Alternative Finance Limited (Obelix), Nigeria’s SEC-regulated Crowdfunding Intermediary, has announced a successful N100 million fundraised from 9,324 registered small-ticket retail investors for three promising small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in 10 days to pioneer an alternative way of raising needed cash for SMEs operating in Nigeria.
According to Obelix, the investors were wholly from its waitlist of 42,545 early adopters. The average investment in the Private Notes was N10, 725 with the smallest and biggest tickets being N1, 200 and N20, 000 respectively. The longest duration of the new asset class for individual investors is 90 days, with a fixed rate of 12 percent per annum.
Lanre Showunmi, director and co-founder, Obelix, stated that monieworx, is a debt-based funding portal operated by Obelix, an investment-based regulation crowdfunding intermediary incorporated in Nigeria in 2021. According to him, monieworx has broadened SMEs crowdfunding participation in a very significant way.
“Debt is the safety part in a portfolio, and we are on course to become the dominant portal through which small-ticket investors enter the debt capital market in keeping with our commitment to make investing fair, accessible, and inclusive,” Showunmi stated.
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Ali Yakubu-Concern, the Managing Director and CEO, Obelix, stated that owning alternative investments will become increasingly valuable to SMEs in Nigeria. “SME financing is at an inflection point. We have been presented with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win customer primacy and we intend to seize it with both hands”.
Titus Akintola, the chief compliance officer, Obelix, stated that the company aspires to adopt a safety-first approach in delivering on its ‘better – faster – cheaper’ service charter to consumers. According to him, Obelix is widely recognized as the poster child of regulation crowdfunding (Reg CF) and the SME-focused financier of first choice in Nigeria.
He stated further that crowdfunding is proving itself as a financial solution that speaks to the largest numbers through its simplicity, transparency, and the service it provides to the local economy and to projects that are meaningful for retail investors. “It is said that regulation is how you cap risk. This forms the building block in our plan to build a global layer of services for small and medium enterprises,” Akintola stated.
Salvation Arinze, the chief technology officer, Obelix, stated that a total of 15 eligible applications to raise funds were considered by the company’s screening committee but only three of the SMEs were accepted by Obelix to utilise monieworx for their crowdfunding campaigns.
He disclosed that all the fundraisers have a good corporate governance record and are SMEDAN-registered. Accordingly, the three most promising small and medium enterprises that have their securities offerings hosted are, Imose Technologies Limited, Alatiron Nigeria Limited and Q21 Solutions Limited. “We are an innovative provider of online retail and SME financial and lifestyle services. This is a critical first step in our aspiration to build technology that can create a single Capital Market,” Arinze stated.
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