I started investing on Yieldstreet about a year ago because I liked the unique investment offerings the company had. I invested in a pool of litigation finance loans, something I had never done before. Since then Yieldstreet has added some more unusual investments never before offered in marketplace lending. For more on Yieldstreet you should listen to my podcast from last year with CEO Milind Mehere.
I caught up with Milind again this week to talk about these new offerings and also to get an update on Yieldstreet’s progress. The first thing I wanted to talk about was the two unique investments they recently had on their website for marine financing. I should also note that Yieldstreet is available only to accredited investors at this time.
A First for Individual Investors: Marine Financing
First, let me tell you what marine financing isn’t. It is not recreational boat financing as Milind was quick to point out. These are commercial ships or to be more accurate Dry Bulk Ships designed to carry goods such as grain, coal, metals or forest products.
Yieldstreet purchased two vessels to be leased by a European ship management company. This is a somewhat complicated deal structure that Yieldstreet explains nicely in this tutorial on their website. In their first transaction they offered 8% interest on a 36-month loan term. The minimum investment was $20,000 and they filled the $18.1 million deal with just over 500 investors, many of whom had never invested on Yieldstreet before.