In a move to drive efficiency, sustainability, and prosperity in the African commodity trade sector, GetEquity and AFEX have joined forces in a groundbreaking partnership. This partnership promises to reshape the landscape of commodity trading across the continent, offering a comprehensive solution that empowers producers, traders, and exporters alike.
By leveraging the strengths of both platforms, this collaboration is set to unleash a wave of positive change, catalyzing growth and ensuring the fulfillment of trade contracts through the innovative Monthly Trade Note.
A New Dawn for African Commodity Trading
At the heart of this strategic partnership lies AFEX, a pioneering platform that has dedicated itself to enhancing commodity trade within Africa. AFEX’s mission revolves around building robust commodity volumes of the highest quality while simultaneously uplifting local communities’ livelihoods.
Their solutions, starting at the producer level, are designed to boost productivity and create a sustainable ecosystem that benefits everyone involved.
GetEquity, a dynamic platform, that has consistently championed innovation and transparency in financial services. With a shared vision of catalyzing African economic growth, GetEquity is providing AFEX with a technological edge that promises to streamline trade operations and financing.
The Monthly Trade Note: Fueling Prosperity
A standout feature of this partnership is the introduction of the Monthly Trade Note, a fixed-income instrument meticulously designed to provide essential financing to commodity traders, both local and exporters. AFEX Investment Limited stands as the issuer of this groundbreaking investment product. This instrument is more than just financial support; it’s a lifeline that ensures traders can fulfill their contractual obligations without unnecessary hurdles.
Benefits for Opportunistic Traders
Enhanced Trade Confidence
The Monthly Trade Note instills a new level of assurance within the trading community. Traders can confidently engage in contracts, knowing they have a reliable financing solution to back them up, mitigating risks and fostering greater trust among trade partners.
Boosted Efficiency
By leveraging the GetEquity platform, AFEX streamlines the process of accessing the Monthly Trade Note. This efficiency not only accelerates the trade cycle but also enables traders to seize market opportunities swiftly.
Community Empowerment
AFEX’s commitment to improving livelihoods at the producer level dovetails perfectly with GetEquity’s dedication to fostering inclusive growth. As a result, local communities involved in commodity production can experience improved working conditions, increased income, and better overall living standards.
Catalyst for Expansion
The partnership opens doors for traders to expand their operations confidently. With access to the Monthly Trade Note, they can venture into new markets, establish stronger trade networks, and grow their businesses sustainably.
Risk Mitigation
Volatility and uncertainty are inherent to commodity trading. However, with the Monthly Trade Note acting as a financial buffer, traders can better navigate these challenges, reducing the impact of unforeseen circumstances.
Innovation in Financing
The partnership represents a prime example of how technology can transform traditional financing models. This innovation can pave the way for other sectors to explore similarly collaborative approaches.
The partnership between GetEquity and AFEX marks a significant milestone in the African commodity trade landscape. By harnessing the power of technology and financial innovation, the two platforms are propelling the continent towards greater economic prosperity, while ensuring that producers, traders, and exporters have the support they need to thrive.
The Monthly Trade Note stands as a testament to the transformative potential of collaborative efforts, promising a brighter, more sustainable future for African trade.
In today’s ever-evolving financial landscape, savvy investors are always on the lookout for innovative avenues to diversify their portfolios and tap into new growth opportunities. As the conventional investment options continue to face increased scrutiny and volatility, alternative investment types are beginning to gain prominence.
The Rise of Alternative Investments
First, we need to understand the concept of alternative investments. Imagine your investment portfolio as a garden: while stocks and bonds are like the common flowers like your daffodil or tulip, alternative investments are the unique, exotic plants like the anthurium or protea. These alternative avenues encompass a range of assets beyond the conventional stocks and bonds, including debt, fixed income, and equity deals.
Debt
Debt as an alternative investment involves lending funds to entities such as governments, corporations, or individuals in exchange for periodic interest payments and the return of the principal amount upon maturity.
Unlike the unpredictable fluctuations of other ventures, debt investments offer a stable income stream, making them an attractive option for risk-averse investors.
The appeal of debt lies in its ability to provide consistent returns and potential for portfolio diversification. Its performance often behaves independently of equity markets, acting as a hedge against volatility.
Bonds, a prominent example of debt instruments, offer a range of options from low-risk government bonds to potentially higher-yielding corporate bonds.
However, it is important to recognise the associated risks, such as the potential for borrower default or interest rate fluctuations. Thorough research and due diligence are crucial before venturing into the world of debt as an alternative investment.
As investors seek growth in an evolving financial landscape, debt emerges as a reliable and viable option to enrich their investment strategies.
Fixed income
Fixed income has garnered attention for its unique ability to provide a steady stream of income while offering a potential haven from the storms of market volatility.
Fixed income investments, often in the form of bonds, are essentially loans made by investors to governments, corporations, or businesses. In return for their investment, individuals receive regular interest payments, creating a predictable income flow.
This reliability can be particularly enticing for risk-averse investors seeking shelter from the fluctuations inherent in traditional equities.
The appeal of fixed income as an alternative investment extends beyond its stability. It also plays a vital role in diversifying investment portfolios, as its performance tends to move in a different direction from stocks. This inverse correlation can help cushion the impact of market turbulence, potentially enhancing overall portfolio resilience.
However, it is important to note that fixed income investments are not without their considerations. Interest rate changes, credit risks, and inflation can impact returns, requiring investors to conduct due diligence and tailor their fixed income selections to match their risk tolerance and financial objectives.
In an era where stability is prized yet often elusive, fixed income emerges as a dependable source of alternative investments. Its reliable income stream and potential for portfolio diversification make it a compelling option for investors seeking a balanced and resilient approach to wealth accumulation.
Equity Deals
An equity deal involves investing in a company in exchange for ownership shares, granting investors a stake in the company’s future profits and growth. This form of investment can occur through various avenues, such as venture capital, private equity, or even fundraising platforms like GetEquity.
Equity deals are especially prevalent in startups and high-growth companies that may not be publicly traded.
What sets equity deals apart is the potential for higher returns. As these investments are tied directly to a company’s success, a booming enterprise can lead to significant gains. However, this potential reward comes hand-in-hand with increased risk, as the fate of an equity investment is closely linked to the company’s performance.
Investors considering equity deals should conduct thorough due diligence, assessing the company’s financial health, market potential, and management team. Additionally, equity deals typically involve a longer investment horizon, requiring patience as the company evolves.
GetEquity’s Disruptive Approach
GetEquity seeks to bridge the gap between investors and alternative investment opportunities. With an intuitive interface, GetEquity empowers investors to explore and participate in a diverse range of alternative investment types with ease.
This user-friendly platform acts as a gateway, enabling access to debt, fixed income, and equity deals that were once the domain of institutional investors.
The Power of Investment and Asset Managers
But what truly sets GetEquity apart is its partnership with renowned investment and asset managers. These experts bring a wealth of experience and acumen to the table, curating a selection of handpicked investment opportunities.
Picture them as your financial guides, navigating the complex landscape of alternative investments and ensuring that you make informed decisions aligned with your financial goals.
Investing with Confidence
Investing in alternative assets can seem daunting, especially to those unfamiliar with the complexities surrounding debt, fixed income, and equity deals. GetEquity, in conjunction with trusted and verified investment providers, break these barriers by offering educational resources, expert insights, and a transparent view of the investment process.
This empowers investors to approach alternative investments with confidence and make choices that resonate with their risk appetite and aspirations.
The Way Forward
GetEquity shines as a trailblazer in democratising alternative investments. By amalgamating cutting-edge technology, esteemed investment managers, and a commitment to financial literacy, we pave the way for investors to embrace new opportunities and diversify their portfolios.
It’s been a full year of ups and downs and great perseverance across the ecosystem and we cannot wait to show you what we have been building so far.
Like you, at the start of 2022, we made plans and strategy documents hyping the year with resolutions, goals, plans and other festive traditions
We set our minds to push forward counting down our first year into this mission of democratization.
For us 2022 has been a mantra of “ Go big or Go home” and we don’t intend to go home …
We are still on mission.
So without further ado we review some interesting things we did this year.
Our Products
Our Product and Engineering team were hard at work this year ensuring smooth product launches, ever constant tweaks, debugs, and building across our roadmap. From an initial idea to 5 products launched and tweaking constantly, we have been thinking hard on how we can build out solid investment infrastructure products for the venture capital ecosystem. We need you the community to help us get better and stay better delivering valuable products, programmes, and policies.
In 2021 we launched three key products – Crowdraise ( now Public Raise ) , Deal rooms (Private Raise), and Secondary Markets.
We added our APIs, institutional investment tool AND
Since then, we have made some key changes that are better suited to create a better experience for ALL our users.
What better way to start off the education than with our…….drum rolls…..
Investors
As investors, you can invest in startups within our portfolio with as little as $10 using very easy to use and straightforward payment processes integrated on the platform. In addition to already existing integrations, we were able to integrate:
Flutterwave – to enable virtual accounts for international payments(USD, GBP, EURO)
Brass – to enable virtual accounts for local payments(NGN)
Another exciting feature brought to the investor table this year was Insurance.
A lot of factors can pose a threat to investments no matter how carefully managed. At GetEquity we recognize this and so we’ve taken steps to ensure that your investments are protected from unforeseen events. We recently partnered with Curacel to provide keyman insurance coverage for all investments on the GetEquity platform. You can learn more about this here
Founders
In our bid to make founders’ hard work much simpler, we created an all in one dashboard for founders to access 5 key products of GetEquity.
Public Raise(formerly crowdraise)– that allows you to raise funds from our private investor community
Private Raise(formerly community and company dealrooms) – that allows you to invite investors to invest in your company.
ESOPs (Employee Stock option/ Benefit) – Our most interesting feature to date is ESOPs. You can now offer employees stock options on your own terms. Choose the vesting period, cliff, and maturity from one simple and intuitive dashboard. Learn more about this here
API Client – As a product-led company, you want the customers/clients on your platform not to miss out on investing in sweet deals in the form of high-growth startups. Hence, this product allows you to generate more revenue when they invest by making use of our API on your platform to offer them startups raising on GetEquity.
Institutional Investing – As a founder or a company, having the INVEST feature turned-on on your dashboard gives you the opportunity to invest in other high-growth start-ups that are listed on GetEquity which are publicly fundraising companies. Thus, the institutional investing product makes your company a corporate investor.
Institutional Investors
We focused on bringing more institutional investors into our ecosystem. This led us to create the following products:
Institutional Investing: GetEquity provides deal-flow for syndicate groups. As a venture capital firm or angel syndicate, having the INVEST feature turned-on on your dashboard gives you the opportunity to invest in other high-growth start-ups that are listed on GetEquity which are publicly fundraising companies.
Private Dealrooms: This allows syndicates to create multiple deals and perform a capital call from their LP’s. We also provide an infrastructure for Limited partners (LP) management. You can learn more and get started here
Our Growth
As we build, growth they say is inevitable. At the start of the year, the growth team was very intentional about not just improving our traction but playing a vital role in the ecosystem for all parties.
From January 2022 to date, we have grown from over 4000 investors to 11,000+ Investors across board with over $1,000,000 raised using GetEquity.
Some key initiatives we ran during the year are:
Investing Masterclass in partnership with DreamVC – We partnered with DreamVC to provide a free intensive 3hr masterclass in order to further educate both users and non-users of GetEquity to further understand what it means to be an investor.
Ecosystem Talks – Twitter conversations with key members of the tech ecosystem centered around its growth as well as best steps for startups to take during the year.
Pull up and Pitch – Pull up and Pitch is a monthly event created and hosted by GetEquity in its current journey to support startups within the African tech ecosystem.
The aim of the event is to promote brand awareness of startups who are building key solutions to the GetEquity community and network regardless of whether these startups are listed on GetEquity or not.
2 editions of the event were held in partnership with Workstation and Venia Hub in the month of September and October respectively. The winning startup at the first edition went on to win the Startup Pitch Competition at the GetEquity Startup Festival. The winning startup for the second edition also won free office space for 1 month and free virtual office for 1 year from the Venia Team.
Ask A Founder Sessions – We continued our existing tradition of conversations intended to throw more light on startups listed on GetEquity. These conversations were held together with the founders of each startup in order to shed more light on the solutions they provide.
Startup Festival(Maiden Edition) – Months ago, we set out on a journey to create a space where we can have lasting conversations on the growth of our ecosystem as well as support the awesome startups building solutions for us all.
And the event was a huge success with over 1000 guests, 20 exhibiting companies, media partners, 27 speakers, sponsors and the general public.
The event was graced with the likes of Agama Emomotimi, Managing Director, Nigerian Capital Market Institute; Zikora Okwor-Wewan, Partner, Springwoods LP; Oluwatimilehin Ogunyemi, Head of Business Operations & Partnerships, Nomba where they came to together to discuss topics ranging from how to Bridge the gap on payments to War for Talents in the African Startup scene and much more important conversations on the ecosystem. You can view the amazing lineup of speakers here
Some of the highlights of the event include the opening speech to kickstart the event by GetEquity’s CEO Jude, pitches from 4 startups – Regxta – A digital bank focusing the financially underserved African population, Flowmono – A digital automation platform for businesses, Riltee – Real estate democratization platform and Strich Technologies – solution built for small business digital commerce. Regxta was announced as winner of the startup pitch at the event.
The 5 panel sessions with key speakers focusing on the startup ecosystem in Nigeria and Africa were key moments that have since received positive reviews from attendees across social media.
With the success of this event, GetEquity is looking to make the Startup Festival a continuous event and plans to host its next edition in 2023.
GetEquity Startup Festival 2022
Outside of the above, we ran key PR and Content Marketing campaigns centered on our key products, our support for startups as well as conversion tactics to improve our traction.
Our growth won’t have been possible without the help of our partners. With regards to our dealings in relation to partnerships in December and all through 2022, we at GetEquity have aimed to employ a strategy of deep, productive and sustainable links with all our partners.
Our partnerships have been built and nurtured to meet key areas of our business operations such as Product Development, Ventures, Portfolio Support, Customers Service, Human Resources, Business Development, Technology, Legal, Marketing and Finance. Some key firms with whom we have strong relationships within 2022 include the likes of local and international firms such as Wefunder, Zedi Africa, Accelera law, SHQ, Norebase, Flutterwave, Mono, Uqudo, Republic, Greenhouse labs, Microsoft, Ennovate hub, DreamVC, Fuzu, The Spark, Cadanapay, Iveoma Media, Ventor Africa, Emmviro, Microtraction, IO Fund, FHDIC, HOAQ Club, Startinev, Plug and Play, KLab, Startup UG, Freshworks, Regcompass, Campus Innovation Circles Playbook, Assurdly, UVID Partners, Blue Sapphire Hub, Sidebrief Africa, Founders’ Square etc.
Our Startups
Throughout 2022, the Ventures team at GetEquity has sought to scout, curate, vet, and list quality startups on its platform, with these startups having the important characteristics of providing value to their customer base and meeting impressive growth in terms of traction. To date, GetEquity has listed over 40+ startups on its platform, with many of them falling into key industries such as Financial Technology, Healthcare, Insurance, Digital Banking, Edutech etc.
Some of the startups that have been listed on GetEquity include names like Spleet, Fluidcoins, Dropper, BridegCard, SendStack Wirepay, Famasi, KoboPay, Pade, Aladdin Bank, TalentQL, Regxta, Ricive, Alt School, and Collect Africa etc. Startups listed from other African countries such as Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania include the likes of Zemo Card, MyWagePay, Mipango, Ironji, and a host of other startups. GetEquity has also been able to list the likes of Sticky, which is a UK-based technology company that is building an enterprise operating system to solve problems in physical spaces and aiming to penetrate the African continent with its product offering.
Of the 40+ startups that have been listed on GetEquity in 2022 and who raised funding in excess of $340,000, about 23 of them have closed their rounds, with raise amounts ranging from $2,500 to $30,000 at a combined post-money valuation of about $77.7 mliion. Startups such as TalentQL, Famasi, Mizala, WeMove, Dropper, Pade, etc were able to raise amounts in excess of $20,000 and at valuations exceeding $20 million combined.
Also important to note are the number of exists and delistings that have occurred on our platform. In terms of exits we are pleased to see the improved growth and development of two key startups such as WirePay and Bridgecard who combined were able to exit at multiples of about 4-6x in excess of initial investments made by investors.
For delistings, a couple startups where delisted from GetEquity for a number of reasons with the likes of startups such as SmallChops and Scalex being examples that stood out. In the case of SmallChops, a delisting occurred due to a breach of our corporate governance structure after serious allegations were made against the founding team. For Scalex, a delisting occurred after the company decided to pursue its funding activities elsewhere. In both cases, investor funds were retrieved and given back to them. Other reasons for delisting some impressive startups like Messenger, Motisure, Filtar Africa etc where due to a slow down in momentum with regards to their abilities to raise via our platform after a considerable amount of time given.
For activities in relation to our Private Raise product offering (i.e. Dealrooms), startups have been able to raise funding using this product offering with a notable case being the over $200,000 raised by a company called Herconomy. Herconomy which is a company building Nigeria’s largest community empowering women with resources to succeed, save money, and enjoy discounts successfully followed up its initial $200,000 raise earlier in the year with a further raise sum of $400,000 for its seed round.
Being listed on GetEquity has proven to be a boon for most of our portfolio companies with some going on to make some progress in the form of being a part of accelerator programs, participating in startup competition and wining awards as elaborated in the table below:
As an organization, 2022 came with a lot of operational achievements for GetEquity. We were nominated for 3 awards/recognitions as follow:
Most Innovative New Digital Asset Trading Platform – Nigeria 2022 (Global Business Outlook Awards) – winner
Most Innovative New VC Platform for Startups – Nigeria 2022 (International Finance Awards) – winner
One of the Top 10 African Tech Startups in 2022
In line with our fundraising round, we got into 3 accelerator programs; Multichoice, Newchip and Microsoft.
We are currently a team of 23 people spread across engineering, growth and operations departments. Our management team consists of the CEO, Head of Growth, Head of Operations, Customer Support & Compliance Lead, Legal Lead and East African Growth Lead.
But just like there were wins, there were losses and we continue to reflect on what was, what is and what could be.
What might 2023 bring?
More Seamless Experience using GetEquity and its suite of products. Some of the products in our 2023 roadmap include:
1. Credit Feature for Retail Investors: GetEquity is partnering with different credit providers to power our credit features, where investors can seek credit. The Credit Feature is suitable for an investor who is illiquid at the point an investment round is ongoing but wishes to invest in a high-rise growth startup listed in GetEquity. To do this, the investor can simply use their current investment holdings as collateral pending when they repay their loan.
Also, the Credit feature helps investors with investment assets in GetEquity to seek cash credit, pay into their bank account, and use such assets as collateral, pending when they offset their debt.
2. Capitalisation Table Management: The Capitalisation Table Management product that allows startup founders to view, manage, distribute equity ownership structure in their companies seamlessly .
3. Automated Market Making (AMM): Automated market making is a trade model. Currently, GetEquity secondary market runs on an order-book Trade model, which means it practically fulfills trade orders by matching user’s sell or buy orders found on each token or asset on GetEquity secondary trade order-book. AMM simply means allowing liquidity providers to provide liquidity for the secondary market tokens. Combining the order-book and AMM model will simply see a rise in secondary market liquidity which will enable users trade-orders to be executed or fulfilled within a twinkle of an eye than oppose to having to wait for the order book exchange model to process or fulfill a user trade-order only when a corresponding user, makes a similar and opposite trade-order for it to be executed.
The Liquidity providers will not be left out because they will be profit sharing with them for solely providing liquidity into the system.
4. SPV– This allows individuals to set up SPVs, Funds and Family Offices. GetEquity is partnering with reputable law firms both in Nigeria and overseas to do this. This product provides organizations with the avenue to create SPV’s by just a click of a button and domiciled in any country of their choice.
Thank you for your continued support as we continue to build. For a more detailed report of our year, you can view our year end report right on the app.
Got any questions for us? Join our Community on Telegram here or send us an email at support[at]getequitydot]io
