests backed by heavy equipment as collateral. The firm’s Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer Mr. Laimonas Noreika mentions in the statement released by the firm that heavy duty vehicle such as tractors, excavators, rollers and street sweepers are less volatile when compared to real estate especially in times of ongoing economic uncertainty as the price of these machineries are highly resistance to market fluctuations as opposed to real estate market. He goes on to explain that these machines can also be easily transported across borders and are fairly east to sell off given the market for such goods both in regional and global scale. Another point to note about the crowd funding loan service is that the fund raiser can use either new or used heavy equipment as collateral for the financing.
The firm was established by four people working together – Mr. Laimonas – renowned founder of peer to peer lending platform FinBee, Mr. Rytis Darginavicius – agriculture and farming equipment professional, Mr. Darius Verseckas – a former technology journalist and Mr. Domantas Siupsinskas a veteran business project manager. The firm is headquartered in Vilnius – Capital of Lithuania as the founders believe that this city will become the biggest centre for regulated fintech companies in European market once UK exits the bloc. As per data from Global Fintech Index, Lithuania is 4th in world and second in Europe while its capital city Vilnius ranks first in terms of economic efficiency and seventh in terms of foreign direct investments within the market region when taking a look at 2019-2020 ratings for Fintech locations of the future. The firm has in fact already gone live with its first listing where Nova Rent – a heavy machinery retail and rental firm based out of Lithuania raised a business loan worth Eur 150,000 to acquire combine harvester class Lexion 770TT.
Commenting on launch of this service, Mr. Laimonas Noreika said “Heavy equipment as a collateral has never been an attractive option for banks and credit unions, even though, it is a very safe market. To protect investor’s money our company makes sure that papers for chattel mortgage are signed, the item is insured with a civic and comprehensive motor insurance and there is a GPS tracker on the heavy-duty vehicle. Therefore, we believe that investments in loans secured by heavy equipment will increasingly become a strong alternative to many traditional investment opportunities”.
Speaking on same note, Mr. Rytis Darginavicius added “Farming has become a business that makes big demands on equipment and finance. Even if a farmer has the money to pay for the equipment, it may be wise to opt for heavy equipment financing in order to dedicate cash flow to more valuable channels. We are here to help farmers in meeting their financial demands”.