The WEALTHTECH Book

Key Success Factors in Gaining Market Share and Scale in Alternative Lending

By Gabriella Kindert

Head of Alternative Credit, NN IP

Many FinTech companies born in the last decade have new products and innovative ideas in alternative lending with the aim of gaining market share and replacing banks. On paper and as a prototype, they seem better, faster, more efficient and with an attractive value proposition. However, scaling up the initial success remains a challenge. There are over 2000 FinTech start-ups globally, but only a selected few managed to expand their businesses. Several promising companies struggle to achieve the so-called tipping point.

So, how does one gain market share in alternative lending? Is there a winning formula? What are the most important factors?

This chapter builds on extensive research and insights obtained via over 20 direct interviews with various experts of tier-one alternative lending platforms and thought leaders in the industry. Their unique experiences and observations allowed me to identify several common themes, which I outline in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Gaining market share in alternative lending

Source: Gabriella Kindert, Spring 2017

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