In the wake of 2025's market turbulence, most investors find their portfolios whipsawing between gains and losses. Meanwhile, in a modest Atlanta office, a Harvard graduate and former Goldman Sachs trader has quietly achieved something remarkable: consistent double-digit returns immune to market volatility. Derrick Barker didn't set out to disrupt real estate finance when he bought his first properties from his college dorm room. But years later, his company Nectar has created a two-sided platform that delivers value to both sides of the market - providing flexible mezzanine financing to experienced multifamily property owners with cash-flowing assets, while offering accredited investors access to steady 12-16% returns, regardless of market conditions.

From Dorm Room to Wall Street to Financial Innovation

Barker's journey began in the midst of the Great Recession—buying his first real estate investments from his Harvard dorm room. While his peers were focused on textbooks, he was analyzing property values and building the foundation of what would become an impressive portfolio. After graduation, Barker joined Goldman Sachs as a bond trader but continued growing his real estate holdings on the side.

"By the time I left Goldman after three years, I had amassed 500 units," Barker explains. "I decided to move back to Atlanta to focus on increasing the supply of affordable housing."

Over the next decade, Barker built, renovated and asset-managed over $450 million in commercial real estate. This hands-on experience revealed a critical gap in the market: experienced real estate owners with solid, cash-flowing properties often struggled to access flexible capital to grow their businesses.

The Birth of Nectar: Solving a Market Gap

In 2021, Barker and his co-founder Brittany Mosely, who also graduated from Harvard with a degree in Economics, launched Nectar to address this exact problem. They created a platform that provides mezzanine financing and preferred equity to experienced real estate investors with low-leverage, cash-flowing properties.

"As a real estate investor, your net worth is trapped in your assets," Barker explains. "There aren't great options to access liquidity, particularly for sub-institutional investors."

Nectar's business model is elegantly simple: they provide capital to experienced property owners with stable assets and, in return, receive consistent payments that they share with their investors. What sets them apart is their use of advanced AI technology to do the same thorough level of diligence and underwriting that investment banks and significant funds do manually. This allows them to confidently invest in the “smaller” deals that are too complex for many traditional lenders and too small for investment banks, targeting the long tail of local and regional companies with less than $1b in assets.

Stability in Turbulent Markets

As of April 2025, with President Trump's tariff announcements triggering significant market drops and volatility expected to continue throughout the year, Nectar's investment model is proving particularly valuable. While traditional investments require increased asset pricing or completion of a construction or rehabilitation project, Nectar invests solely in properties that are already stabilized and is paid out of cash flow. "Our investments aren't tied to stock market performance, interest rates, or asset prices in general," notes Barker. "They're secured by cash-flowing real estate with substantial equity cushions, operated by experienced professionals. Our investments amortize and don’t need to be refinanced or paid off at a sale. This makes them remarkably stable even when markets are in turmoil."

Opening Private Credit to Individual Investors

What truly sets Nectar apart is how they've democratized access to these returns. While most private credit funds require million-dollar minimum investments, Nectar offers entry points as low as $25,000 through their promissory notes, making institutional-quality investments accessible to a broader range of accredited investors.

"We've structured our offerings to provide both strong returns and significant downside protection," says Barker. "Our average portfolio has a 56% loan-to-value ratio and a 2.5x cash flow coverage ratio, which provides a substantial cushion against market fluctuations."

Risk Mitigation: The Nectar Advantage

What keeps Nectar's investors sleeping well at night is the company's comprehensive approach to risk management. Unlike many real estate investments, Nectar doesn’t take construction risk, market appreciation risk, or refinance risk by focusing exclusively on already-stabilized properties with proven cash flow and permanent debt in place.

Every deal includes multiple layers of protection:

• Personal guarantees from sponsors with substantial net worth

• Ability to sell assets in the event of default

• Three-month payment reserves held by Nectar

• Low leverage (average 56% LTV across the portfolio)

• High cash flow coverage (2.5x average coverage ratio)

"We're not betting on future appreciation or speculative developments," Barker emphasizes. "We're investing in properties that are already performing well, run by experienced operators with substantial skin in the game."

AI-Powered Underwriting

Nectar's strategy of using AI technology within structured workflows allows them to analyze deals with unprecedented speed and accuracy. The platform connects directly to borrowers' bank accounts and property management outputs, verifying cash flows and identifying potential risks that are impractical for human underwriters to uncover.

"Our AI can process thousands of transactions, evaluate dozens of dense documents, and do KYB/KYC research in minutes," explains Mosely. "This gives us a significant advantage in identifying high-quality opportunities and avoiding problematic investments."

This technology-driven approach enables Nectar to efficiently evaluate deals that are too small for institutional lenders but represent excellent investment opportunities.

Impressive Track Record in a Volatile Market

Despite economic uncertainty and rising interest rates, Nectar has maintained a perfect distribution record, making every scheduled payment to investors since inception. The company has deployed capital into over 8,000 units, across 120 deals, in 29 states, demonstrating both geographic diversification and consistent underwriting standards.

In 2024, when many lenders pulled back from the market, Nectar saw revenue growth of 191% by focusing on high-quality borrowers with stable assets. This performance speaks to the resilience of their business model and the strength of their underwriting criteria.

IRA-Eligible for Tax-Efficient Investing

For retirement-focused investors, Nectar's offerings are particularly attractive because they're IRA-eligible. This opens up powerful tax advantages, allowing investors to either defer taxes in traditional IRAs or potentially eliminate them entirely in Roth accounts.

"Many of our investors use their retirement accounts to compound returns over time," notes Barker. "For example, a $250,000 investment at age 45 compounding at 14% annually could grow to nearly $2 million by age 60, providing substantial retirement income."

This compounded growth inside of a retirement account looks especially attractive over time.  See the chart below that displays the compounded growth of $100k and $250k over 20 years in their un-levered Nectar Fund 2.

Fund Overview & Projected Returns

*The "Yearly Compounded Balance is based on quarterly compounding. This balance is the projected balance that you will find at the end of each year.

Past performance does not guarantee future results. Please review the Private Placement Memorandum for full disclosures and risk factors.

Let’s take a look at how this actually works in retirement. What could happen if you let your investment compound during your working years, then switch to cash distributions at retirement. How much money could you potentially have to enjoy?

Yearly Cash Distributions After Switching from Compounding

*This table shows the annual cash distributions an investor would receive if they switched from compounding to taking yearly distributions after the specified year. All calculations are based on quarterly compounding until the switch date.

Past performance does not guarantee future results. Please review the Private Placement Memorandum for full disclosures and risk factors.

Taking into account the fact that Nectar's offering does not have a direct correlation with the fluctuations of the stock market, it presents a unique investment opportunity. This lack of correlation means that it has the potential to remain stable or even perform well during periods when the stock market experiences downturns or drawdowns. Given the historical patterns and cycles of the market. If you are entering your golden years, a market crash is the last thing that you want to experience. Nectar could potentially sidestep whatever is happening in the wider market.

How to Access Nectar’s Investments

For accredited investors looking to diversify beyond traditional real estate investments, stocks, and bonds—especially during these uncertain economic times—Nectar offers a compelling alternative. With minimum investments starting at just $25,000, quarterly distributions, and a strong track record of consistent payments, it's worth considering as part of a balanced portfolio.

To learn more about investing with Nectar and their current offerings, click here to visit their website and schedule a consultation with their investor relations team. They are generally helpful and can give you an inside look into their current and upcoming offerings. You can also click here to view the Nectar Fund 2, which is an easy way to access their diversified pool of private credit assets, and invest at your leisure. 

No matter how you choose to invest, given the market outlook over the next several years, Nectar is definitely an investment that might be one of the safer choices for your portfolio.  

Investing carries inherent risks, including the possible loss of principal, and past performance does not guarantee future results. This information is intended for accredited investors only, who should perform their own due diligence and consult with financial advisors by reviewing the full offering materials before making any investment decision. Upwealth LLC cannot guarantee the performance of this or any other investment featured on its properties.