StudyLink and Unly Join Forces to Grant Student Loans

StudyLink.fr is a crowdfunding website enabling individual customers to lend money –with or without interest– to students who might need financial support to afford their education, lodging, IT equipment, etc. In order to address these issues, they are joining forces with the brand Unly, which focuses on student-related solidarity financing.

StudyLink was founded in 2016 and specialises in collaborative student loans enabling trainees or people resuming training to borrow money without applying for a loan with a bank. Instead, they rely on individual people interested in the projects these students submit. Unly was crafted by StudyLink’s founders to assist borrowers –with or without guarantors– throughout their education-related procedures. It also sells StudyLink Alumni offers, as a grey label, for universities looking for financing circuit based on their network (borrowers from their former students).

In order to be more visible and attract one of the 500 lenders in this community, each student has to fill in a profile form (general information, educational background, projects), specify the amount he need to borrow and the maximum interest rate he can afford. The entire amount of the loan must be collected so it can be validated. StudyLink charges a 4% fee when releasing the amount (within 24 hours).

Each financing “campaign” can be funded by several individuals on the platform. They may lend from €50 to €5,000 per student (for free) via a digital wallet. They tend to apply a 0.9% interest rate on average.

Comments – Precious help to support education funding

StudyLink can be compared to a social media allowing students to rely on a community of lenders interested in various projects. These lenders become part of their first professional network once their educational training is completed. StudyLink and Unly are praising a solidarity-based and profitable concept using quite a safe approach. StudyLink deals with collection issues if the student fails to repay. Unly was also granted the label Entreprise Solidaire d’Utilité Sociale, which stresses their specific approach, too. Just as well, this service helps students bypass financing hurdles with an advantageous financial solution, and interest rates generally lower than 1%.

Other French players also started focusing on collaborative approaches to student loans: Edukys, for instance, partnered with Particeep (in charge of technical integration). Unlike StudyLink, Edukys mostly relies on investors, who may be looking to improve their profit more than upholding intergenerational solidarity.