A friend of mine shares her disappointment at this recent discovery: when you are looking for a racially diverse P2P platform in Europe, you may have a challenge.
The top 5 largest P2P platforms in Europe by size of loans funded are either exclusively, or heavily white. These are Mintos, Twino, October, ViaInvest and Swaper.
First, consider the demographics of the hiring pool of Berlin. This is a challenge in itself because in an effort to avoid categorizing people, Germany doesn’t collect racial statistics (i.e., black, white, Asian), but rather country of origin (only of recent immigrants!). According to official statistics, 20% German residents are now first or second-generation immigrants, meaning either they were born in another country or have one parent born in another country. The 2011 statistics from Berlin indicate Berliners are 9% Middle Eastern, 3% Asian, and 2% African. Beyond that, the demographic data is cumbersome. All ethnic minority Germans who aren’t first or second-generation immigrants are labeled “German.” Nonetheless, some unofficial estimates indicate that up to 20% of Berlin residents identify as part or full non-white.
So if hiring occured in proportion to the racial composition of the city, a Berlin based company should hire 15 non-white applicants for every 100. So I am going to pass or fail each company based on whether their official team pages indicate at least a 15% non-white composition, by photos. I am using only publicly available information here. If you have access to real numbers, please share and I will update. I messaged several of these companies directly, and they refused to provide hard (or any) data.
Lets look at Mintos first, is by far the biggest European P2P lending platform with more than one billion Euro in loans funded. A quick look at their Team page proves my point: a sea of blond hair and blue eyes, the Aryan dream. Not a single person of dominant Asian or African design. At the time of writing this article, I see only one employee with black hair. Mintos diversity grade: fail. However, we can give them a break because the company is based in Riga, a city which has a lower diversity than Berlin. One the other hand, they can and probably should hire non-locals.
Twino, number two, shows 9 faces shown on their official 'team' page website. All white. A footnote informs the reader there are '400 more employees across 6 offices' and a sidebar claims a 'diverse' team though the corresponding photos show no indication of a non-white presence. I see a handful of colleagues with tattoos, a week worth of facial hair, and body peircings, but thats not my brand of true diversity. A quick internet Google search reveals a recent team photo, containing about 30-something white persons. Twino diversity grade: fail. However, we can also give them a break because the company is based in Riga, a city which has a lower diversity than Berlin. One the other hand, they can and probably should hire non-locals.
October, number three, is the first company in this lineup with 3 indisputibley non-white persons on the official 'About Us' page. The page indicates that not all team members are represented on the page. This company is far ahead of the previous two but under 15%, which is esspeically disapointing considering that they are based in Paris, a city with a higher diversity than Berlin. October diversity grade: fail.
ViaInvest, number four, shows 12 faces on their offical 'team' page, all are white. The page claims they have 150-200 employees (conflicting numbers on different pages) accross 7 European countries. ViaInvest diversity grade: fail. However, we can give them a break because the company is based in Riga, a city which has a lower diversity than Berlin. One the other hand, they can and probably should hire non-locals.
Swaper, last on the list, has zero employee images on the team page but their parent company Wandoo has exactly 8 smiling, white faces on its offical 'about' page. Google image search reveals the same results. Swaper diversity grade: fail. By default, not enough information.
Wow this journey has been depressing so far.
Do you know any racially proportional / diverse European P2P companies in Europe? If not, lets demand more from the P2P industry in Europe. Write them a letter, give them a call, challenge them to embrace equality and diversity.
Funny mention: In my desperate search for a racially diverse P2P company, I Googled the search term 'best p2p africa' and comically, the top search result was a Quora article promoting Mintos in the top spot... contributed by Mintos, not surprisingly. Not only does Mintos not pass my diversity test, but they brazenly self promote in the Africa region though they may not employ even one single African person. Do you want to do P2P in Africa? I suggest another local company I found after much online research, Pezesha, which appears to be a true racially diverse company. Correct me if I am wrong!
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