Overview
Modena needed a scalable alternative to bonds and parent-company funding to finance its internal loan portfolio. I worked on designing an investor-facing P2P platform that allows external investors to fund Modena's loan products through pooled investment vehicles called Vaults.
Within one year of launch, the platform covered €4M of the loan portfolio and became a core funding channel. This shift reduced pressure on ad-hoc funding methods and enabled the launch of new loan products that were previously constrained by capital availability.
The Problem
Access to capital was a recurring constraint on Modena's growth. Early-stage funding from the parent company and later bond issuance kept the business operating, but both approaches had clear limits. At the same time, using established P2P marketplaces would have significantly reduced margins and control.
From a product perspective, the challenge was not only technical or financial. The platform had to convince external investors to fund a single-originator loan portfolio — something that typically relies on scale and diversification to feel trustworthy. We needed to launch quickly, with limited room for experimentation, and get the fundamentals right from day one.
Key Decisions
Strategic Design Decision
Chose familiarity over innovation. With thin margins, strict legal requirements, and no existing investor-facing experience, I deliberately aligned the platform with established P2P investment patterns. Investors needed to rely on prior mental models when evaluating a new, single-originator platform — novelty would have increased perceived risk, not reduced it.
Investments had to map precisely to underlying contracts, so any ambiguity carried regulatory and trust risks. Trust was further reinforced by borrowing credibility from established third-party tools — for example, integrating Veriff for identity verification signaled security through a recognized provider.
My Role
Stakeholder Management
Reported directly to the CEO (who doubled as PM). Final product decisions were theirs — my role was to shape how business and legal constraints translated into investor-facing experiences, advocating for clarity and usability within those boundaries.
I owned competitive analysis, interaction design, and the full design-to-handoff process. Post-launch, I continued iterating based on investor feedback and observed friction — simplifying lock-in rules, clarifying buyback behavior, and expanding contextual explanations across the product.
Research
I analyzed Mintos, PeerBerry, Bondora, Monefit, and Hive5 — focusing not on visual design but on behavioral patterns: how quickly investors understand where their money goes, how easily they assess liquidity, and how clearly risks are framed.
Post-launch, an independent German P2P blog review validated that automated Vaults were easy to understand and that monthly payouts stood out as a differentiator. It also surfaced skepticism around buyback mechanisms and performance transparency — reinforcing our focus on clarity over feature depth.
Solution
The platform was structured around pooled investment products called Vaults. These abstracted loan-level complexity while still reflecting the legal reality of the underlying contracts. The MVP was built in 2 months.
Three core products were introduced early:
Dynamic Vault
Designed for flexibility with short lock-in periods
Growth Vault
Focused on long-term returns
Secure+ Vault
Emphasizing capital preservation and lower risk
Across all products, the interface emphasized progressive disclosure, distinct visual language, and clear separation between expected returns and guarantees.
Results
Post-Launch Ownership
After a closed launch with existing bond investors, early feedback revealed confusion around lock-in periods and buyback credibility. I drove iterations to simplify rules, clarify buyback behavior, and improve how returns were communicated — changes that directly increased investor confidence.
Within one year, the platform became a central funding channel for Modena, covering €4M of the loan portfolio and enabling the launch of business loan and credit products previously constrained by capital availability.
Growth was supported by a targeted German finance influencer via the Clickwise platform — more effective than broad marketing for a trust-driven financial product.
Learnings
In fintech, familiarity builds more trust than innovation. Predictable behavior and clear liquidity rules mattered more than feature richness. Legal and financial constraints don't just limit design — they are the design material. And even informal investor feedback can quickly surface trust gaps that analytics alone would miss.