In the past months, I've had SEVERAL Africans with amounts ranging from $200k to $60k looking for where to invest with a guaranteed return of 10% without FX risk. I have told them that I will think about it. It occurred to me eventually that most lending in Africa is exactly that

The issue is that it is not explicitly stated that money is being aggregated and lent to others for margin and the pseudonym is "neo bank".

I don't want to do a neo bank. I also want to separate long term investment crowdfunding from short term finance.

I have seen that there are supply and demand matching opportunities but not many simplified models. Most initiatives start simple and end up being complex because of regulation and the struggle for survival. The demand side is where the mess is typically.

In a bid to differentiate and look serious, we end up complicating very simple things. People have money to invest and people need money to move their business forward. It is as simple as that. We need to ask why it is never as simple and what to do to simplify.

You don't need to take money from everyone and you don't need to give money to everyone. It can be a simple marketplace that runs on its own. This is the promise of DeFi. All we need to figure out now is how to sort out collateralization. That can also be simple too.

My thoughts on collateralization are that people closer to the borrower with a higher risk appetite and with smaller amounts to stake help to provide collateral. I think I now fully get what @AkinSawyerr is doing with $BOND. This can become a derivative.

A cooperative can also provide collateral. I don't know if that is what the folks at @xendfinance have built but will gladly like to look into it. These things don't have to be complicated.