Nigerian startup Astravest is an investment platform that enables retail users to grow their wealth by diversifying investments in stable assets like commodities, fixed income and real estate.
Founded in 2022 by serial entrepreneur Chibuike Goodnews, once of marketing tech startup Dochase, and software engineer Joshua Chinemezu, Astravest aims to help Africans preserve, diversify and grow their wealth.
“We give them the control to move their funds across savings in low risk and high risk investments. Our commodities investment is pioneering retail investments in commodities and enables users to access commodities exchanges and trade commodities like stocks. Our real estate investment product enables users to co-own properties in high growth locations and ear income from sales of the properties or rentals,” Goodnews told Disrupt Africa.
“It is the entry point of middle income people to investments in real estates because it gives them the opportunity to own properties with little funds and still benefit from the return on investments in huge properties.”
Both Astravest founders had invested in capital markets, stocks and crypto in the past, and seen how such investments can be lost due to market volatilities, manipulations and effects from influencers.
“We saw the need for users to have investments backed by physical assets that have low volatility, forced sales value and still growth potential. This led us to discover that wealth is best preserved when it is backed by physical assets. The worst that can happen in real estate is you don’t sell, but your money is still there and you can get rental income,” Goodnews said.
“You cannot have a situation where your US$1,000 savings becomes US$100 overnight because someone made a tweet.”
Goodnews had invested in physical storage of agro-commodities as a method to save money and gain from seasonal increases in prices from time of harvest to the use of those commodities by industries in foods, beverages and drinks.
“The variations in prices may not be astronomical, but they are also not volatile as seen in stocks and crypto. So we formed Astravest to help users save, preserve their savings and still grow their savings,” he said.
“While existing investment platforms promise fantastic returns, they have rather returned negative growths or huge losses for retail investors. We spotted that most investments in non-physical assets like crypto and stocks have been subject to huge risks from volatile markets and influence by some people. People who have invested in digital assets have lost millions of dollars due to the recent crisis, and there were no fallback plans. We said to ourselves, if we can digitise investments in stable assets, users will be able to preserve their wealth.”
Mostly self-funded thus far, Astravest has seen “exciting uptake”, especially people who have had “challenging” experiences when they invested money in other assets and investment platforms.
“We got over 10,000 users within three months of going live. I see huge growth for us as more people become confident on the platform,” said Goodnews.
“We are currently operating in Nigeria and have plans for expansion in Africa and Europe. We are taking bold steps based on calculated risks and proven market insights.”
