Ventus Energy Review 2024 – Double-digit returns with daily interest payments

The history of Ventus Energy

Registration for investors

Registering on the platform is not particularly complicated, but is currently limited to registration by invitation code at the launch of the platform. However, you will receive this immediately if you sign up to the Ventus Energy joining list.

You can then use it to register. Otherwise, registration consists of the following steps:

1. Create an account by entering your e-mail address and password.
2. Enter your personal data.
3. Verification of your identity (e.g. with your identity card).

After registering and making a deposit, you are then ready to invest in your first energy projects.

By the way, always keep an eye out for bonus promotions from the platforms to give you an advantage. You can find a constantly updated list of all bonuses in my P2P platform comparison.

Currently, registration is only possible via invitation code.

How do I deposit money?

As always, depositing money is the easiest step when investing money. In your account, click on “Deposit / Withdraw” and you will be taken directly to the deposit screen. Here you can then transfer money to the account stored there.

Please note that the transfer must come from a personal bank account. This will also be verified for subsequent payouts.

The deposit details of Ventus Energy.

How long does the deposit take?

Based on my own Ventus Energy experience, the deposit to the platform’s account takes approx. 1 – 2 days. However, if you use Revolut* or Wise*, for example, the transfer is sometimes available more quickly.

Can I also deposit and withdraw by credit card?

At the moment, you cannot use credit cards for deposits and withdrawals. These must be made with a bank account. Depositing via a bank account is also used for identification purposes.

Ventus Energy Review: How does the platform work?

After registering with Ventus Energy, you can use the “Invest” button to view existing projects and carry out your research.

There won’t be too many opportunities to invest; after all, we’re talking about power plants here and not personal loans for televisions in Kazakhstan. It is therefore worth reading up on the projects in detail.

A note for the Daugavpils power plant.

In addition to the financial prospects of the project, there is also a whole range of technical documentation, evaluation reports, links to various participating institutions and photos. Anyone who is really interested in the subject can read in depth.

Sales forecast for the Daugavpils power plant.

You can also decide whether the interest should be reinvested directly in the same project or whether you want to have it paid out. Due to the initial sum and to see if everything works, I decided in favour of the latter. It’s also cool that you can decide and set this individually for each project.

Compound interest can be activated or deactivated daily.

This also increases the interest rate of the projects immensely, which you can see transparently on the portfolio page.

The magic of compound interest clearly visible.

After your investment, the interest is credited to your account daily, just like with Bondora Go & Grow or Monefit SmartSaver. Only at a slightly higher interest rate.

Interest payments at Ventus Energy are made daily.

Is there an Auto Invest

Since there will only be very few projects on the platform and investors should also deal with these, there is no Auto Invest on Ventus Energy. I also doubt that we will see this in the future.

In which countries can you invest?

You can only invest in Ventus Energy on the Latvian domestic market.

What projects can you invest in on Ventus Energy?

On Ventus Energy, you provide the company with money via a mezzanine loan, which is used for the construction, purchase, modernisation and operational expansion of power plants. This takes place on the platform in the form of notes (bonds).

These short-term bonds are issued by the respective legal entity for which the bond is intended (the power plant). This is wholly owned by the Ventus Energy Group.

According to Ventus Energy, the bonds offered will be issued in accordance with the Latvian Law on the Market for Financial Instruments. Detailed information about the bonds can be found in the respective project descriptions.

Two of the projects financed on Ventus Energy.

What are the costs on Ventus Energy?

Investing on Ventus Energy is free at all levels.

What is the return on Ventus Energy?

The return you can earn on Ventus is enormous. For the first project on the platform, it is 18% p.a. There are no further indications of the return yet.

What is the minimum investment amount on Ventus Energy?

The minimum amount for an investment in Ventus Energy is an impressive EUR 1,000. From conversations with the company, I learnt that they want to make sure that they do not work with super-small investors, as in their experience these cause the greatest support effort.

Does Ventus Energy offer a buyback guarantee?

Ventus Energy offers a payment obligation after 90 days. In principle, projects in which you invest can be defaulted. However, Ventus will repay the basic amounts and interest in any case, as long as it is possible. If this is no longer the case, even the nice payment obligation is of no use! So, as always, you can lose all your invested capital.

Is there an app for Ventus Energy?

No, Ventus Energy does not currently offer an app for smartphones.

Can you invest money in other currencies?

No, on Ventus Energy you invest exclusively in euros. There is also no currency risk within the projects.

How exactly do taxes work on Ventus Energy?

The platform doesn’t deduct any taxes on your behalf. You are responsible for reporting your earnings to the tax authorities in your jurisdiction.

Is there a tax statement on Ventus Energy?

The platform is currently still very much under development, so there is no tax certificate yet. However, there is a list of transactions (statement) that can also be used for tax purposes. Something will certainly be available here by the end of the year.

How does Ventus Energy earn money?

Ventus Energy is currently in a very early phase. Until the first power plant goes into operation, which will happen before Christmas (the contract has already been signed), the owners are financing the business.

After that, income will also come from the earnings of the power plants. Later on, further projects will continuously increase the cash flow.

Is Ventus Energy profitable?

Ventus Energy has only just started, so there are no business results yet, only projections for the future. This also means that there is no profitability. However, it should be noted that the entire business model depends on the successful operation of the power plants.

What happens if Ventus Energy becomes insolvent?

If something happens to the platform, this will not affect your investments for the time being and they will continue to run. In the event of insolvency, an insolvency administrator will then take over the processing of the remaining projects and payments and distribute the funds accordingly.

It is also important to know that there are 2 types of investors on Ventus Energy. The “senior lenders” outside the platform (e.g. banks) and the “mezzanine lenders” within the platform (that’s us). Mezzanine investors are not at the top of the “food chain” in the event of insolvency. But they do get a higher return.

We know from past experience that insolvency processes are lengthy and lack transparency. An insolvency of Ventus Energy is therefore a potential risk for your money!

As mezzanine lenders, we are subordinated investors.

How reputable is Ventus Energy?

Ventus Energy is a new platform with a professional team behind it. However, one person stands out who has not exactly stood for seriousness in the past. The Crowdestor CEO Janis Timma. He has repeatedly been accused of using investors’ money to finance high-risk third-party projects that then collapsed like a house of cards during the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, Janis Timma comes from the energy sector, has 12 years of experience in the field and the energy projects on Crowdestor (Crowdestor Flex) were a great success as far as I know. He is also the owner of a fully operational biomass power plant in Riga, which I myself saw from the inside years ago. Furthermore, Ventus Energy does not finance projects from third parties, but the company itself has control over all power plants.

Jani’s role at Ventus Energy is that of a CDO (Chief Development Officer). He is responsible for the search for favourable offers and for the grid balancing/heat generation strategy.

It should also be noted that the energy business in Latvia is highly regulated and that Janis Timma does not run the company alone, but is managed by Henrijs Jansons, a demonstrably capable CEO. Everyone is free to make their own judgement on this point. For me personally, this is not a stumbling block and there is not just black and white.

Will Janis Timma become a risk at Ventus Energy?

How secure is Ventus Energy?

It is not yet possible to draw any conclusions about the safety of Ventus Energy, as there is still virtually no track record. Although the energy business in Latvia is regulated, various factors could of course lead to the power plants’ operating calculations no longer functioning and not achieving a positive result. For example, certain raw materials could become more expensive, etc.

It is therefore important that the power plants run profitably, as they are responsible for ensuring that bonds can be repaid to us investors and also banks. As private investors are subordinated, we would be the first to run into problems if the bill no longer adds up. But well, you can’t get decent two-digit returns without risk, that should hopefully be clear. Here you are investing in a vision of the future, among other things.

The plans of Ventus Energy.

How does Ventus Energy ensure that its business model works?

Ventus Energy has specialised in 3 areas to ensure that the power plants run cleanly.

1. Energy sales: The Group’s power plants are regulated electricity and heat producers in Latvia. They trade the electricity they produce on the leading electricity market in Europe – the Nord Pool exchange. Ventus Energy’s customers are large electricity consumers and/or traders, which ensures a stable and predictable income stream.
2. Grid balancing: As renewable energies are often unpredictable, they increase the pressure on the grid to maintain a constant balance between supply and demand. This makes grid balancing increasingly important worldwide. The companies of the Ventus Energy Group are part of the grid balancing market.
3. Heat generation: The power plants are connected to the municipal heating network of the respective region and there are contracts with the relevant local institutions for the long-term provision of services (for example, the Daugavpils power plant is connected to the district heating system of the municipality of Daugavpils).

Is Ventus Energy crisis-proof?

No platform is completely crisis-proof! Ventus Energy has not yet experienced a crisis and was only founded after Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine.

Advantages and disadvantages of Ventus Energy

Before we come to a final conclusion about the platform, here is a summary of my pros and cons based on my Ventus Energy experience.

Disadvantages ➖

• With Janis Timma, a person is on board who is generally not regarded as serious.
• The platform is not regulated.
• Subordinated mezzanine loans.
• High entry threshold (EUR 1,000).
• Very young company without a track record.

Advantages ➕

• Ventus Energy manages 100% of its own projects.
• Even if the platform is not regulated, the energy business itself is highly regulated.
• Daily interest payment, which can also be reinvested directly if required.
• Focus on sustainable energy generation.
• High returns possible that are significantly above sector level.
• Early exit possible.

Conclusion of my Ventus Energy review

There is not much to report here yet. The first investment is running smoothly at a very high level with an 18% return and daily interest payments. When I was introduced to the project, I was quickly convinced (which I rarely am). That’s why I got in directly with a rather unusual starting amount, similar to Fintown, where I only started investing in 2024 (my investment there is also already over EUR 10,000).

The only stumbling block for me was Crowdestor founder and CEO Janis Timma, who I have known for years now. His Crowdestor platform was largely a failure for many investors and also a negative investment for me, but you shouldn’t label him as such.

He comes from the energy sector and has a high level of expertise here, and with Ventus Energy you have everything in your own hands. This is one of the reasons why the Crowdestor-Flex projects, which were mainly focussed on the energy sector, went extremely well and I know investors who made an outrageous amount of money from them.

I was also impressed by the ex-CEO of Debitum, Henrijs Jansons, who I have also known for years. Under his leadership, the Debitum platform has become successful again and I think he also has what it takes to make Ventus Energy successful. I see my investment here as a high-risk investment due to the age of the company and am prepared to lose it, but I assume that the decision was a good one. We will see.

However, my decision to invest here should in no way be taken as a recommendation. As always, you are responsible for your own actions and my decisions do not have to be your decisions!

Is there a Ventus Energy forum for discussions?

There will also be a closed Telegram group for platform investors in the future, but this has not yet been created.

Is there a Ventus Energy bonus or a referral program at the beginning?

Yes, if you register via a link on this blog, you will receive 1% of the capital invested in the first 60 days as a bonus. There is also 5% immediate cashback as an “Early Bird” bonus until the end of October 2024. I would be grateful if you use my links in appreciation of this free contribution. There are no disadvantages for you, only advantages.

Register now on Ventus Energy and collect + 1% cashback!*