An "Accredited Investor" is defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission as someone who meets at least one of the following requirements:

• Has an individual net worth, or joint net worth with your spouse exceeding $1 million (excluding the value of one's primary residence)
• Has an income exceeding $200,000 (or $300,000 together with a spouse) in each of the past two years and expects the same this year
• Holds in good standing a Series 7, 65 or 82 license
• Invests on behalf of a VC firm or other registered investment company
• Invests on behalf of a business with $5 million in assets and which was not formed for the specific purpose of acquiring the securities offered
• Any entity in which all of the equity owners are Accredited Investors

A Non-Accredited or Retail Investor is any individual or entity that does not meet the definition of an Accredited Investor. Equity crowdfunding platforms like SeedInvest enable retail investors to access private investment opportunities.

Our venture team actively sources deal flows in three different ways:

1. Referrals from venture capital funds, incubators, accelerators, and angel groups.
2. Our venture team is dedicated to keeping a pulse on venture activity and establishing relationships with companies we've identified as trending.
3. Organic - we are fortunate that many companies hear about SeedInvest through word of mouth and apply directly online.

All companies marked as "Vetted" have successfully gone through our complete due diligence process, which includes internal business due diligence and outsourced legal and confirmatory due diligence.

Legal and confirmatory review includes:

• The organization of the company
• The corporate structure and ownership
• The people behind the company
• Information provided to investors
• Investor information and terms of the offering
• Review of Transaction Documents by Outside Legal Counsel

Business due diligence generally includes:

• Problem or inefficiency being addressed
• Product / service overview, stage of development and anticipated milestones
• Demonstrated traction (e.g. revenue, pre-sales, purchase orders, signed contracts, media coverage, awards, etc.)
• Data to support claims made in marketing materials (e.g. user / customer metrics, signed contracts and agreements, product demonstrations, etc.)
• Growth strategy
• Employees and advisors (including ownership structure)
• Addressable market (e.g. size, growth, penetration, etc.)
• Competitive landscape and industry dynamics
• Exit opportunities
• Intellectual property
• Historical financials
• Financial projections (including error-checking, evaluation of key assumptions and reconciliation to stated growth plan)
• Reference checks (e.g. previous investors, advisors, etc.)
• Investment overview (including determination of key terms, uses of funds, and current and previous investors)
• Investment Committee review

During the process of personalizing your experience on the platform, we will guide you through the various factors that you should consider when deciding how much of your portfolio to put into startups.

Once you confirm your investment, the funds will be transferred to an escrow account for safe-keeping until the fundraising is closed. Once the fundraising round closes, you will receive confirmation of success and a link to the counter-signed legal agreements. Upon the completion of certain closing mechanics and compliance checks, the funds will be transferred to the startup.

Generally speaking, early stage investors should expect to receive updates on a quarterly basis. While many companies take it upon themselves to update their investors directly, SeedInvest does offer optional shareholder reporting services to its portfolio companies. In such cases, SeedInvest investors are notified via email and can access and review updates directly through their Portfolio page. Additional portfolio management and shareholder reporting tools will be integrated into the SeedInvest platform over time. 

Please keep in mind that private company reporting can oftentimes be irregular. And while SeedInvest recommends its companies provide thorough updates at regular intervals as a best practice – and provides tools and resources to help do so more efficiently – responsibility ultimately falls on founders to produce and distribute updates. 

Learn more about portfolio updates.