Income Funding News- Estonian Fintech Startup Income Secures €540k

The funding was led by long-time investor Dr. Hauptmann. Income is also offering €250k in investment opportunities to retail investors through SeedBlink.

CEO Lavrenti Tšudakov said the platform is responding to a more mature retail investor segment: “Retail investors are no longer satisfied with opaque, yield-chasing platforms. We’ve built Income to serve a new investor profile, more informed, more cautious, and increasingly looking for protections that mirror institutional standards.”

By 2025, Income has helped fund over €150 million in loans, with more than 9,000 investors and €19 million still invested.

Income wants to be a clearer and safer option compared to regular peer-to-peer lending. This is because there is more concern about protecting investors and loan quality in private debt.

Income’s approach is different from older platforms that focused more on high returns but less on risk transparency. Their system shares risk fairly between loan originators and investors, aiming to provide a more stable and reliable investment.

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Before this funding round, Income raised about €3 million. The first €1 million helped start the company and build the platform, €1.3 million was for growing the platform, and €700k kept operations running.

At the end of 2024, Income had €19 million in loans active, which is 77% more than the year before. Revenue grew 54% to €509k, but the company had a net loss of €599k. Since starting, Income has helped fund over €150 million in loans and has more than 9,000 investors.

For 2025, Income expects loans to grow to €36 million, revenue to reach €908k, and over 8,000 active investors. They still expect a net loss of €428k but hope to break even when assets under management (AUM) reach €35–40 million. By 2026, they aim for €60 million in AUM, €1.47 million revenue, and over 14,000 active investors.

The key strength of Income’s platform is its strong risk management. Loan originators must keep a part of each loan (called a Junior Share), so they are the first to lose money if a borrower defaults.

There is also a Cashflow Buffer, which requires lenders to cover missed payments. If a lender struggles financially, Income can step in to collect payments. Every loan also has a repurchase rule that gives extra protection to investors.

Founder Kimmo Rytkönen, who previously Co-founded Indonesian digital bank AMAR, emphasised that these structural features are more than cosmetic: “The framework we’ve implemented isn’t a marketing tool, it’s a deliberate system to manage downside risk. That’s what investors care about now.”

The new funding will help Income grow its investor base, add more non-bank lenders, improve the platform’s ease of use, and hire key people for engineering and analytics.

Income has a team of nine now and plans to grow carefully as the product and market get more complex. In 2025, a big goal is to launch a secondary market where investors can sell their loans before they mature, solving a common problem of not being able to quickly get their money back in private debt.

Income also aims to double its loan originators from 11 in 2024 to 22 by 2026. It is expanding into Mexico and the Philippines, where banks don’t offer enough loans and there is growing demand for non-bank financing.

According to Tšudakov, these countries have strong demand for credit and favorable regulations.

The company is seeing more interest from big investors in Europe and Southeast Asia. These investors now care more about strong legal protections and clear information about loan originators, not just high returns.

“It’s no longer enough to promise returns,” Tšudakov added. “The question is: what happens when things go wrong? That’s where our model shows its strength.”

About Income

Founded in 2020, Income is an investment platform that connects retail and institutional investors with trusted non-bank lenders in both emerging and developed markets. The platform uses a risk system with Junior Shares, Cashflow Buffers, and Buyback Obligations to protect investors in private debt.