Given the nature of our business, SeedInvest is highly selective. Generally speaking, we look for companies that have an MVP or prototype, at least two full-time employees (excluding founders), and a compelling business model. We generally work with companies that have raised at least a small round before and are now looking to raise at least $500,000.

For the most part, we don’t accept very early stage “back of the napkin” ideas. We find that companies with a product in market – or a clear path – are more likely to run a successful raise.

That being said, we encourage you to apply and join our founder ecosystem even if your company is early. We’ve had several successful raises originate from companies that applied more than once.

How much you can raise depends on the type of security exemption that you’re raising under.

Reg D: No cap
Who you can raise from: Accredited investors 
Frequent use case: Topping off VC and angel-led rounds 

Reg CF: Up to $5 Million 
Who you can raise from: Retail investors, accredited investors, and your community 
Frequent use case: Community-driven early stage capital

Reg A+: Up to $75 Million 
Who you can raise from: Retail, accredited investors, and your community 
Frequent use case: Crowd-powered growth capital

With a $0 retainer, we aim to make it as easy as possible to launch your raise – and we only make money if your fundraise is successful. 

Our standard terms include a 7.5% placement fee and 5% equity fee on funds raised through SeedInvest. For a $500k raise, fees would total $62,500 ($37,500 in cash and $25,000 in equity). For larger allocations, these fees decrease.

SeedInvest will pay certain upfront costs related to escrow set up, legal review, and filing fees (reimbursed at closing). In the event the raise is unsuccessful, SeedInvest will eat these costs. Depending on the nature of your round, we will also contribute additional marketing and advertising spend to supercharge your raise.

That’s great! Raising on SeedInvest is a great compliment to your Venture round. 

We see founders proceed with a couple of different paths if they already have interest from VCs. The first is a private Reg D raise, which can help you fill your round without giving up board seats. The second is a community-driven Reg CF round, which can help build your marketing flywheel.

We’ve invested alongside a number of traditional venture investors, and our portfolio companies have received follow-on funding from BlackRock, Greycroft, Lerer Hippeau, Menlo Ventures, Tiger Global, DCG, and countless others.

We’re completely vertical agnostic. We’ve helped run successful raises for consumer product companies, as well as B2B SaaS, blockchain, clean tech, health tech, real estate, robotics, and more. 

While many portfolio companies are based in the U.S., our team considers and reviews companies no matter where in the world they’re located. Please note that regulations may only allow for international companies to accept investments from accredited investors, but this is not always the case.

With a decade of equity crowdfunding experience, we know how to make your raise as successful as possible. We don’t just give you a checklist and tell you to figure it out – we have dedicated teams to help you manage deal terms, regulatory filings, compliance, legal, marketing and more. 

SeedInvest owns and operates its own licensed broker-dealer which enables us to help structure the terms of your round and engage directly with potential investors on your behalf.

Preparing Your Raise
Our dedicated onboarding team will help you with legal and confirmatory due diligence, review of campaign materials, managing the financial statement review or audit process, and the filing process (as applicable). We also offer standard legal documents (if needed), potentially saving you $25,000-50,000 in legal fees.

Marketing Your Raise
Your success is our success, so we have a dedicated team to help build your investor funnel, drive convestors, and market your campaign during your fundraise. Our Venture Growth team will share strategies on how to engage your community, and will leverage SeedInvest’s network of investors through campaign materials, digital investor events, email marketing, content, and paid channels.

Managing Investors
SeedInvest will help manage and facilitate investor voting, reporting, and communication after your fundraise. Our team will help distribute quarterly reports to those who invest through the platform. If applicable, we will help distribute annual K-1 documents and any other tax documents relating to your raise. For Reg CF raises, SeedInvest will assist with the preparation of your Form C/A and file them on behalf of your company.

SeedInvest primarily works with companies that are raising capital using Preferred Equity or Convertible Notes (SeedInvest does not currently support any common equity offerings).  For preferred equity (priced rounds) you will need to provide a pre-money valuation. For convertible notes, you will need to provide a valuation cap, conversion discount, interest rate and term length. 

If you already have a lead investor for the round, SeedInvest will conduct its due diligence process around those terms as a follow on investor. If you’re looking for SeedInvest to serve as your lead investor, we are happy to help set terms. Our job as your fundraising partner is to help set terms that are fair to your company (based on traction to date, market comps, potential etc.) and fair to investors (based on the risk they’re taking on). 

At the end of the day, valuation is always a conversation.

We make it easy to manage your community of investors. We provide tools and options to help effectively manage shareholders, reporting and communications, both during and after your raise.