It’s been a uniquely challenging year for all of us. From the COVID-19 pandemic to the resulting social upheavals and political turmoil, it’s safe to say we’re all looking forward to saying goodbye to 2020 and hello to 2021.
But despite its challenges, this year has also proven just how resilient we can be. When the onset of COVID-19 rendered most of our old ways of life impossible, we formed new ones. As the pandemic shut down workplaces, we created new office environments out of our dining room tables and living room couches. We transformed business obstacles into business opportunities. At the start of the pandemic, our team recognized that retail capital is more flexible than institutional capital in times of economic distress; so we quickly adapted, transitioning to 100% retail capital in less than 3 months to continue flowing capital to the entrepreneurs who need it to keep their businesses running and our economy moving. This shift enabled us to respond in real time as new market opportunities arose -- as demand for residential real estate capital grew, we rolled out new lower pricing and launched new lending products to provide our borrowers with needed leverage.
To incentivize retail investor activity on our platform, we launched a Stimulus Program to reward investors with an interest bonus for funding real estate developers and expanded access to our popular Notes program. Recognizing many investors’ heightened financial concerns in the face of the pandemic, we offered a transparent look at our investment portfolio through a weekly asset management update series as well as an extensive Stress Test Analysis. The response to these proactive initiatives was enormous -- retail investors shattered previous records for investment volume every quarter since Q2, while setting monthly investment records of almost $16 million in both July and September.
In short, we’ve embraced a lot of the “new” in 2020 -- and while none of us is sure what new changes 2021 will bring, we at Groundfloor look forward to meeting them head-on with the same spirit of resilience and innovation that propelled us through this wild year. So farewell to the old, and bring on the new -- we’re ready for you, 2021!
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