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October at a glance

How October works? What does it do for individuals willing to invest? Why is it different from other platforms? Advantages for borrowers?

Matthieu de Fréminville avatar
Written by Matthieu de Fréminville
Updated over 2 years ago

October is the #1 SME lending platform in continental Europe, operating in France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany. October's mission is to empower businesses to thrive by simplifying and democratizing their funding.

October enables SMEs to borrow directly from individual and institutional lenders without going through banks. Lenders invest their savings usefully and profitably to facilitate the funding of the real economy whilst businesses find new, simple and effective sources of finance independently of banks.

There are four types of users on October: Private Lenders, Institutional Investors, Borrowers and Partners.

Private Lenders

Individuals lend directly through their desktop or mobile October app and choose the project they want to finance and the amount they want to dedicate. They use October for three main reasons.

  1. Diversify their investment portfolio: they can lend from 20€ to French, Spanish, Italian and Dutch companies operating in all the industries,

  2. Boost their savings: they will receive monthly interests for their loans, without any fee but with higher risks,

  3. Help the local economy: they support SMEs projects and decide where their money goes.

Institutional Investors

The Public and Private institutional investors are managed in a fund operated by October. The October fund lend to almost all the projects on October. Institutional investors lend mostly for the same reasons as individuals do but they do not choose the projects or the amount, it's an automatic allocation. Among the Institutional investors there are three categories :

  • Public Institutional investors : Bpifrance, Instituto de Credito Oficial, European Investment Fund, European Investment Bank

  • Private Institutional investors : CNP Assurances, Allianz, Groupama, Matmut, ...

  • October's management : they lend automatically and without choice to all projects opened to the October fund so their interest is aligned with lenders.

Companies borrowing on October

October finances French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and German SMEs from every sectors with a minimum turnover of €250,000, profitable and with enough financial capacity to repay the debt. Borrowers are selected by an experienced Credit teams, operating locally.

October finances every key moment of a company's life : renovation work for a restaurant, internationalization for a manufacturing company, hiring new staff for a consulting company or even a marketing and communication campaign for a Business Services company.

We help companies through two types of products :

  1. Loans up to €5M, with maturity up to 84 months

  2. Lease from €30k to €5M, with maturity up to 63 months

Our partner network for companies

A lot of companies borrowing on October are referred by one of our partners. They can be Financial advisors, accounting firms, M&A boutiques, brokers etc. that help companies structure their financial health. If they have within their client portfolio a company that matches our eligibility criteria they can request for the company directly on October. An 100% online experience.

To summarize

October for Lenders

  1. October is 100% free for lenders.

  2. Your interests and ours are aligned. The management team of October automatically lends to almost all the companies on the platform. Some projects can be financed only by retail lenders. The source of fundings is always displayed on the project description.

  3. October is the only platform that enables you to diversify your portfolio across countries

  4. You can lend via your mobile.

October for Borrowers

  1. Fast and simple financing

  2. October finances tangible & intangible assets.

  3. No personal guarantee is necessary

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