---
description: >-
  A platform of alternative investments dedicated to a community of professional
  investors
---

# The origin

The demand for alternative investment has grown steadily over the past ten years. They provide portfolio diversification, enhanced returns and supplemental incomes in the long term. Institutional and semi-institutional investors have substantially increased their exposure to the real asset class and have been filling the financing gaps that emerged since the 2008 global financial crisis in areas short of funding due to banks’ regulatory and capital limitations.

The growth of digital financing platforms _(as crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending)_ has allowed the emergence of new players. The digital financing platforms represent a revolutionary way for both companies and private individuals to raise funds and finance real world assets. It has now reached mass adoption after a decade of growth, making it one of the best success stories of recent years. Those solutions leverage digital, intuitive, and user-friendly platforms to connect capital-seeking agents with investors.

The ICOs and IDOs, a special type of blockchain-based crowdfunding, expand this notion to the blockchain world by allowing project holders aiming to raise capital to improve the fund-raising process.

The reasons why most of the professional actors had not started reaping the benefits of the technology evolution happening on digital investment platforms are notably that:

* The majority of these platforms do not fulfill their regulatory and security requirements;
* The offered investments are not backed by a sufficient level of guarantee;
* The assets are generally not reported in their Asset Under Management _(AUM)_;
* There is no custody solution for this type of assets;
* Insurance coverage is not sufficient.

In addition, **SMAT** identified three critical problems that are currently limiting the conventional system from reaching its full potential:

* The industry players are working in silos, without sharing information and opportunities.
* The proliferation of digitization and tokenization was supposed to be a game changer for the financial sector but the lack of easy-to-use systems led to a status quo so far.
* The way to invest in digital assets _(security token or cryptocurrency)_ is complex for institutional investors and needs to be smoothed to attract a larger part of them.

Hence, **SMAT** is a platform focused on alternative investments _(on-chain or off-chain)_ based on real world assets _(including for example private equity, private debt, real estate, infrastructure, etc.)_ which directly connects professional originators and distributors with regulated investors.

**SMAT** profunding platform is the first of its kind.
