Momint's SunCash crowdfunding service allows anyone to invest in solar power and resell it to institutions.
Cape Town-based blockchain startup Momint is developing a solar power crowdfunding platform and has raised millions of dollars from this business model.
Arlen Posthumes, founder and CEO of Momint, said in an email interview with ITWeb.
The interview followed Momint's rival Sun Exchange's recent announcement that it would scrap its original crowdfunding model in favor of corporate and institutional investors. The company said the crowdsale model is no longer viable.
Last year, Momint announced its SunCash crowdfunding offering. It aims to help alleviate SA's energy crisis by allowing anyone to invest in solar power and resell it to institutions.
This will allow investors to purchase solar cells, the components of solar panels, for as little as R150 through the SunCash website.
“We have closed R120 million worth of deals to date and are focused on remaining accessible to both institutional and small retail investors.”Posthumana Mr. Su says.
“For us, we see this new wave of renewable energy infrastructure as essential to the economy and we want it to be owned by and benefit South Africans. We are already working with some larger foundations and have confirmed that these partners are open to accepting community participation in their projects.”
Postumas points out that institutional investors typically suffer from limited liquidity. “Simply put, they typically need to buy and own 100% of a project, and unless they make a big private equity deal, they are tied to that project for the duration of the contract. requires a long time and a large number of lawyers.
“Our model makes it much cheaper and easier to do these private equity transactions because everything is split into ‘share certificates’ that are managed by the latest secure blockchain technology, and also more It can be done in small units, which is a very important advantage.”
Arlen Postumus, Founder and CEO of Momint.
Postumas said Momint has a R400-million pipeline of projects to develop across South Africa, “and we know that the S12b (125%) tax break will apply in 2024, but It is unclear whether it will still exist.”
“Our plan is therefore very simple: continue to invest in high-quality projects and grow our community of retail and institutional investors.”
He said the company has an ambitious goal of ending load shedding within the next five years, or at least making a significant contribution to tackling this energy crisis before considering expanding beyond South Africa's borders. He said he has an ambitious goal of becoming one of the
“I think it’s important to note that this isn’t necessarily a failure of the solar financing model; in fact, if anything, this is because these projects are so attractive that the market is I see it as a sign that large institutional investors are coming in who understand and want to seize every opportunity.
“I hope South Africans recognize this opportunity and get involved, otherwise this sector will be wholly owned by larger funds.
“Personally, we believe in synergistic hybrids, just like in the stock market. Certainly large trades are driven by funds, but the market remains very accessible to individual investors. It’s easy to do.”
He added that Moint is different from Sun Exchange in core ways.
“We don’t just pool funds. Buyers actually buy and own tradable stocks. To eliminate the speculation behind cryptocurrencies, we are creating a stablecoin (USD ). We allow users to withdraw shares from the platform (also known as “self-storage”) and still earn income.
“We came into this market with a lot of respect for Sun Exchange, and we still think they were great pioneers in this space. We learned from them and took the torch, so to speak. I am very happy to be able to do this,” he concluded.