Traditionally, alternative asset investments has always been a tough nut to crack, and has always been the playground for the rich to diversify into, and get richer. But with the advance of technology and the popularity of fractional investments, we’ve seen many new players bursting upon the scene, making alternative investments such as watches, fine art and fine wines into the broader retail market. Koia is the latest player to bring us into the world of alternative assets.
Back in 2020, I wrote about 4 alternative investments you could consider. The alternative investments were:
- Fine wine investing with Vinovest
- Fractional Airbnb ownership with Partbnb
- Invest in Art with Masterworks
- How to earn crypto with Crypto.com
Why invest in alternative asset classes?
I’ve always been interested in finding new and alternative asset classes to invest in, or at least to evaluate and see if we can have market beating returns in good times, and market resilience in challenging economic conditions.
If the global covid pandemic has shown us anything, it has taught us that in this constant monetary inflationary environment, the only thing we shouldn’t hold onto, is hard cash. Investing in literally anything else during this period, be it equities, real estate, art, wine and any collectible, you’ll probably be doing better than holding onto cash.
We’ve also seen that, in general and not just in this recession, the rich actually get richer. That’s because they generally have access to a lot more investible vehicles than most ordinary folks get. It’s also a strange world where, the richer you are, the better rates you get when getting loans, and hence, from a percentage perspective, you actually pay less than the poor.
What is Koia?
Koia is a platform that helps you to invest in different alternative asset classes, from fine wines, whiskey, watches and collectibles such as rare playing cards. These are just a sampling of assets that Koia will provide via their platform.
As they scale, they will be looking to add more of these assets.
As with platforms like Partbnb and Masterworks, Koia will allow the retail market to participate in ownership of these assets via a fractional ownership model. Which means that while you will have a share in some of these assets that you choose to purchase, you may not be in physical possession of it, just because you are not the sole owner.
This should work well, if you’re purely coming from an investing mindset. This means Koia will help handle the storage, insurance and the handling of the assets, while you invest via their platform and look to sell at a future time with a set profit level in mind.
What is fractional ownership?
Fractional ownership, as the name suggests, is the part ownership of an asset. For example, via Masterworks, you can go in and purchase a 2% share in a Monet, or own a 30% stake in an Airbnb located in the Bahamas via Partbnb.
Koia allows the retail investor to have exposure to these alternative asset classes from as low as £50. This currently seems to be the lowest minimum investment sum based on the other platforms I’ve reviewed. Masterworks requires a $1,000 minimum investment, and while Partbnb started off with $38 minimum investment per share, they quickly pivoted to 8 shares per property, which means a $100,000 investment per share if you’re looking at an $800,000 property.
They are currently not live yet, but should be launching pretty soon. You can get early access by signing up on their website.
I’ve signed up to their platform and am on the waitlist, and I’ll be keen to check out their initial asset offering when they launch.
Will definitely be posting a follow-up to this. In the meantime, why not join our community via our Telegram channel?
