How Elena Marković reached 14.2% net returns on Hive5
Elena Marković is a portfolio manager at Baltic Yield Fund, a Vilnius-based short-term credit fund. In early 2025 she was holding too much idle cash between deals, and wanted a liquid, diversified place to put short-duration capital to work without taking on direct origination risk.
After a three-month evaluation, Elena moved 40% of her short-term allocation onto Hive5, spreading it across several loan originators and loan types. Her goal was simple: keep more of the portfolio earning at any given moment, while retaining the ability to withdraw as deals came up.
Twelve months later, that allocation had returned an average of 14.2% net, with more than 96% of the committed capital actively invested at any point in time. This is how she did it.
Why Elena chose a marketplace over direct lending
Direct origination would have meant building a credit team, underwriting infrastructure and collections. Elena wanted exposure to consumer and SME loan performance without that overhead, so a marketplace of already-issued claim rights fit her mandate. She diversified across five originators in three countries from a single account, kept buyback obligations on most positions, and watched performance and cash drag daily. Her rule was simple: cap any single originator at 25% of the allocation, reinvest repayments automatically, and rebalance whenever concentration drifted.
By the end of the first quarter Elena had reached her target allocation and cash drag had fallen below 4%. The following figures summarise her first twelve months on the platform.
14.2%
Average net return over 12 months
96%
Capital actively invested on average
5 originators
Diversification across three countries
Hive5 let me keep almost all of my short-term capital working, without building a lending desk. The transparency is what made the allocation easy to defend to our investors.
The allocation has since become a standing part of Elena’s short-term strategy. What began as a test with 40% of her short-duration book is now reviewed each quarter alongside her other liquid positions.
Elena credits three things: consistent buyback performance across originators, transparent weekly reporting, and the flexibility to withdraw when larger direct deals appear. None of these on their own would have been enough; together they made the allocation durable.
Investing in loans carries risk, including the risk of partial or total loss of invested funds. Elena Marković’s results are specific to her strategy and time period, and are not a guarantee of future performance.
