Startup investing is the process of investors buying shares in early stage companies. It differs from traditional stock market investing as startups are typically not listed on public markets, meaning they are still privately owned.

Starting and scaling a business costs money. Founders have a number of options when starting a business…

When it comes to investing in startups, it can be challenging to know where to start as an individual investor. This guide will take you through what you need to know, whether you’re an experienced investor, or just getting started.

Our guide to investing in startups includes…

Investing in startups is often seen as an exciting way to build wealth, with the potential for rocket ship growth of individual businesses attracting money from traditional routes such as VC and institutional investors, but also increasingly from individual investors through platforms like Seedrs. But what are the risks involved?

All investments carry varying degrees of risk, and investing in early-stage and growth-focused businesses is no different. The main risk associated with investing in startups is that the business may simply fail, and investors won’t get their money back. Due to the potential for losses, the FCA classifies this asset class as high risk.

This article will take you through some key concepts to understand when managing your risk…

Investors have different reasons for selecting the businesses they invest in. Ultimately they’re hoping to get a return on their investment, but there are also a wide range of other factors that can influence an investors decision.

Many businesses that raise on Seedrs have large communities of customers and brand lovers, that they hope to turn into investors, so many of our investors are customers and loyal fans of the businesses they’ve invested in…

Once you’ve done your due diligence, reviewed the financials and the pitch, asked your questions and invested – what happens next with your investment?

In this guide we’ll cover:

How shares are issued to investors

What happens once you’ve invested in a business

How to keep up to date with your investment

What impacts the value of your investment

How to generate a return on your investment

The world of startup investing is one sometimes touted as glamorous and lucrative for investors, but how do the investors in this market actually make money?

Just like the public markets, startup investors make money by selling their shares in a company at a higher share price than they paid for them. Unlike the public markets, there aren’t as many opportunities to frequently trade shares in private companies and startups.

There are, however, a number of ways for startup investors to realise returns on their investments…

The Seedrs Secondary Market is a private company secondary market that allows buyers and sellers to trade their private company shares. The market gives early investors in startups and other private companies the opportunity to potentially realise liquidity before a formal exit opportunity, and is the only fully functioning early-stage equity secondary market in the UK.

As a private company shareholder, the market enables you to sell your private shares regardless of whether the business has raised investment on Seedrs before.

As an investor…

Investing in startups is crucial to the future of our economy and wider society. Over the past few decades startups have transformed the way we live, and driven vast growth in GDP across the world, which governments are keen to supercharge.

Startups can be very capital intensive. In order to focus on innovation and growth, traditional business fundamentals of revenue and profitability can take a back seat, so startups need to raise money from investors who are happy to invest their cash in exchange for equity…

Investors in early stage companies have certain rights based on the laws that govern companies and investments. Some of these stem from company law and are set out in a company’s articles of association (a constitutional document that sets out a company’s purpose and the way it is managed and administered), while others take the form of contractual protections which are typically contained in a company’s shareholders agreement.

Seedrs has a dedicated team of experienced and passionate lawyers that negotiate these documents on your behalf, only approving campaigns on the Seedrs platform where the company has put in place an appropriate suite of minority shareholder protections.

In this guide we’ll run you through some of those key investor rights that Seedrs requires and what these mean in practice for you, including…

While the Seedrs story may have started in the crowdfunding of smaller companies over ten years ago now, since then, we have developed a wide range of investment opportunities that now cater to a range of different investors. With exclusive access to VC funds, and direct access to seed stage opportunities, our ever increasing investor community reflects the diversity of our offerings, with Everyday Investors, sitting alongside Sophisticated and High Net Worth investors.

This guide will take you through the different types of investor we can accommodate, and the types of investments and opportunities available through our platform…