How the Co-Fi platform works

The Internet media “Snob” studied online crowdlending platforms using the Co-Fi platform as an example.

This is a platform that helps to attract investment for projects in the creative industry secured by intellectual property. But the general principle of crowdlending platforms, no matter what projects they work with, is in many ways similar.

An application for attracting investments is moderated and tested for the liquidity of the collateral, the commercial viability and artistic significance of the project for which the investments are being attracted, and then it goes to the showcase of projects. To assess and analyze the collateral value of intellectual property, companies working with collective management of rights are involved, including Russian Authors’ Society, Russian Organization for Intellectual Property, and Russian Union of Rightholders.

The analysis of film projects is carried out according to the following scheme: experts make a decision on the artistic value of the film, check the estimate, and assess the prospects for the film’s monetization. The same scheme applies to music content. At the same time, one of the most important indicators for musicians is stability. It meets the requirements of experts if an artist creates 10-15 tracks per year, of which 5 become hits. With the help of special tools, the analysis of the volume of monetization of the projects channel of music bloggers is carried out.

In addition, the financial reputation and solvency of the borrower are assessed – the crowdlending platform may request the borrower’s credit history and rating. Unlike crowdfunding, even if a project fails, this does not relieve the borrower from fulfilling obligations to creditors. For late monthly payments, the borrower is charged an increased interest.

On the 71st day of delay, the collection agreement comes into force, according to which the rights to the pledge and the right to claim remuneration are transferred to the Co-Fi platform. Within 24 hours, the platform notifies the investor and the borrower that the assignment of rights has occurred.

The collection-cession tool works as follows: in case of delays in payments, it is not the investors that sue a borrower, but the crowdlending platform does it. It will also return funds to clients minus its commission (in our case, this is only 1%) for the work done.

The pledged property may be sold not earlier than 10 days from the date of notification (paragraph 8 of Article 349 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). The foreclosure takes place out of court in the way that the platform chooses. It may sell the collateral, for example on the IPEX, receive remuneration, and transfer the collateral for trusted management. The platform no later than 5 days from the date of receipt of the collection funds transfers money to investors (99% if the delay is less than 100 days; 90% if the delay is 100-200 days; 80% if the delay is more than 200 days).