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This Envestio review is based entirely on my experiences. Always do your own research.
What is Envestio?
Envestio works in the field of providing bridge financing/equity replacement loans to the owners of investment projects. At the moment, main industries are real estate development, energy production, urban mining, and production of equipment/hardware for crypto-mining.
Envestio started as a private investment fund in 2014 and decided to go public in the end of 2017. A total of 22 projects have been successfully completed. 5 active projects are currently available on the website.
At the time of writing 736 active investors have raised 1.246.273 EUR on the platform.
Is Envestio a scam?
Good question! Investment rule #1 is “Never loose your money”.
Scammers usually shy away from personal contact. So what better way to find out, than flying to Riga and meeting them in person? Let’s see if the people fits the pictures and if the information on the website can be trusted.
Traveling to Riga
On June 28th I boarded a Bombardier CS300 and traveled from Denmark to Riga, Latvia to meet the Envestio team.
I invited my mom to come along because she also invest in different projects and platforms. Short trips like this is a good opportunity to spend some quality time with your loved ones.
As you can see from my savings rate, I don’t spend much money on luxury. However, when I travel I like to spoil myself a bit with a nice meal on the plane. It usually costs 11-16€ per meal, but I enjoy it so much, it’s worth every cent to me.
Even though we are saving up for financial freedom one has to enjoy the present and not only focus on the future.
Arriving in Riga
When we arrived in Riga I opened my Taxify app, which is the Baltic version of Uber. I found and used this app when I was visiting Bondora’s office in Tallinn in January 2018. Taxify is a great and cheap way to get around.
A few minutes after plotting our pickup and final destination into the app the driver arrived. The 30 minute from the airport to the hotel ended up costing us 8,50€. In Denmark, it would cost me the same in starting fees, just to enter the taxi.
The hotel
Monika Centrum Hotel was going to be our home for the next 2 days. It’s a nice hotel within walking distance to the “old town” in central Riga.
Evgeniy (I call him Eugene), the COO of Envestio, was so kind to welcome us at the hotel, just to say hi and to tell us about the schedule for the next day. We would meet at 10:00 the next morning in their office about 1 km down the road. After a small office tour, we would go on a day trip to see 3 finished crypto currency mining projects and 3 actual real estate and development projects which are already available for investment on the platform.
When everything was clear, we said good-bye for now and parted. Now we were ready to explore Riga on our own and get some dinner.
Dining in Riga
When I’m traveling I’m always using TripAdvisor to find good restaurants. I’m searching for restaurants nearby and filter the results by highest rating. I’ve never been disappointed with the experiences, all the restaurants have been absolutely incredible. This was no different!
The highest rated (and probably the most expensive) restaurant is called Vincents. We didn’t go for this one though. From experience, it’s almost impossible to get a table on the highest rated venue with a few hours notice.
The second highest rated restaurant in the area is Milda. I called them and I was able to reserve a table, so we decided to try it out. We ordered a 3 course menu with wine and it was a very pleasant experience.
Team Envestio
The next morning at 10:00 AM we met the Envestio team in their office in Riga. It’s a really nice office space that they acquired 3-4 months ago.
We spent about half an hour talking and asking questions. Most of my questions had already been addressed in the endless stream of emails I had sent to Eugene in the weeks prior to the meeting. But it was nice to meet them in person and have a little chit-chat.
Finished projects
The first stop on our day trip was to see some of the finished crypto currency mining projects.
The mining container in the picture below hosts hardware, assembled and sold to the client “Baltreit” SIA. In the list of finished projects these are labeled “Mobile Mining Unit A03”, Mobile Mining Unit A04”, and “Mobile Mining Unit A05”.
Please remember, that Envestio provides funding to companies which are looking for capital to expand their current business. Envestio is not involved in any crypto currency mining activities itself.
Current projects
You can read a lot more about the current projects on the Envestio webpage. Click on Projects in the top menu.
The next stop on our day trip was to see the “Power Plant – Development” project.
The power plant was originally built in 2012. Envestio co-funded an expansion in the first half of 2015 (April-May), where the second phase went into operation. Now, in 2018, it’s ready for further development.
The power plant is an effective, environmental-friendly facility that uses modern equipment and renewable energy source (wood chips) for production of thermal and electric power. The power plant provides hot water and electricity to the nearby municipality.
Especially during the summer, the power plant produces excess heat and energy that is not currently monetized. This is why they want to build a new grain drying facility that could make good use of the excess heat. The money raised by Envestio participants will fund this purpose.
Investors get a nice 18% interest rate for investing into this 10 month project. The first 3 interest repayments have already been returned to the investors.
Construction of Modern “Slowfood” Street Market
The second stop was to see the location of the Modern “Slowfood” Street Market, which is now available for investment on the platform.
Latvian company SIA “Zelta Jumts” owns a land plot with a total area of 815 m2 in the very centre of Riga at the corner of Bruninieku and Kr. Barona Streets, surrounded by historical buildings and well-developed infrastructure. They have received a construction permit to build a number of 1-2 story wood pavilions with total useful area of 300 m2.
The company is looking forward to attract 350,000 EUR through bridge-financing from Envestio participants. Valuation of the land plot without construction is 870,000 EUR.
Investors get 17% interest rate for investing into this 9 month project. The first interest repayment was already returned to the investors.
Barona 72
The third project is located just on the opposite corner of the Slowfood Street Market project described above.
SIA Baltic Real Estate Holding, an experienced Latvian real estate developer, is launching the construction process of 2500 m2 apartment building at Krisjana Barona Street 72, Riga and is planning to attract medium-term mezzanine financing for 24 months.
Barona 72 (the official name of the project) will be a modern 22 apartment property, located on the cross of two historical streets in the central part of Riga: Krisjana Barona Street, which is a pedestrian devoted vibrant boulevard with lots of restaurants, cafes, and small shops, and Bruninieku Street – quiet and cosy avenue which is perfect for a slow walk among Riga art nouveau heritage.
Investors get 18% interest rate for investing into this 24 month project. The first interest repayment is scheduled for 15.07.2018.
Envestio review – Conclusion
My first impressions of Envestio and the team are very positive. They are kind, helpful, professional people with a great attitude.
Even though that platform is quite new, Envestio’s private investment fund has operated since 2014, so it functioned for 3,5 years before going public. The amount of completed projects shows they know what they’re doing.
The key distinction from many other Crowdinvesting and P2P platforms is that they are financing real business ventures that brings tangible added value to the economy, instead of simply refinancing personal loans. I really like that.
On top of that, the interest rates offered are very generous. Currently from 17-22% per year. And because the platform is young, it’s actually possible to get a share in the projects. Other popular platforms have too many investors and not enough projects.
Overall, I’m very positive and truly excited to see what the future holds for Envestio.
If you sign up and invest with Envestio through my referral link, you will get a 5€ bonus when you deposit at least 100€. In addition, you will also get a 0,5% cash back on all your investments the first 270 days. That’s 9 full months!
Various pictures from our trip to Riga
This was my first trip to Latvia. It’s a really nice country! Have you been in Riga? If not, I will finish this review with a small photo collage for you to enjoy.
More stories, more pictures?
Some people say I have a lot of numbers on my blog. For this reason, I tried a different approach this time and created a post with a lot of pictures and shared more details of my journey with you.
If you liked it and would like future posts to be more like this, please hit the like button below! Are you here for the numbers or do you appreciate personal stories as well?
Share your experience
Have you invested with Envestio? Do you have any questions or concerns? Please share your experience or thoughts on the platform below.
As investors we are all equal, small or big, it doesn’t matter. Let’s unite and prosper from the combined intelligence of our community!
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