Nigeria’s proptech startup, Propcrowdy, secures Crowdfunding Intermediary licence from SEC

Proptech startup, Propcrowdy Limited, has been licensed by Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a crowdfunding intermediary (CFI) company. With this, Propcrowdy becomes the first and only platform in Nigeria today authorized to perform crowdfunding business under the rules and guidelines of the SEC.

The SEC licence to Propcrowdy further gives credence to crowdfunding as a viable alternative investment vehicle. As an SEC-licensed platform under the strict guidelines of the country’s investment regulator, Propcrowdy will be giving investors opportunities to tap into the real estate business for huge returns.

Market target: Propcrowdy, an inclusionary crowdfunding investment platform that is set up to make it possible for individuals who earn minimum wage to access and climb up the real estate investment ladder in Africa, is focusing on two main target audiences which is the population of Nigerians who earn between $80 to $1,000 per month and Small and Medium Enterprise Real Estate Developers whose annual turnover is less than $5m.
Statistics show that over 127 million Nigerians fall into the first category, while there are over 3,600 SMEs in the second category.

Investor confidence: Incorporated in 2019 when there was no regulation for crowdfunding, Propcrowdy said it took the long and hard road to secure a crowdfunding license from SEC in order to build investor confidence.

And to sustain that confidence, the company has assured that funded developers on the platform must meet Propcrowdy’s requirements of environmental, social, and governance factors alongside the security and financial metrics in the appraisal and investment decision-making process.

Success factors: Speaking on the approval by the SEC, the Propcrowdy founder/CEO, Dr Roland Igbinoba, emphasized that success for Propcrowdy will be measured by how much they have been able to successfully democratize real estate investments within the low and medium-income category in Africa, thereby empowering them and improving their wellbeing.

• “Furthermore, our contribution to net zero and the reduction in carbon emissions is of utmost importance,” he added.

Head of Product Design at Propcrowdy, Williams Omoruyi, added:

• “We recognize that low-income earners and small real businesses in Africa lack the financial capacity to scale. At Propcrowdy, we are solving the twin problem of social impact and inclusiveness for those at the bottom of the pyramid and creating wealth and economic development for small and medium-sized real estate developers.”

In case you missed it: Recall, that the SEC recently prohibited the activities of all Agritech and crowdfunding investment platforms due to the massive failure and fraudulent activities of many of the platforms. In arriving at the decision, SEC had said:

• “We have observed with concern the fraudulent activities of some unregistered investment crowdfunding platforms and had strongly advised the investing public against making investment(s) with or through any crowdfunding platform not registered with the Commission.
• “The Commission, in recognition of the potential and importance of crowdfunding platforms and the need to protect investors through effective regulation, had in January 2021 published its crowdfunding rules and requested well-intending crowdfunding platforms to register with the Commission”.

In 2021, Propcrowdy received family, friends and angel investments of $500,000 to enable it to procure its license and continue to build its products and required infrastructure for monitoring compliance as required by the SEC. The round of investments was led by Proptech54 – a proptech-focused accelerator program helping to nurture and scale proptech startups in Africa.

To join the waitlist of investors and developers please see the link below
https://propcrowdy.com/waitlist