Just four months after the launch of Carilend Jamaica by Victoria Mutual Investment Limited (VMIL), the loan facility has hit a milestone of $100 million in approved loans locally, following significant take-up of their VM eLoan offer.

VMIL acquired a 30 per cent stake in Carilend, a Barbados-based fintech company, in 2019. In December last year, the investments company launched the local arm of the loan provider and introduced VM eLoan powered by Carliend, which is delivered through a fully digital onboarding process.

Carilend, the first online lending platform company in the Caribbean, is an integrated end-to-end solution providing loans to qualified, creditworthy borrowers in the region.

With interest rates for the VM eLoan ranging between 13 and 18 per cent, the local market has responded positively to the solution, which offers loans of up $1.5 million, completion of the application process within minutes and approval and disbursement of funds within three business days.

Rezworth Burchenson, VMIL CEO, said the take-up represents the significant positive outlook for the company locally.

“Carilend offers a unique and innovative approach to accessing financing in a convenient way, which is particularly important as we all lean more on the value of digital solutions. I am excited to see continued growth in the space as more Jamaicans becomes interested in this solution,” he said.

Carilend has also achieved a major milestone through its Barbados operation, by totalling over BBD$50 million (USD$25 million) in loans in its four years of operations. The company has matched thousands of borrowers and hundreds of lenders leading to over 500,000 matches. Over 700 lenders with investments ranging from BBD$25 to BBD$2,000,000 have invested in peer-to-peer loans via Carilend.

The lending entity now has over 16,000 registered users in Barbados and reports an average return of 8.32 per cent on investments for lenders.

Peer-to-peer lending connects people that have money to lend with people who want to borrow money in a secure online marketplace.

Mark Young, CEO of Carilend, expressed his excitement about the achievement.

“We are very proud to have reached this major milestone. I am especially proud to make this announcement given the challenges faced over the past year. We saw the Carilend business model hold strong throughout the lockdowns and beyond,” he said.