Hive5 review
7
(our review)
With Hive5, you can invest in European consumer and business loans. It currently reports an average return of 14.4 percent. We give it a score of 7 in our review. We invested in several loans over multiple years. Payments are proceeding as expected, but regulatory oversight, diversification and a long track record are lacking.
Contents:
Please note: investing online through Hive5 involves risks. You may lose some or all of your investment.
What defines Hive5?
Hive5 launched in 2022 and is based in Croatia. More than 30,000 investors have now invested over 200 million euros in loans through Hive5.
The platform works with several affiliated companies that issue loans. The Investment Platforms.EU-editorial team has invested in various loans since 2023. We were immediately impressed by the returns offered by Hive5. We paused our account after several management changes, but a new team is now in place and we have resumed investing.
Investors often compare the platform with Esketit, Lendermarket or Savy.
Registration
Despite its young age, the platform looks somewhat dated. Fortunately, this does not affect registration, which is short and simple. You begin by entering your email address. Hive5 then sends you a temporary password, which you must change immediately. Next, you enter your personal and contact details and verify your identity. The process is similar to registration with other European P2P platforms.
After verification, you transfer money by SEPA to a bank account held in Hive5’s name. You must use a bank account in your own name. Hive5 does not support iDEAL or credit card payments. It may take up to 2 working days for the money to reach your account. Once the funds are available, you can invest from 10 euros per loan.
Dashboard
The online dashboard provides a clear overview. You can immediately see how much you have invested, how much money remains available and the return you have earned through Hive5.
The main menu lets you switch between your portfolio, the available loans and the investment features. We needed little explanation to start investing or to resume using the platform.
Loan offering
At first, we mainly invested in short-term consumer and business loans from Poland. The platform now also offers business loans from Romania and Spain.
The offered interest rates range from 13 to 15 percent per year. This means that Hive5 offers higher returns than many larger European P2P platforms. Initially, most loans had very short terms of 45 or 90 days. We now mainly see loans with terms of 2 years, or 731 days.
Almost all loan originators belong to Hive Finance Group. Linqo is the only exception, but it is part of Ruptela, a major shareholder in Hive Finance Group.
Auto Invest and secondary market
Under the Investment tab, you can select Automated Strategies. Here, you can set the maximum amount you want to invest per loan, select the loan originators you want to fund and choose the preferred loan term and interest rate.
Hive5 has a secondary market where you can offer your investments for sale to other investors before they mature. You can offer a discount of up to 50 percent. Purchases are manual, as Auto Invest skips these investments. There are no fees for listing, selling or buying.
Loyalty programme
Investors who invest larger amounts and remain active for longer can earn additional returns through the loyalty programme. You must have been active for more than 90 days. The bonus depends on the size of your total portfolio. From an investment of 5,000 euros, you receive an extra 0.50 percent. This can rise to 1.50 percent. Hive5 automatically recalculates your level each month. Promotional and loyalty bonuses cannot be combined; only the highest applicable bonus is used.
Returns
Hive5 currently reports an average nominal interest rate of 14.4 percent. This is close to the gross return, but it does not mean that all borrowers pay on time. The loan originators have buyback obligations. The track record therefore mainly shows that these obligations have been honoured.
The return is calculated using your total account balance. Our return therefore fell considerably during a period in which we stopped making new investments. As a result, we do not achieve the platform’s average. We have invested in around 10 consumer and business loans, many of which have now been repaid. Our experience so far is that repayments follow the agreed schedules.
Example of the dashboard. The return shown is not an actual result and does not indicate future performance.
Team
Hive5 has changed its leadership several times. Krisjanis Znotins has been CEO of Hive Finance Group since May 2026. Leadership changes are not unusual in a fast-growing organisation, but we consider the number of changes at Hive5 relatively high. However, the current CEO and CFO have extensive experience in the lending and banking sectors.
Reliability and risks
Hive5 is not subject to financial supervision and does not hold an ECSP or MiFID II licence. Your investments are therefore not covered by an investor compensation scheme or deposit guarantee scheme. If problems occur, you mainly depend on the agreements between Hive5 and the loan originator that issued the loan.
The most recent audited financial statements cover 2024. Hive Finance Group recorded a profit for the first time that year, although it was limited to 63,000 euros. Revenue reached 11.5 million euros and operating cash flow amounted to 1.5 million euros. At that time, the company had negative equity of 1.27 million euros due to losses from previous years. The auditor therefore included a going-concern paragraph.
Buyback obligations
Buyback obligations are provided by the loan originator. Only the loan originator is responsible for meeting this obligation. If a payment is more than 60 days overdue, the relevant loan originator must repurchase the claim, including accrued interest. Hive5 only operates the marketplace and does not guarantee repayment.
Diversification across loan originators offers only limited additional protection. Almost all loan originators belong to Hive Finance Group. Linqo is the only exception, but it is part of Ruptela, a major shareholder in Hive Finance Group. Problems affecting one or more parts of this structure could therefore affect the entire group.
Our review score: 7
We give Hive5 a score of 7 in our review. The platform offers high interest rates, a simple Auto Invest feature and a strong payment history so far. It has certainly gained our attention and our first experiences are positive. Our loans are being repaid as agreed. However, its track record is still limited to 4 years, during which a great deal has happened.
Hive5 has proven that there is demand for its service. However, due to the management changes and the negative equity shown in the latest financial statements for 2024, we cannot yet conclude that Hive5 has the team or financial reserves needed to handle prolonged problems.
We also see risks because Hive5 is not subject to financial supervision and almost all loan originators are connected to the same group. Due to this concentration risk, we consider Hive5 more suitable as an addition to other investments than as a platform on which to hold a large share of your assets.
Disclaimers
Investing involves risks. You may lose some or all of your investment. This review was written by the editorial team of investmentplatforms.eu and is based on our own experience and assessment. We earn income from advertisements. You can find more information about our working methods on our About us page.
