Everyday South African investors have long faced the same frustrating challenge — how do you earn a solid return in hard currency without taking on outsized risk or tying up your capital for long periods?

Traditional bank savings accounts barely outpace inflation. Offshore bond ETFs don’t offer much more. Stocks and crypto can be too volatile for many. But now, thanks to tokenisation, there's a new opportunity for people to invest like the top 1% do.

The investment opportunity is called ALFI, and it gives you exposure to a tokenised Real-World Asset (RWA) in the form of a diversified portfolio of senior loans made to UK law firms.

What is ALFI?

ALFI stands for Altify Legal Finance Investment. It’s South Africa’s first legal finance token — a way for everyday investors to access a reliable 11% fixed annual return in a US dollar-denominated investment, with interest paid quarterly.

Each ALFI token is backed 1:1 by fixed-rate loan notes issued by Fenchurch Legal, a UK-based leading legal finance firm. 

Investors can get started from the equivalent of around R1,900 (or 100 USDC or 100 USDT) on the Altify investment platform.

In short, Altify leverages technology to make investing in lucrative alternative investments, once reserved for the ultra-wealthy and big institutions, as easy as buying stocks.

ALFI Token Investment Highlights

So what are you actually investing in?

A Simple Introduction to Private Credit

Private credit has been one of the fastest growing investment sectors that you may have never heard of. 

Private credit is a form of lending where money is loaned directly to businesses — without going through a bank. It’s grown in popularity because it often offers better returns than traditional investments, adds to a portfolio’s diversification, and can be structured to lower investment risk.

In most cases, it involves wealthy individuals, funds, or institutions acting like a bank and lending money to businesses in exchange for interest. 

ALFI brings this to the everyday investor — but in a very specific niche: legal finance.

A Look Inside Legal Finance

Legal finance (or litigation funding as it’s also called) is where specialist lenders provide capital to law firms to cover the costs of taking a case to court. These disbursements include court fees, expert witnesses, and more. In return, the law firm agrees to repay the loan with interest — no matter the outcome of the case.

Here’s where it gets clever: in the UK, these loans, provided that they meet certain criteria, can be backed by a special kind of insurance policy, called After-the-Event (ATE) insurance. This specialist cover is designed to mitigate downside risk. If the case is lost, the insurance steps in and covers a large portion of the costs. If the case is won, the law firm repays the loan from the winning proceeds. Either way, the lender — and you as the investor — earns the agreed return regardless of the case outcome.

This is not the high-stakes “win big or lose everything” kind of investing. Fenchurch Legal focuses on small consumer claims in the UK, such as tenants taking legal action against landlords due to poor housing conditions, also known as housing disrepair claims. These are low-risk, routine cases with strong legal precedent, typically brought against large, highly liquid defendants such as local authorities or housing associations. In other words, predictable — and profitable.

A Quick Example

Let’s say Emma is a legal finance investor who puts R10,000 into Fenchurch Legal’s litigation funding strategy. Fenchurch uses this capital to issue secured loans to law firms like Lawson & Co, a UK regulated law firm who are handling a portfolio of small financial mis-selling cases with strong prospects. Each loan is backed by security - inlcuding debentures, personal guarantees, and case proceeds as well as the After-the-Event (ATE) insurance.

If they win, the firm repays Fenchurch Legal, repays Emma’s principal with interest.
If they lose, the ATE insurance will repay Emma’s principal with interest.

When you buy the ALFI token, you’re investing like Emma — except your investment is spread across a portfolio managed by Fenchurch Legal of thousands of similar legal claims.

Why It’s Gaining Attention

Private credit — and legal finance in particular — is growing fast, and for good reason:

• Higher Yields: ALFI offers 11% fixed annual returns in USD.
• Diversification: Legal finance is uncorrelated with stocks, crypto, SA political outcomes, and property.
• Rand Hedge: It’s USD-denominated, so it helps protect against rand weakness.

‍Low Entry Point: Most legal finance deals require millions to get started, ALFI requires under R2,000.

Who’s Behind It?

ALFI is offered by Altify, a Cape Town-based alternative investment platform licensed by the FSCA (FSP 53289) and backed by listed investment firm Sabvest.

They’ve partnered with Fenchurch Legal, founded by UK finance expert Louisa Klouda, to bring tokenised access to this proven asset class. Fenchurch lends only to vetted UK law firms and focuses on low-risk consumer cases, each backed by ATE insurance.

While this is a tokenised asset, this isn’t a cryptocurrency. Rather it’s a real-world investment product that has been made accessible through tokenisation, much like BlackRock’s tokenised money market fund, BUIDL.

How It Works

Getting started is simple:

1. Sign up on the Altify platform (web or app)
2. Fund your account using ZAR or crypto
3. Buy USDT or USDC
4. Apply to subscribe to ALFI with the equivalent of R1,900* or more.
   

ALFI pays interest quarterly and has a term that varies depending on the timing and amount you invest, currently this is the 18 February 2027. You can apply for early redemption with a 14 days notice period although an early redemption fee is charged if approved and redemptions cannot always be guaranteed (see the disclosure with a † reference below). The annual management fee charged by Altify is 0.55%.

It’s rare to find this mix of fixed income, USD exposure, and flexibility in an investment.

What About the Risks?

All investments carry risk. With legal finance, the main concern is default risk — the possibility that a law firm can’t repay its loan.

Fenchurch Legal lowers this risk by:

• Lending only to vetted UK law firms.
• Focusing on small consumer cases with strong legal precedents.
• Obtaining guarantees from directors of the UK law firms.
• Taking an assignment over the case proceeds.
• Diversifying across over thirty thousand individual consumer cases.
• Ensuring all loans extended are covered by ATE insurance.
  

While this doesn’t remove all risk, it significantly reduces it. Altify also uses a 1-to-5 risk rating system to help you match your investments to your risk tolerance. 

Why ALFI Matters

For the first time, South Africans can invest in private credit and earn institutional-level returns — without needing institutional-level capital.

This isn’t a 4% bond ETF. And it’s not high-risk crypto either. It’s a fixed-income product in USD, backed by a large portfolio of real-world loans, supported by legal contracts, guarantees, and insurance.

Because it’s uncorrelated with the stock market, ALFI can help smooth out your portfolio — offering real diversification and a steady income stream.

‍

As Sean Sanders, CEO of Altify, puts it:

“The old saying, ‘only the lawyers win in legal disputes,’ no longer holds true — now, both the lawyers and ALFI investors come out on top.”

Whether you’re a seasoned investor or just starting out, ALFI offers a rare opportunity to earn solid USD returns with limited risk and flexible access.

We’ve lowered the minimum investment to make it easier for more people to give this product a go. Start small, get a feel for it, and if it works for you, add more as you go.”

Important Notes

* Investment Amount: Since this is a tokenised investment, a minimum of 100 USDC or 100 USDT is required. This roughly equates to R1,900 at the time of writing.

† Early Redemption Notice: You can apply to redeem your ALFI tokens before the maturity date with 14 days' notice. However, redemptions are subject to market conditions and cannot be guaranteed. If your request is approved, a 5% early redemption fee will apply to the total invested amount, including unallocated accrued interest.