Every sane investor wants returns. Risk and currency-adjusted returns that are higher than what they can get in their home country. It’s not rocket science.
Take a UK investor you’re pitching about investing in Africa. The first question is almost always: Isn’t Africa risky? My answer is simple: every investment is risky, regardless of geography. This article isn’t about Africa risk perception.
Before a UK investor invests a single penny into an African opportunity, you need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that what they’ll make in Africa is better, on a risk-adjusted basis, than what they’d make at home. The truth is, they’re not making much in the UK. Definitely less than 5%. The BoE lowered interest rates again this week to 3.75%, meaning the return on cash deposits is now lower. Investors have one thing going for them: confidence they won’t lose their money. The UK government more or less guarantees that.
Protecting the downside is fine, but nobody gets rich doing only that. To build wealth, you need to take risks and diversify. Diversification doesn’t mean losing money. It means spreading your investments across multiple risk levels. Low, medium and high.
When we first launched Borderless, the platform's assets were risky. Mostly startups. Over time, we spoke to many investors who don’t enjoy the thrill of early-stage tech investing. So we went to the other end of the spectrum and launched real estate. Today, some of our real estate investors are earning up to 15% on their capital.
This is just the beginning for us. Borderless is still very young. While we’d love to experiment with many asset classes, focus is our best friend. In the short to medium term, we’ll double down on what’s working (venture and real estate), while testing a few tightly defined use cases.
Personally, I’m especially excited about co-investing in real estate.
For a long time, real estate in Africa has felt unattainable for many in the diaspora. So people buy off-plan, pay over many years, and live under constant financial pressure. Completion dates keep slipping. When the property is finally delivered, if it ever is, they then have to find tenants and manage everything from abroad. And when rent comes in, that cousin might spend the money. Why even bother? Co-investment changes this.
It allows investors to write smaller checks, avoid legal and operational headaches, and stay on top of returns. It’s a hands-free way to earn solid dollar-denominated returns while diversifying across assets and countries. Yes, this might sound like I’m talking my own book. But I’m only writing this because we have the data to back it up. At the end of the day, returns are what matter. And returns are the only thing diaspora investors actually care about.
Thank you for reading
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I run a real estate investment collective on Borderless called Diaspora House, and you can join it here. We have two active properties in Nairobi available to rent.
Property one - Winchester Gardens
Property two - Marina Bay
Finally, if you want to invest in SEIS-eligible companies in the UK in 2026, please fill out this short form here.