Institutional investors
Development banks, investment funds, insurers, guarantee institutions. Green bonds and project debt are aimed at them first and foremost, with large minimum ticket sizes and regulated documentation.
Supporting and financing · A long-term ambition
Financing cities, and human capabilities.
NOVASCEND seeks to link urban development, local economic activity and collective prosperity. This page explains who its financing is aimed at, which instruments are under study, which risks should be known and how to follow the project.
Who this page is for
Institutional investors, not yet retail investors.
The instruments under study are not designed for all audiences. It is better to say so clearly from the outset.
Retail investors
No investment is open to retail investors today. Suitable forms, for example through authorised funds or crowdfunding platforms, could be studied later. They would only come into being within a framework authorised by the relevant financial authorities.
Institutional investor
The instruments under study are aimed at you first, but no offer is open. Read about the instruments, the risks and the expected documentation, then request a discussion.
Company or expert
You can contribute through your expertise: construction, energy, water, digital, impact assessment. See ways to support the project or write to us.
Local authority or administration
Projects are built with local and national authorities. See the deployment state of play then get in touch.
Individual
No investment is open to retail investors. You can test what happens to capital under different scenarios, follow the project and read the warning below.
Investment thesis to be examined
Creating value at several levels.
The project envisages investments that strengthen individual opportunities, local activities and the quality of common goods alike.
01
Useful infrastructure
Energy, water and waste networks sized to actual uses, and places for learning, making, culture and participation, designed around neighbourhoods’ real needs.
02
Local economy
Local productive activities, entrepreneurship, repair, reuse and cooperation networks.
03
Shared value
Studying mechanisms so that part of the value created also benefits the community, without weakening people’s rights.
Proposed financing architecture
Several instruments, each in its place.
An industrial city is not financed in a single block. The model studied by WAGAS combines different instruments depending on the nature of the assets: housing, productive facilities, networks, digital services.
Under study
A dedicated vehicle for each project
Each project would be held by a special-purpose vehicle (SPV) funded through a mix of equity and debt. This structure isolates project risk and can improve its credit profile, notably where the debt is backed by guarantees from an African financial institution such as the African Guarantee and Economic Cooperation Fund (FAGACE), a partner of WAGAS.
Read the white paper Innovative Funding Solutions (PDF, in English).
Under study
Green bonds, for part of the assets
Green bonds are one layer of financing among others. They are reserved for assets whose environmental benefit can be identified and measured, and not for the indiscriminate financing of the whole city.
Green bonds
For assets whose impact can be measured.
A green bond works like a conventional bond: investors lend funds, which are repaid to them with interest. The difference lies in the use of the money, reserved for projects with an environmental benefit, and in the obligation to report on that use and its impact. The Green Bond Principles of the International Capital Market Association (ICMA), applied on a voluntary basis, serve as the market reference.
Proposed asset categories
- Clean energy
- Water
- Waste
- Green buildings
- Clean transport
For energy assets, eligibility would be assessed over the life cycle (emissions, biodiversity, social conditions, repairability, recycling, land rights), in line with the sustainable mixed energy approach.
The envisaged process, from issuance to reporting
- 01A reference framework
A public document sets the eligibility criteria, aligned with ICMA principles.
- 02An independent opinion
An external reviewer examines this framework before issuance (second-party opinion).
- 03Allocation of funds
The sums raised are allocated only to assets listed in a verified register.
- 04Separate tracking
The funds are tracked separately from the project’s other resources.
- 05Annual verification
A third party checks the use of funds each year.
- 06Public reporting
An annual report presents the allocation of funds and the measured environmental impact.
No green bond has been issued as of 27 October 2026. Regulated operations (issuance, custody of securities, payments to investors, listing) would be entrusted to authorised institutions, which remain to be appointed.
The platform’s intended role
Making the use of funds verifiable.
The NOVASCEND platform is not designed only to run the city. It must also make it possible to track, asset by asset, what the money finances and what it produces.
One identifier per asset
Each financed facility, whether a solar plant, a water network or a building, receives a unique identifier linking its financing, its expenditure and its measurements.
Tagged expenditure
Eligible expenditure is tagged in the platform, which makes it possible to reconcile funds raised with their actual use.
Measured indicators
Operating data (energy produced, water treated, waste recovered) feed the impact indicators directly, rather than relying on estimates.
Accessible documents
A dedicated space publishes the reference framework and its successive versions, external opinions, certifications and eligibility criteria.
These functions are planned in the platform’s design; they have not yet been built. They extend a principle of the vision: showing that commitments are kept.
Transparency
What an investor needs to know.
Financing infrastructure in emerging markets carries real risks, including that of losing all or part of one’s capital. Some already have a planned response; the others will need to be addressed in the documentation for each transaction.
| Risk | For an investor, this means | Planned response |
|---|---|---|
| Non-repayment | The project does not generate enough revenue, or fails to refinance at maturity: the principal and interest are not repaid in full. | A dedicated vehicle for each project and guarantees under consideration with FAGACE. Their scope remains to be specified. |
| Currency | Project revenues are in local currency; if it loses value against the euro or the dollar, repayment may suffer. | To be specified in each offering document. |
| Liquidity | It may be difficult to resell one’s securities before maturity for lack of buyers, particularly on local markets. | To be specified in each offering document. |
| Project execution | Construction delays, cost overruns or operations performing below expectations. | To be specified in each offering document. |
| Political and regulatory risk | A change of government, taxation or rules may alter the conditions of the project. | To be specified in each offering document. |
| Greenwashing | Funds presented as green, but whose use is not tracked with sufficient rigour. | Segregation of funds, tagging of expenditure in the platform, annual external verification and ESG validation of allocation reports. |
Educational tool
What happens to capital under different scenarios?
Enter your own assumptions to see the effect of currency movements and a partial default on what a lender receives.
An illustration, not an offer. The values are those you enter. They do not correspond to any rate, coupon, term or guarantee offered by WAGAS or NOVASCEND, and constitute neither a forecast nor advice. Fees, taxes and recovery times are not taken into account.
| Scenario | Total received | Result | Comparison with the capital lent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Everything goes as planned | 12 500 € | Gain: €2,500 (+25% of capital) | |
| The local currency depreciates | 10 369 € | Gain: €369 (+4% of capital) | |
| Part of the project defaults | 10 250 € | Gain: €250 (+3% of capital) | |
| Both at once | 8 519 € | Loss: €1,481 (-15% of capital) |
The vertical line on the bars marks the capital lent. The worst possible case is more severe than these scenarios: the loss may extend to the entire capital and all coupons.
How to read this: coupons are paid each year and the capital is returned at maturity. Depreciation reduces the euro value of each payment; default cancels the coupons on the portion concerned from the year indicated and, at maturity, returns only the amount recovered.
What sets the approach apart
An economic ambition with social requirements.
NOVASCEND research explores an economy of circular sovereignty: local production, asset ownership, essential services and the circulation of resources in support of the relative autonomy of communities.
No autarky
Cities remain open to trade and operate within national legal frameworks.
No unpaid work imposed
Community contribution must neither be a condition of fundamental rights nor replace properly paid employment.
No technology for its own sake
Tools are chosen only if they address a problem, are accessible and can be governed responsibly.
No presumed impact
Social, economic and ecological benefits will need to be established through data and evaluations.
Before any decision
The information to be made public and verifiable.
The instruments presented above describe an envisaged architecture. The practical arrangements remain to be set project by project, and each project’s documentation will need to include the following.
Project and execution
- Site, land tenure, permits and confirmed partners
- Programme, timetable, milestones and risks
- Responsible team and governance
- Budget, operating costs and assumptions
- For an energy asset, the site studies: resource, grid, storage and back-up
Financial terms and impact
- Legal structure and stakeholder rights
- Financial terms, liquidity and risks
- Authorised institutions responsible for issuance, custody, payment and listing
- Protections for residents and workers
- Indicators, measurement method and reporting
This page is neither a solicitation to invest nor financial advice.
Support from today
Follow the project, without waiting for an offer.
You do not need to invest to support NOVASCEND. There are already several ways to take an interest.
Follow progress
The deployment state of play sets published information against what remains to be documented: sites, timetables, capacity actually commissioned.
Understand the project
The vision and the urban model present what NOVASCEND is seeking to build, and why.
Propose a partnership
Companies, institutions and organisations wishing to contribute their expertise can go through the WAGAS Group website.
The NOVASCEND portal
The professional portal is for preparing a housing project or financing one’s own activity. It does not allow investment in NOVASCEND.
Ask a question or request a discussion
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