With Boldyield – High yields? – Review I would like to introduce you to a very fresh platform that just was launched. It's Boldyield* which is registered in Estonia, but with its head office located in Riga, Latvia. It is a crowdlending platform that focuses on three areas. Real estate and business loans, as we already know from other platforms. However the third area is new which is why I am so interested in Boldyield*. This area is maritime transportation. Also real estate loans open up opportunities for diversification. For example, the first project is a real estate development from Norway.
Platform & Team
Boldyield* was founded by the former Chief Business Development Officer of Grupeer, Edgards Mass, in April 2019. There is once the Boldyield SIA (Registration No. 40203207715) and Boldyield OÜ (Commercial Register No. 14720152). Arturs Sneiders as Head of Legal and Aivars Locmelis as Board Advisor are still on board. Also coming from Grupeer is Marketing & Communications Manager Viktorija Bondarjonoka which was my contact for the interview and answered all of my questions very quickly.
In total the team has up to 25 years of experience in real estate and business loans as well as in maritime transportation.Registration & Identification
Registration is actually standard and should be feasible for everyone. In order to identify both sides of the id card and a confirmation of the address (e.g. electricity bill etc.) have to be uploaded.
Only the personal pin code, which is necessary to confirm an investment, is important. This can be generated or edited under ‘Profiles' and ‘My Profile'.
Dashboard
Boldyield* starts in English only. But that should not be a problem. Further languages will follow. The website is still very simple and the design is in maritime blue. In the dashboard you get the usual information. It is quite nice that accrued interests are also displayed.Projects
So far one project is available. As already described, it's a real estate development in Norway. Grupeer once had Norwegian development loans, but besides that I don't know other platforms with Norwegian loans. That's why it's a good chance for me to diversify further.
14% for 10 months is probably the most important information for investors. Furthermore, the project overview provides information about the minimum and the maximum amount to be financed. The project details show a little more information and also offer a detailed project description. A very interesting point for investors is at the bottom of the project description. Possible exit opportunities are listed there.That’s it for a first very rough summary of the Boldyield* platform itself. Let’s continue with some answers to my questions.
Interview
What do you think is the USP compared to other platforms?
The main USP is that all of our projects provided will be asset-based. As well as the possibility to invest in 3 different industries such as Maritime Transportation, Real Estate and Business Financing within one marketplace. As I know, no one from the Baltic region market players provides investment opportunities in Maritime Transportation as here we are talking about dry bulk cargo vessel class as the general, which has proved most of the stability through even tough years.
Could you give me a step-by-step example how a project comes to the your page (and how long that process is normally)?
Sure, the whole review process is divided into 2 parts: preliminary and final round. A preliminary round usually takes from 2 to 5 days and the final round depends on the complexity of the project, but usually, it takes from 2-5 weeks (considering that all necessary documents are prepared in advance).
The process starts with locating potential interest from our pool of contacts receiving first feedbacks and offers from them, as well as adding proactive activities to find new opportunities. After receiving the offer, we do preliminary checks, where the basic information is reviewed and our independent calculations are made. If this offer meets the standards of our approach, we continue the onboarding process. Further, we request detailed information. When appropriate, we order a independent 3rd party opinion, even more competent in the necessary field. Summarizing all perceived data and making certain decisions, we agree on the final terms with the borrower. Additionally, on our website, we have a “Offer” section with the form, made for collecting offers from the borrowers.
Do you plan to release features like an auto-invest?
Yes, an auto-invest is the feature we are looking forward to implementing in the future. But our first priority is to find and keep the balance of demand and supply as from the beginning there will be no new projects each week.
The minimal investment is about 100€. Do you think about lowering it?
The minimal investment will vary from project to project. As for the first one- it will be 100€. This information will be available in the description of each project.
You have no buy-back fund for defaults like Crowdestor or other platforms. Do you plan with such features?
Instead of that we already are operating with asset-based projects, so even in case of default, there is a limited opportunity to lose money. Also, we have other ideas, how investors' funds will be secured even more, but that is a question of the near future.
If I want to sell my projects, that isn't possbile at the moment. Do you have plans for a secondary market?
As you can see, section 8 in our Terms&Conditions is for the secondary market, therefore yes, we are planning to add it as well, but it is not planned in the nearest future as we would like to have the market response first, to see how everything will run and how fast/slow projects will be financed. Whenever we will feel that there is a demand for it, the secondary market will be delivered.
What are your plans for 2019/2020? And what is the next milestone?
Until the end of 2019, our target is to onboard and get financed 2-3 projects and for 2020 we want to stabilize our operations: project and new investors' flow; As we have in plans to launch many interesting projects for investments, 2020 is going to be the year of BOLD.
My assessment
As already mentioned, I find the platform very interesting for reasons of diversification. I already have Finnish real estate in my portfolio (via EstateGuru*) but not yet Norwegian ones. Maritime transportation projects are also something I haven't seen so far on other platforms. With the 100€ minimum investment, I will invest slowly and see how Boldyield* develops in the next months.
Bonus
As the platform is new to the market and wants to attract investors, Boldyield* offers new investors an additional 0,5% on their investments. This offer is valid until 30.04.2020. After that the bonus will be reduced to 0,3%.
Revolut – My account for p2p and crowdlending
Since I don't want to transfer everything from my regular bank account to the platforms, I was looking for a simpler solution. A few months ago I stumpled upon Revolut.
After being skeptical at first I'm now a big fan of the app. Transactions to the different platforms and also withdrawals are executed very fast. In addition you can with the free Revolut VISA card with max. 200€ cash limit per month at an ATM. And that without additional costs!
In addition Revolut is my faithful travel companion. Since I also work abroad from time to time I also looked for a way to simply exchange currencies. This is easily possible with the Revolut app. Also without fees (up to 6.000€ per month)!
About new projects on Twitter and Instagram
On my own behalf, I would like to mention that I also present new projects on Twitter (kaph1016) and Instagram (invest diversified) in which I invest myself. There are also a few insights into how I am invested in other areas. If you are interested I would be glad if you follow me.
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