1. If you hit the ‘Invest’ button and then see a page that says “You’ve reserved $XX in XYZ company,” you’ve made a reservation. This is a non-binding placeholder; it will not "save your spot" in a round if you don’t roll over (to an investment) in a timely manner. The benefit of reserving? You’ll be notified when it’s time to roll over, and – if you fund your reservation with Wefunder Cash – you can save on fees.
– You can link your bank account to your Wefunder Cash account once you get to the page but you don’t have to. Once you click that ‘Invest’ button, the reservation has been made.
– Funding your Wefunder Cash account is a way to set aside the money you will later use to pay for your investment. It is not automatically linked to a specific reservation. You link the cash to the reservation only when you roll it over into an investment.
– You can transfer funds either via ACH transfer (linking your bank account) or wire transfer (sadly, no credit card payments yet).
– If you fund your Wefunder Cash account but decide to change your payment method before you can roll over, you’re able to transfer your WF Cash back to your bank account by visiting wefunder.com/cash and initiating a transfer. Make sure you have the "To" field listed as your bank account and the "From" field listed as Wefunder Cash.
– We’ll waive our usual fees if the full amount for your reservation is in your Wefunder Cash account when you roll over.
2. If you hit the ‘Invest’ button and see a page with the header “Invest in XYZ company,'' you're moments away from making an investment.
– You’ll choose your payment method (CC, ACH transfer (bank account), wire transfer, check, Wefunder Cash) and confirm that you’ve read a few important materials.
– Once you complete this page, the status of your investment is “funded.” The money is transferred directly into a 3rd party escrow account, where it will remain until the company reaches its fundraising goal. Once they do, we’ll then send over those funds. We’ll send them back to you if you cancel your investment or if the raise fails.
Unsure if you’ve made a reservation or investment? The ‘Portfolio’ tab of your profile will show where you are on the road to becoming an official investor.
(*skip this step if you made an investment off the bat!)
– Once the company files a Form C with the SEC, we’ll ping everyone who made a reservation with instructions on how to rollover their investment. You’ll need to visit wefunder.com/companyslug/invest and follow the prompts again to roll over.
– After you complete this step, your investment will be “funded,” meaning the funds are in escrow. But your investment is not yet official until funds have been sent to the company and the contract is countersigned.
Verify your identity. As we get our ducks in a row, we might ask you to verify your identity. You can do so at wefunder.com/userslug/verify?kyc by submitting a government-issued photo ID (passport, driver’s license), SSN card or birth certificate.
Verify your accredited investor status. If your income is over $200K per year for the last 2 years and expected to remain the same, your joint income with a spouse is over $300K, or your net worth is over $1 million excluding your primary residence, you’re accredited!
– We may ask you to verify this at some point in the form of a letter from a lawyer, accountant, dealer-broker, or investment advisor indicating that they have seen the investor’s financials and can confirm that they meet the accreditation requirements. Alternatives: tax forms like W-2s, 1099s, K-1s, etc., certificates of deposit, tax assessment, or appraisals. You can upload these docs for review at wefunder.com/verify?accreditation.
Send over your Tax ID. Depending on the company's structure and that of their fundraise, we may ask you to provide a tax ID in order to invest. An SSN would be required. We do this so that companies who need to provide tax documents to investors can more easily do so.
*Regarding the safety for your info, we encrypt and store Social Security Numbers (SSNs) on a separate group of servers from wefunder.com. We use an RSA key to encrypt the SSN and isolate the private key from production machines. Access to the database that stores the encrypted SSNs is restricted within Wefunder to a need to know basis, and we have a policy for access if and when an employee may need to view an individual's SSN (for example, if we’re preparing a tax filing or investigating fraud).
– The raise will remain open until its official closing date; your investment will be pending until then. We’ll email you 5 days prior to the close date. From there, you can cancel your investment (up until 48 hours before close) or reconfirm your investment.
– To reconfirm, we’ll direct you to wefunder.com/companyslug/reconfirm. When the investment is confirmed (ie. funds are sent to the company and the contract is countersigned), you’ll receive one, final email confirmation from us.
Wefunder Updates: We strongly recommend that founders send out an update to their investor at least once a quarter, but you can also ask the founders for an update by posting on the Q&A section of their raise page, the "Ask a Question" tab. (wefunder.com/companyslug/ask).
Annual reports: Most companies are legally required to send out an Annual Report 120 days after the end of their fiscal year. The annual report is a super comprehensive update with their latest financials, board members, new financings, and more. In some circumstances, an issuer may no longer be required to file this information, but we encourage them to do so anyways. Most companies have their fiscal year end on December 31st, and their annual reports come out on April 30th.