What do I like about Swarm.Fund?
While the outside media landscape rumbles on about regulation and lack there of, IMHO the entire purpose of Crypto currencies was formulated to have impact for good. When I first heard about Bitcoin in 2014, how I understood it was as a means to bring currency options to the unbanked and make it easier to send currencies between families overseas in poorer countries without long waits or exorbitant fees.
Fast forward to the media frenzy December 2017: the news angle focused on Crypto Billionaires and Lambos. Although newsworthy, it sounded more gross that exciting for a new future. Transferring wealth around to the same kind of people — though a younger set — didn’t sound like incredible social impact.
However, the silver lining is Blockchain technology and the Social Good Impact projects in the works.
Enter Swarm.Fund. (Full transparency: they are a client of mine.) Tagline: ‘private equity for the blockchain,’ the idea is Swarm gives any investor access to investment opportunities once reserved only for the very wealthy. They are currently curating and vetting opportunities for people to invest in, without having to commit a certain benchmark of financial investment.
What I really dig about Swarm is the overall social impact and the diversity of the funds. Each fund is interesting for a variety of reasons.
Let’s break down each one, in alphabetical order:
1. Andra Capital (SVC) — A blockchain tokenized opportunity to invest in a group of late-stage private technology companies. Andra Capital is disrupting the venture capital space through blockchain technology by tokenizing the fund and making it available globally via the crypto and security token market called Silicon Valley Coin.
2. Dash (DMN) — Fractional Dash Masternodes. Acquiring Dash masternodes are inaccessible to the average person since the initial investment to set up a masternode today is around 250k USD. Swarm, utilizing fractional ownership, allows anyone to participate in Dash governance and receive block rewards.
3. FarmCoin (FARM) — The primary focus of the venture is financial inclusion and social responsibility — it is aimed towards providing the infrastructure and resources to the 700M member unbanked farm community in Africa to enable them to feed their families, and support their countries, and the world, by providing security of transaction, elimination of corruption, and reduction in the costs of borrowing.
4. NIAH Fund (NIAH) — Needled in a Haystack is distressed Real Estate Investors, using their AI software to find purchasing opportunities within Federal Bankruptcy Chapter 7.
5. Property Coin (PCX) — fix and flip real estate and loans with 100% of profits owned by tokenholders. It is the first security token backed by a professionally managed portfolio of fix and flip real estate and loans.
6. SparkLabs Smart City & Smart Planet Fund (SPRK) -SparkLab’s mission through their startup accelerator fund is to spur innovation in critical sectors that impact our future and make Earth sustainable for future generations.
Frank Meehan, co-founder of SparkLabs Group said,“We believe our Smart City & Smart Planet Fund allows people across the globe to invest in two accelerator funds that can truly change the world in terms of urban innovation, innovation in agriculture, and how we interact with our planet.”
7. Viejo San Juan Comunidad RE Fund (VSJ) — This Puerto Rico Redevelopment Fund proposes to acquire a portfolio of residential & commercial buildings for renovation and development, providing benefits to investors who choose to reside in Old San Juan. The Fund has targeted several properties for both redevelopment and current rental income. For instance, the Fund intends to redevelop a landmark building for the crypto/blockchain community.
Right now, in the US only accredited investors can invest in these funds, except for Dash Masternodes. This is because of SEC regulations and restrictions. It will be interesting to see what happens if and when that changes. Ideally, once it does, the full impact of what Swarm has to offer will change the investment landscape globally.
For me, Blockchain is all about Impact projects. Real projects, not speculation. I want to be involved in Blockchain for Good with real companies. You can read more about my client Swarm.Fund here: https://swarm.fund/
