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KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaican entrepreneur Jevaughn Smith is moving to address a persistent challenge for the Caribbean. This challenge is turning diaspora interest in investing back home into accessible, credible and regulated opportunities.
Investment Opportunities
Smith, 28, is founder and head of strategy at Caribbean Capital Network, or CCN. This is an early-stage financial technology venture using artificial intelligence to connect Caribbean diaspora capital with vetted investment opportunities across the region.
The venture is beginning with a focus on the Jamaican, Guyanese and Trinidadian diaspora. However, there are plans to expand across the wider Caribbean.
CCN began with a straightforward premise: Caribbean people living overseas should be able to identify and invest in opportunities in the region. They should do this without navigating a complicated, fragmented process.
For many potential investors abroad, the barriers include concerns about trust and limited access to reliable information. They also face fragmented markets and differences in currency, regulation, language and financial systems.
Smith said CCN aims to reduce that friction by giving diaspora investors a clearer path to evaluate businesses and projects seeking capital.
“Our goal is to make it easier for Caribbean diaspora investors to discover, evaluate and access credible investment opportunities across the region,” Smith said.
“At the same time, we want to help channel more diaspora capital into Caribbean businesses and projects.”
Smith said trust will be central to whether diaspora investors use platforms such as CCN.
The company is inviting members of the Caribbean diaspora to share their experiences, including what has kept them from investing in the region and what would make them more comfortable using a digital investment platform.
CCN also is seeking input from Caribbean businesses looking for capital, financial institutions, investment professionals and technology partners.
Future Caribbean, a regional technology initiative focused on connecting Caribbean talent, innovation and global opportunity, including through agentic artificial intelligence, recently selected the startup and gave it a boost.
CCN was chosen from more than 260 applicants globally and has entered its build phase. Smith said the six-member team is focused on developing, testing and validating the product with real users.
Financial Technology Platform
Although Future Caribbean’s selection process has closed, Smith encouraged people interested in technology and Caribbean innovation to follow the initiative and take part in future opportunities across its ecosystem.
For Smith, CCN is about more than building another financial technology platform.
“The Caribbean does not lack capital,” he said. “One of the challenges is connecting that capital with credible opportunities in a way investors can trust.”
Growth Capital
That gap, Smith said, represents an opportunity to strengthen ties between the Caribbean and its global diaspora while giving businesses another route to growth capital.
A graduate of the University of the West Indies and former deputy head boy of York Castle High School, Smith also works in Jamaica’s financial services industry as a financial adviser at Sagicor Life Jamaica’s Corporate Circle Branch.
For Smith and his team, the long-term ambition is to build a Caribbean technology company that helps solve a regional economic challenge. Specifically, they want to create a more efficient and trusted connection between diaspora capital and Caribbean growth.
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