Grip, India’s leading alternative investment platform helping Indians reimagine wealth creation, recently announced the addition of Commercial Real Estate (“CRE”) as a new product offering for millions of individual investors. With the new product, individual investors can start investing in pre-leased, world-class commercial properties and diversify their portfolio beyond stocks, fixed deposits, and gold.
To enable the new product, Grip has partnered with Strata, a leading CRE investment platform, to provide individual investors opportunities to invest in grade-A pre-leased commercial properties at a fractionalized investment amount of just INR 1,00,000.
For each opportunity, Strata identifies the commercial properties (such as offices, industrial warehouses, retail, data centers), undertakes the due diligence, finds marquee tenants, and in certain situations completes the fitouts. Furthermore, the tenants are established MNCs with a strong credit profile and offer long lock-in/lease tenures and contracted rental escalations.
Sudarshan Lodha, Co-Founder and CEO, Strata, said “Millennials are constantly on the lookout for new investment avenues, and given the increased uncertainties in the COVID-impacted world, the need for diversification into alternative investments is more than ever. By partnering with Grip, we can make commercial property investments accessible to more millennial investors at a fraction of the high investment amounts traditionally required to invest in commercial properties.”
Speaking about the addition of CRE as a product offering on Grip, Nikhil Aggarwal, Founder and CEO, Grip, added “Stock market volatility has unnerved a significant majority of the individual investors. We have witnessed an uptick in interest and funds rationed towards non-market linked investment opportunities aka alternative assets. In staying true to Grip's mission of ensuring wealth creation for all and keeping the investors’ best interest in mind, we decided to add CRE to our portfolio and are incredibly excited about our partnership with the market leader Strata. With this offering, we hope to democratize commercial real estate for all and ensure accessibility at a low minimum investment amount.”
Through the CRE product offered by Grip in partnership with Strata, investors can earn up to 11% pre-tax yield; with the inherent land value expected to appreciate over time and asset ownership, the product offers attractive risk-adjusted returns.
Furthermore, Grip has enabled the CRE investments through a partnership with a SEBI-registered alternative investment fund (“AIF”). The AIF ensures that funds to be invested in each opportunity are raised through a separate scheme. Accordingly, investors can always be assured that the funds invested will only be used towards making investments in the opportunity they chose to participate in.
Grip started off as a digital investment platform offering investment opportunities through asset-backed lease financing. With Grip identifying the investors’ appetite, it started gaining traction from individual investors and early-stage high-growth companies. Now, Grip has launched its newest product CRE in partnership with a market leader. For retail investors seeking to diversify their portfolio or making alternative investments, this product can prove to be a game-changer.
