About JVAfrica

“SME JV 4 Africa” evolved from “Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Joint Ventures for Africa.” At SME JV 4 Africa, we believe in the development, innovation, talent, and targeted community support for the people throughout Africa, and that partnering with African entrepreneurs will also result in growth for the Western Economy.  SME Joint Ventures (JV) Africa (SMEJV4Africa) is a JV platform*, built exclusively for investors, lenders, and givers with a mission and passion to eliminate poverty by providing resources (funding, tools and knowledge) for African SMEs and start-ups. Using the power of information technologies throughout our network of Technical Assistance firms/professionals and MicroFinance Institutions, SMEJV4Africa creates a platform for individuals or entities from around the world to form JVs and lend or invest resources, starting with as little as $10, to help create opportunity in Africa*.

Membership is open to any Individual, Organization, Entity and Other JV that shares our interest of eliminating poverty via trading and not aiding.  We believe that aiding is not the solution for Africa, and that Joint Trading and Joint Venture is “The Solution.” We understand there are human issues, trust issues, and perception issues around the world, and more so when it comes to Africa as a whole. SMEJV4Africa is the change we have all been waiting for.  To be part of this growing network, smejvafrica.com requires membership combined with an Economic Development Network (EDN) focus. Our members are forming Joint Ventures (JVs)** on one project, or SME, or Start-up at a time – “sharing resources – sharing risks – sharing profits.”  Investors will participate in the running and operation of the project or business.  We encourage businesses and investors to fund businesses they are interested in and familiar with.  For example, US-based Auto Mechanics working with Africa-based Auto Mechanic; US Family Practices and medical professionals working with African Family practices; US pharmacy stores and pharmacists working with African pharmacy stores; US-based builders working with African builders, etc.

Membership in the network is vetted and offered only to people and entities that meet our stringent membership criteria. The initial focus of SMEJV4Africa will be the dynamic grassroots SMEs and start-up market in Nigeria.  Only SMEs/Startups that have passed a rigorous due diligence process will be added to or featured on the platform. Each JV’s terms are established upfront and members make independent decisions regarding what projects they loan to or invest in with their own resource(s) (funds, tools and knowledge). Donations (free money) to for profit SMEs or Startups are not allowed on this platform; donations are only allowed for Charities & Non-profit organizations.

Even though the platform launched in 2018, it has been a “success in the planning” since early 1990’s and “success in the making” since the year 2007, when our founders saw opportunities to spark growth in innovation and middle-class rebirth in Africa, but refused to launch until the program and platform was fully developed.

SME JV 4 Africa is the first JV focused, hybrid platform “integrating funds, tools and knowledge as loan, investment and donor” to launch and to allow participation from all over the world with local African JVs. Additionally, 10% of all platform revenue goes to vetted Charities and non-profit organizations that support African’s need.

* Over the past few years, a new way of funding ideas, projects and businesses has emerged called “crowdfunding.”  Crowdfunding is the collection of resources from backers—the “crowd”—to fund an initiative.  The funding efforts usually occur on Internet platforms. The initiative could be a nonprofit campaign (e.g. to raise funds for a school or social service organization), a political campaign (to support a candidate or political party), a charitable campaign (e.g. emergency funds for an ill person or to fund a critical operation), a commercial campaign (e.g. to create and sell a new product) or a financing campaign for an existing small business or a startup company.

There are three main crowdfunding models for small businesses and startups:

• Loan-based crowdfunding, where people loan funds to a business or project in expectation of pay back with interest;
• Equity-based crowdfunding, where people contribute resources/funds to a business or project in exchange for equity; and
• Donation-based crowdfunding, where people donate to a project in exchange for tangible, non-monetary, rewards.

Crowdfunding models involve a variety of participants:

• People or organizations that propose the ideas and/or projects to be funded;
• The “crowd” of people who support the proposals;
• The organization (“platform”) which brings together the project initiator and the crowd.

**A joint venture is a strategic alliance where two or more parties, individuals or businesses, form a partnership to share markets, intellectual property, assets, knowledge, and, of course, profits.

Why we do what we do?

We envision a world where all people throughout the world have the power to create opportunity for themselves and others, and not simply depend on others. We believe providing safe, affordable access to capital helps people create better lives for themselves and their families. But, we quickly realized how big this problem is and how big this world is, and from there noted that others share this same vision with us, although they don’t do it the way we do it. A relatively new phenomenon, crowdfunding is booming worldwide. As of April 2012, according to crowdsourcing.com, there were 452 crowdfunding platforms active worldwide. Donation-based crowdfunding (sites like KickStarter and IndieGogo) has seen tremendous growth in the past couple of years; as of October 2012 Kickstarter had launched over 73,000 projects, and raised almost $400M in pledges. Now, equity-based crowdfunding is about to take off. As of April 5 2012, with the passing of Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act in the US, “registered portals” will be able to engage in equity-crowdfunding and even “non-accredited investors” will be able to make direct investments into private companies under new proposed regulations.

Why Start in Nigeria?

Each day in Nigeria there are hundreds if not thousands of venture financing needs and thousands if not millions of angel financiers looking to invest in those who need capital to succeed. Despite the emerging nature of this market, Nigerians and foreigners have culture and perception issues. Culture – Due to the nature of low resources, most Nigerian SMEs and StartUps do not want to spend any resources on the technical capacities they need in order to be looked at by North American and Western European investors or lenders. Perception – North American and the Western European investors don’t know how to separate fraudsters from genuine businessmen/businesswomen.  For SMEs, lack of discipline to have reliable business reports, financial reports and other metrics certainly causes investors to look for opportunities elsewhere.  Startups with an elevator pitch such as “God told me to start this business,” and who have no business plan and/ financial model, do not inspire serious investment.  And many North American and Western European investors are not interested in funding local arts and crafts; they are looking for opportunities that will improve the infrastructure and lives of those who are served by the businesses. As a result, capital needs gaps continue to rise and this is why and where SMEJV4Africa comes in.  We are building an exclusive joint venturing platform to align the demand for capital among Africans, with the supply of capital from people around the world who want to participate in Africa, starting with the development and operations of Nigeria’s SMEs and StartUps.