CrossLend Structures an Investment Grade Rated ESG Note for Bikeleasing and MEAG as a Digital Asset

Berlin-based FinTech CrossLend has issued a note to facilitate an investment into lease contracts for bicycles. The transaction is the result of a collaboration between Bikeleasing - the fastest growing e-bike leasing provider, MEAG as asset manager, ERGO as investor, and CrossLend as the structurer and operator of the digital register. Scope rated the note as investment grade and confirmed the ecological impact of the issued note is in accordance with the ICMA Green Bond Principles as part of a second party opinion.

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Marco Hinz (Chief Operating Officer) and Oliver Schimek (Chief Executive Officer & Founder), CrossLend GmbH (Photo: Business Wire)

The transaction reflects several market trends. The goals of a climate-neutral society require substantial investments to replace goods such as cars or heating devices which, in their normal lifespan, would still have years of operation ahead of them. At the same time, cost-intensive innovative products are being offered as part of convenient pay-as-you-go models which contain a lending product and require refinancing. As a result, highly innovative originators such as Bikeleasing are entering into an origination model in competition with banks, or even closing gaps where traditional banking products are not covering the needs of customers. The kinetics in terms of origination frequency, and the level of fragmentation seen in the single tickets of such originations, require a digital and data-driven transactional link to traditional capital market investors. Accordingly, CrossLend structured and issued a note on its digital asset register which complied with the ICMA Green Bond Principles.

"The transformation of the economy and society towards climate-friendly technologies requires unparalleled investments in a relatively short period of time. The reality is that non-digital investment banking cannot keep up with the kinetics of innovative product providers such as Bikeleasing. We are extremely proud that our digital asset technology closes a gap between agile, transformative products and the capital markets, enabling established institutions like MEAG and ERGO to conveniently invest to support ecological change," says Oliver Schimek, Chief Executive Officer of CrossLend GmbH.

According to Thomas Bayerl, Head of Illiquid Assets Debt at MEAG: "As an asset manager, we work in an environment where digital transformation and sustainability criteria play an increasing role in the development of investable assets. CrossLend's digital asset platform and register were instrumental in making this asset accessible for our client ERGO today. This transaction can serve as a successful example for further implementation possibilities in a variety of industries."

Paul Sinizin, co-founder and CEO of Bikeleasing comments: "Bikeleasing has been growing extremely fast and we still see a large untapped market opportunity ahead. For our growth we require a flexible and scalable funding source. Working with a technology platform like CrossLend allows us to minimise our operational efforts on the capital markets activity through automation and industrialisation."

About CrossLend

CrossLend is a FinTech company that provides full spectrum technology for loan asset transactions. Its mission is to make the world's lending and investment ecosystem more efficient, transparent, and profitable. Supervised by BaFIN and CSSF, CrossLend is backed by an array of prestigious equity investors from Europe and the US, including Mouro Capital (formerly Santander InnoVentures), Lakestar, CME Ventures, Earlybird, ABN AMRO's Digital Impact Fund, and the Luxembourg Future Fund (EIF and SNCI).

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