Can P2P investment really take off given the fact that you are funding generally risky businesses that fail to secure bank loans?

Businesses are screened thoroughly based on several criterias before getting approved. However, all investments carry risks so defaults are inevitable. If you're keen to try P2P lending, you should diversify your portfolio by investing into multiple loans to reduce your loss should one default. Currently, Funding Societies seem to have the best track record for their lowest default rate.

P2P lending fills a need for these businesses that cannot get loans from a bank. Of course, as these are seen to be riskier, the return from funding (i.e. interest payment) is also generally higher than a bank loan. The generally shorter tenor of the loan, and some limited DD by the platform also helps somewhat mitigate risk of default.

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That being said, whether it ultimately takes off is a separate matter from the riskiness of the loan. If there is sufficient demand for the risk-reward levels provided by P2P lending, no reason why a P2P platform cannot be successful.