Perhaps you want to invest in some crowdfunding platforms, but you haven’t found the right one yet.
Mainvest may be the first one you should try!
It’s a great investment platform for people to start investing in businesses, even with limited funds or little experience with stocks and bonds.
Our Mainvest review will give you the information you need to decide whether or not Mainvest is the right option for your investments.
Table of Contents
Mainvest Overview
Every day new businesses are popping up in the United States. They need financial support to make their dreams into reality!
Mainvest’s services connect investors with local businesses to get the money flowing. You can invest with restaurants, breweries, bakeries, and more!
They make it easy for investors to diversify their portfolios by investing in young companies at the seed stage.
Mainvest is a wonderful platform to begin investing for low costs and without much prior experience- $100 gets you started, with no fees or hidden costs.
And to give you investors some security, there are limited a limited amount of small businesses to invest in at any given time on the Mainvest platform.
Each company that applies to Mainvest is vetted. According to Mainvest, only 5% actually pass the vetting process.
Click here to open up your Mainvest account now.
How Mainvest Works
Small local businesses and start-ups apply with Mainvest to be listed on their site. Mainvest then vets and lists the businesses that pass their vetting process on their website.
Mainvest lists details about the business for investors, plus the amount of money that they are looking to raise and how much revenue the company currently makes.
After investors review this information, they can choose to invest in one or more businesses by buying revenue-sharing notes.
The business agrees to pay you a percentage of their revenue each quarter until you reach a certain investment multiple.
The business also agrees to pay you the entire investment back by a certain date regardless of their revenue.
Investing Minimum
The minimum investment with Mainvest is $100, open to both accredited and non-accredited investors.
Investment Types
Mainvest offers debt or equity opportunities in small brick-and-mortar businesses.
When you invest, you receive a revenue-sharing note that will pay you for your investment each quarter until it is paid back.
The company agrees to repay your entire original investment by a certain date regardless of their revenue.
Some Brick And Mortar Businesses
These small brick-and-mortar businesses include restaurants, breweries, beauty salons, and food trucks.
They are also expanding into opportunities that are cannabis-related. This includes cultivation cannabis and cannabis-related stores.
Regulation CF makes it possible for these investments to be open to anyone.
Mainvest Fees
Mainvest does not charge investors any fees.
Instead, they charge a 6% fee to small businesses for any money they raise through the platform.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Low minimum investment ($100)
- Investing in local start-ups and small businesses- more local jobs!
- Open to non-accredited investors
- No fees
Cons
- Short track record of only 3 years
- There is no secondary market for you to resell your revenue sharing notes (your investment)
- It can be risky to invest in a start-up or small business
- If the small business defaults, Mainvest is not responsible and investors lose their money
- Small business is also a long-term investment option, with payments spread out by quarters
FAQs On Mainvest
Is Mainvest a legit platform to invest in local businesses?
Yes, they are registered with the SEC as a Title III Funding Portal, which is a stringent regulation crowdfunding platforms must follow and also make certain SEC filings in order to stay in good standing with them.
Is my money safe on Mainvest?
While their website uses encryption and their money transfers are done through Plaid, your funds are not insured by the FDIC or SIPC.
There is a degree of risk involved with any investments you make. This is a higher-risk investment compared to a more stable investment like a CD.
How much can I invest?
Each business can choose the minimum amount to invest which is usually $100.
However, there are maximum limits that a non-accredited investor is able to invest.
Even though Mainvest is open to non-accredited investors, the most a non-accredited investor can invest per the SEC is:
- The greater of $2,200 or 5% of the investor’s annual income or net worth, if either the investor’s annual income or net worth is less than $107,000
- 10% of the greater of the investor’s annual income or net worth, not to exceed an amount sold of $107,000, if both the investor’s annual income and net worth are equal to or more than $107,000.
There are no limits on how much you can invest if you are an accredited investor.
How much can I earn in return?
Mainvest uses multiples in their quotes. They quote an investment multiple, i.e. 1.3x, 1.4x, 1.5x, etc.
Each business has a different multiple. The amount you can earn depends on the business you choose.
What this means is that if you invest the minimum amount of $100 and the multiple is 1.5x, you can expect to get a return of $150 by the investment maturity date.
How do I get started?
There are several steps to getting started with Mainvest.
First, you need to be at least 18 years of age and have a U.S. bank account.
Next, follow our link to get signed up. You can use your email address or your Google account.
Then, fill in your pertinent information, which includes your banking information.
It takes about 5 to 10 minutes to open your account, depending on whether you have gathered up the needed information such as your bank account information.
Can I get my money back from Mainvest?
Per Mainvest’s website, “You can cancel your investment at any time until 48 hours before the offering deadline established by the business.”
In terms of getting your investment money back, it is a long-term investment with payments spread out over several years.
According to the Mainvest website, there is no secondary market for an investor to resell their revenue sharing notes, which means you cannot sell your investments to get your money back quickly.
What opportunities are there on Mainvest for me to invest in?
Currently (at the time of this Mainvest review was written), a search of their website showed there were investment opportunities in several restaurants, breweries, pizzerias, cannabis-related businesses, bakeries, coffee shops, and a botanic kitchen.
Should You Use Mainvest?
Even though they have a limited track record, generally Mainvest should be considered if you have the extra money available to invest.
You could actually make money by funding one of the brick/mortar businesses, especially with no fee and such a low minimum investment.
Other Investment Platforms
Maybe a local brick/mortar business is not what you are looking for as an investor.
There are many beneficial investments you can make to turn $1,000 into passive income.
Did you know that you can invest in real estate with Fundrise? Rental properties and house sales are a great way to earn some capital.
Or maybe you think there are no investment opportunities in U.S. farming? FarmTogether is a great way to diversify your portfolio and help America’s farmers at the same time!
If you’re interested in investing with stocks, bonds, or retirement accounts, you can use robo-advisors like Betterment or get involved in cryptocurrency with Robinhood.
Other platforms include AngelList and FundersClub which offer investors opportunities to invest in companies outside of their geographic location.
Key Takeaways
Here’s a recap of our Mainvest review.
Mainvest is a great way to help local businesses get started and hopefully make money passively, and there are many options when it comes to crowdfunding investments too!
There are no fees involved and there are low minimum investments that you can make, which is $100.
Mainvest is open to non-accredited investors as well as accredited investors which makes investing easier for those who do not have a lot of personal funds to invest.
This is a higher-risk investment since some local businesses will struggle more than others, and you can’t always predict what businesses will make money in the long-run.
If you plan on using Mainvest as your only investment platform, you may want to consider diversifying your portfolio by investing in multiple businesses.
Head here to open up a Mainvest account now and start investing in local small businesses.
Mainvest
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