LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The growing demand for alternative income and the advent of blockchain technology are challenging the traditionally closed institutional investment club. Until now, the sky-high minimum threshold for investment, soaring fees and complicated structures with multiple intermediaries were making investing practically inaccessible for an average individual.

Smartlands is out to disrupt legacy financial markets with its blockchain-based Platform for crowdfunding, created to democratize the global investment space by introducing the concept of fractional ownership. Smartlands’ proprietary technology allows issuing digital shares - security tokens - backed by real economy assets such as real estate or agriculture. Just like in a traditional stock market, security tokens represent the immutable right of ownership in an asset and allow investors to receive dividends or profits.

The benefit of digitizing securities is that they become highly divisible, meaning that investors can buy small percentages of tokenised assets. This model dramatically reduces the buy-in threshold and opens access to higher-yield investment opportunities. “Imagine, you can now own the equivalent of just one square meter in a building and trade that share on an exchange 24/7,” – Smartlands CEO Arnoldas Nauseda explains. “Both cash and cryptocurrencies can be used to fund bids on Smartlands, making security tokens a useful tool for portfolio diversification. For asset owners, it’s an alternative way to raise capital from international investors, adding liquidity to the asset. Fractional ownership, enabled by asset tokenisation, will revolutionise the traditional investment space potentially unlocking a multi-billion global industry that previously has been out of reach for a retail investor”.

Registered with the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK, Smartlands will offer investment opportunities in various asset classes, starting with real estate. “We spent two years building a foundation to launch Smartlands. We’ve developed a platform that employs advanced blockchain technology with fast, cheap, and secure transactions. We’ve gathered a team of visionaries who come from traditional finance and software engineering, united by the idea to shape the future of investment through innovation. And finally, we created a legal framework for our business to make sure our investment offerings are fully compliant. Now, having done our homework, we’re excited to launch,” – Nauseda says.