written by Michael Kwan on May 11, 2012 on JohnChow.com
If you’ve ever watched a show like Dragons Den or Shark Tank, then you would have seen a brief glimpse into the world of venture capitalism. Many entrepreneurs view the show from the perspective of the business owners, but have you ever wanted to sit in the seats of the Dragons and Sharks instead? What if you could make a steady flow of income that way.
Offering an alternative to investments like the stock market is Uinvest. As we make our way through today’s review, we’ll have a look at how Uinvest is structured, how you can invest in a wide range of businesses, and whether or not you can turn a signficant profit by helping these companies along.
What Is Uinvest?
The main idea behind Uinvest is that you are provided with a platform where you can invest in a range of businesses and, in exchange for your capital investment, you get a share of the profits that the company is then able to generate.
This is a simple way to invest money online, because it only takes a few minutes to create your account and then you can fund it, allocating the money to investment projects that pique your interest. To confirm your ownership of the shares, you will receive shares certificates through regular postal mail. The certificate is protected by a hologram sticker and sealed by the Uinvest director.
How Does It Work?
The best way to understand Uinvest is to watch the video presentation that they have posted on the site.
In short, you browse through the businesses on the site that are offering shares, have a look at the current price of a share, and gauge the monthly return on each share to see if you’d like to invest in that business. After you choose to buy your shares, you start earning a portion of the profits.
When you have earned back the amount of your original principal, that’s when you start turning a profit on your investment. It is only at this point that Uinvest takes a 10% commission on the profits that you earn; they don’t take a cut until you’ve earned back your original investment.
What Businesses Are for Sale?
You can learn more about the businesses after you’ve created an account, but in the meantime, you can see that there are various projects that are seeking funding from investors like you.
By and large, the projects are for infrastructure or brick-and-mortar type businesses, including a chocolate factory, a hotel and entertainment complex, a motor plant, a pasta factory, a restaurant, a casino, a fish cannery, and even gas stations. The price per share ranges considerably, getting as low as about $27 per share and as high as $4,200 per share. The monthly earnings per share is correspondingly higher, of course.
You’ll also notice that each offering has a limited number of shares available. If you can’t decide where you want to invest your money, there is also the Global Uinvest Network, which is currently priced at $1,750 per share.
Why Ukraine?
You may have noticed that Uinvest has a Ukraine-based TLD. While it may have been more desirable to get the simpler and more universal .com domain, Uinvest was created to help people invest in Ukraine and Europe. They feel it is an “opportunity to benefit from a dynamic region with vast natural resources, a friendly business environment and rich intellectual capital.”
Do You Want to Make Money?
As with all other kinds of investments, investing your money in Uinvest projects is going to carry a certain level of risk. It’s quite possible that you’re going to lose money in these transactions, but you could just as easily earn a steady flow of profit through these ventures too. Uinvest says that it carefully reviews each prospective business, screening them for legitimacy and profitability. That pre-screening helps, but the investment decision ultimately lies with you.
Source: JohnChow.com
