Hello,
Long time no newsletter! I hope you are doing well.
I’ve been meaning to write, but to be honest, it’s been a very busy start of the year. We’ve been growing and gaining momentum, but that also comes with its own challenges. I found some time this evening, and I thought I should jot down some thoughts.
This newsletter will be a short one because I wanted to share three main things:
1 - A podcast I was recently on
I really wanted to share it because I think it neatly encapsulates the work I’ve been doing over the past three years. If you have some time, I would really appreciate it if you could listen to it, as it goes a level deeper into the mission around Borderless.
It’s on YouTube and Spotify. See the links below:
I’m grateful to Ian Horne for the interview.
2 - A play we helped fund on Borderless
We want Borderless to be the platform for all African and diaspora investment activity, not just startups and real estate. I have been advocating for other asset classes, including the Cultural and Creative Industries, because I genuinely believe Africans are among the most creative people on the planet and that backing that creativity can be financially significant. I have also championed community investing because it fosters deeper engagement. When a community supports a project on Borderless, the aim is for them to also become consumers of it. That holds for plays and films just as much as it does for startups.
The current project is No Wahala Therapy, and if you are in London, you can purchase your tickets via the website. Some communities on Borderless are organising a mixer centred around this play, which could also be a valuable networking opportunity.
3 - I’m fundraising
We launched Borderless last summer. Since then, we have onboarded 14 collectives, processed a combined $1.5M, and we are growing fast. We are raising additional capital to strengthen our balance sheet, obtain our FCA authorisation and scale from 14 to 100+ collectives.
If you want to learn more, just reply to this email.
Take care of yourself, and if you can, others too.
With love, Joe
Joe