New Horizons - AfriVest's Sunset

Hi all!

I hope everyone is well and October brought everything you wished for!

I recognise I have been quiet as of late, so let me shine some light on the lay of the land with AfriVest.

After careful consideration and hearty discussions, I have decided to wind down AfriVest effective immediately.

I recognise this may come as a shock to many of you so allow me to provide further clarity on this decision.

In short, businesses exist to solve a problem by delivering a product or service to a customer whilst returning substantial revenues to maintain long-term business health. I have failed to meet these criteria - namely, the latter of returning revenues to ensure business sustainability.

Over the last 10 months of AfriVest, me and the team, delivered a suite of services and products to the African Diaspora around the world who are encumbered by the challenge of investing back home.

We launched our BETA investment platform gaining 125+ users in 4 weeks, built a community of 300 Diaspora Investors, hosted 3 sold-out events and launched an educational guide on investing back home, called 'Your Cousin Wants Some Cash?'. I am beyond proud of all that we achieved in such a short period of time. I thank those I have had the honour of working with, for trusting me with their time, expertise, and care, to follow my crazy ideas.

Whilst I will no longer pursue the vision of 'connecting Africans to invest in African ideas, powering an African-led and African-enabled, African future' via my business ventures, this remains deeply welded to my raison d'être.?

African startups/SMEs face a $140B+ funding gap (by conservative estimates), whilst conversely, Africa is poised to be the next global economic and cultural powerhouse benefiting from a rapidly growing population, an emerging middle class and a bountiful natural endowment in renewable energy sources & 'transition minerals'? positioning Africa to lead the Green Transition. McKinsey states that by the end of the decade, Africa could be a $3 trillion consumer spending market and by 2050 1 in 4 people will be African!

The future is undoubtedly African. I look forward to playing my part in helping this reality come to fruition through various avenues, prioritising sustainability and fairness for all.

In driving forward this African future, I remain convinced that the Diaspora play a key role - with the diaspora remitting $100B+ annually which is 2x that of Aid and FDI respectively. I wholeheartedly believe a Remittance Investment platform, making it simple and secure for the diaspora to invest back home and leveraging tech in all its greatness is one of the best approaches for meaningfully engaging the Diaspora in Africa's development, coupling financial and social returns for Africa’s long-term holistic prosperity.

The key challenges I observe with this approach are, commercial viability and regulation. The unit economics, scalability and complex regulatory environment make this a tricky business, to say the least.?

That being said, I have great faith that the incredible teams at Daba Finance (Boum III Jr), Kwanda (Jermaine Craig), GetEquity (Temitope Babatunde Ekundayo) and Borderless (Joe Kinvi) will solve this ‘Great Challenge of the 21st Century’. Also, from the Governmental and NGO community, I foresee iDiaspora.org (Eric Vincent Guichard), AU-AIR (Amadou Cissé) and AFFORD (Stella Opoku-Owusu) playing a key role in building this infrastructure (maybe this challenge is best solved by this community given the economics and regulatory challenges?). In addition to, Vula (Nic Rawhani), who use artificial intelligence (AI) to help African SMEs find the best source of funding (not exclusively diaspora financing) given their business needs.

The future is bright, and I am honoured I was able to share my tiny dose of sunshine with the ecosystem over the last 10 months.??

A huge thanks to the following friends, team members, advisors and supporters - your help has mattered more than you could imagine: Lord Dr Michael Hastings CBE Monique Malcolm-Hay Charles Sekwalor Ladi Greenstreet Joshua Bruce Florence Yula (FMVA) Oluwabunmi Balogun Beni Ngwamah Rodney Appiah Joe Kinvi Nic Rawhani Toyosi Ogedengbe Gbenga Odimayo Uwem U. Anthony William Catt Blessing Abeng ?? Serisha Barrat Adewale Yusuf Kiiru Muhoya Oyinkansola Adebayo Eche Emole Zahid Mitha Seven Jacobs Ambar van der Wath V. Chinyere Inya Zulum Elumogo Monica Pun ?? Robin Ferris, Hon DCL Stella O. .

So what’s next for me?

I am back to building #BuildersBuild.?

This time, with more focus.?

More speed.?

More hunger.?

More fury.

I’m building an AI-powered PropTech startup using advanced artificial intelligence to transform the Property Management sector.?

And I am furious about the overwhelming inefficiencies incumbent within the sector and lost human potential.

My fury is growing day-by-day with the problems faced by millions of Property Managers worldwide, and I’m spellbound by the capabilities of our tech in solving these - I can’t wait to show you (currently in stealth)!?

In the meantime, as always I am reachable by LinkedIn DMs, WhatsApp and my personal email.

Here’s to the future. ??

LG