The alternative investment market is estimated to be north of $10 trillion in assets. Despite COVID and economic uncertainty, the alternative investment industry has displayed significant signs of growth, becoming more mainstream as access to opportunities is becoming democratized and as investors seek higher returns in a low-interest-rate environment. One of the biggest challenges has been finding the right deals and opportunities efficiently. Vincent has built a comprehensive search engine for alternative asset investment opportunities, allowing investors to build tailored searches based on their preferences and portfolio requirements. Opportunities can be filtered by asset class, investment minimums, liquidity, and potential returns across real estate, private equity, art, collectibles, and venture. 15,000 unique investors have already searched more than 100,000 times since the company launched its private beta in July
AlleyWatch caught up with CEO and Cofounder Eric Cantor to learn more about how Vincent plans to transform the discovery of alternative investments, the company’s origin, future plans, and first round of funding.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Vincent raised a $2M round of capital. Investors include Uncommon Denominator, humbition, ERA, and The Fund, as well as several strategic angels, including Jeff Fagnan (Accomplice, AngelList), Alap Shah (Sentieo), and Lazslo Bock (Google, Humu).
Tell us about the product or service that Vincent offers.
Vincent is the most comprehensive search engine for alternative asset investing. WE aggregate thousands of investment opportunities across real estate, venture capital, private equity, debt, art, collectibles, and more into one easy-to-navigate website. Through Vincent, investors gain unprecedented access to new, quality investment opportunities and research, entirely for free.
Vincent, which has been in private beta since July 2020, currently indexes nearly $2B of available investments across asset classes. To date, more than 100,000 investment searches have been conducted by 15,000 unique investors.
What inspired the start of Vincent?
Vincent is the brainchild of Indiegogo founder Slava Rubin and former Indiegogo investing lead Evan Cohen. While launching more than 150 online crowdfunding raises, they realized the value of a search and aggregation layer to bring the emerging set of investment opportunities to interested investors. Vincent was conceived with the knowledge that investors want to see a broad set of options rather than a narrow set, and that an engine to facilitate discovery could help all of the vertical-specific platforms find the right investors. Ross Cohen and I also joined Vincent, and the journey began. Ross was the former head of engineering at Mirror, which sold to Lululemon for $500M.
How is Vincent different?
Vincent unifies the fragmented world of alternative investing into an easy-to-use search engine, making opportunities accessible for everyday investors. On Vincent, investors can browse, compare, and research hundreds of unique investment opportunities from partner platforms including Fundrise, Yieldstreet, StartEngine, Roofstock, Masterworks, and Otis.
What market does Vincent target and how big is it?
The alternative investment market is set to grow from $9 to $14T in the next five years.
The trend has not gone unnoticed, as venture capitalists have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the growing alternative investment ecosystem. The platforms on Vincent benefit from the 2012 JOBS act rules, which opened the door for general solicitation and crowdfunding online. This past month, the SEC announced expansions to those rules, which will lead to further growth and increase the availability of online alternative investment opportunities.
What’s your business model?
Vincent makes introductions between investors and online investing platforms.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business?
Market conditions and limited social opportunities have brought online investing to the forefront. We see increasing interest among individual investors and our partner platforms enjoying record months as more people find that having part of their allocation in longer-term and high-return investments to be compelling, and the burgeoning supply and new regulations give them more choices than ever.
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What was the funding process like?
It’s always interesting and you learn a lot getting to talk to so many smart and thoughtful individuals. We ran a disciplined process so while it took a lot of energy, we limited the intensity to a few weeks, which is essential. We’re grateful to our investors for having confidence in the team and the dream.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Trying to make decisions about who would be best to work with, in a relatively short timeframe. Keeping the customer learning and product-building going while raising.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Big market, experienced team, and a connection to current events and the broader tailwinds of this market.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Delight our investors by further transforming their journey from an opaque, bank-style experience into a more fluid, modern user experience. Boost our inventory significantly – move from most comprehensive on the Internet to really pushing the envelope in terms of alternative investment choices. Improve the algorithms we use to match an investor with the right opportunity and make those introductions seamlessly. Use our unique data to help investors build out their portfolios. Enable the next million investors who are curious about the space to enter on their terms and with greater knowledge and transparency than they had previously.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Today is the first day. Consider what you can do a bit better for your users and customers today with whatever resources you have. Usually spending money just amplifies that.
Today is the first day. Consider what you can do a bit better for your users and customers today with whatever resources you have. Usually spending money just amplifies that.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We’re the first of our kind, and we want to continue iterating with the investors on our platform to utilize our data and connectivity to make investing much more delightful with Vincent than it was before. We have a lot of ideas and a big roadmap to get there in the coming months.
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC
Lure Fishbar.
