Aions Creative Technology, a local venture builder and business incubator in South Africa, has recently launched a micro-investment platform called Aions Exchange (AEX). This new platform will enable individuals to invest in high-growth startups for as little as R50 a month, contributing to the democratization of wealth in the country.
AEX will offer investors fractional shares in one of the businesses currently being mentored by Aions. All companies listed on AEX are high-growth startups with an innovative and technologically advanced approach to solving real-world problems. Investors will share in the profits when the business is sold after three years. The platform aims to guarantee a minimum return of 10% per year over the three-year period, but the real returns could be significantly higher if the companies meet their growth targets.
Mitchan Adams, founder, and CEO of Aions, says that AEX was born using a range of methodologies from crowdfunding, stock exchanges, traditional VC models, and ICO (Initial Coin Offering). The platform aims to allow all South Africans to participate in the investment and growth of startups and benefit from the wealth created in the process, without the barriers and limitations of traditional stock investment options.
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Aions’ recent partnership with Telkom’s enterprise and supplier development program, FutureMakers, has awarded R58 million ($3.1 million) in funding to Aions to grow technology-focused start-ups and small businesses. Investors can currently choose from three incubator companies currently being funded and mentored by Aions, with the Telkom funding set to increase this number to at least 10 in the next 12 months.
Adams believes that micro-investing is the future of entrepreneurship in South Africa, as it allows the ordinary person on the street to invest in sound and innovative start-ups that can scale and grow aggressively to become sustainable, creating wealth and permanent jobs. He also highlights that small businesses’ success depends largely on getting the right exposure and opportunities, and AEX aims to provide these opportunities by making the public stakeholders in their success.
From May 8th, 2023, South Africans will be able to participate in the AEX platform by visiting wealth.aions.co.za. With a mission to support startups and democratize wealth, Aions is set to make a significant impact on South Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
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Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard