SEEDRS RELEASES LATEST PORTFOLIO UPDATE, SHOWING PLATFORM-WIDE IRR (ANNUALISED RATE OF RETURN) AT 12.02% AND TOP QUARTILE INVESTOR IRR AT 31.34%

Seedrs, the leading private equity investment platform, has today published its latest Portfolio Update, an in-depth analysis of the characteristics and performance of the deals funded on the platform.

The Autumn 2018 edition of Seedrs’ Portfolio Update looks at the characteristics and performance of the 577 deals funded on the platform up to the end of 2017, up 202 deals from the previous report. The dataset continues to show that Seedrs investments, on a fair value basis, have seen outstanding performance on average when compared with other asset classes.

When announcing the previous Portfolio Update in 2016, the only report of its kind in the sector, returns were solely on paper. However, following the launch of Seedrs’ secondary market in June 2017, investors now have the opportunity to realise some of these returns (subject to eligibility and demand).

Highlights from the report include the following:

Deal characteristics

Across Seedrs’ 17 sectors, no one sector accounts for more than 12% of the portfolio with the three largest being Food and Beverage (11.44% of deals), Finance and Payments (11.27% of deals) and Home and Personal (11.09% of deals)

B2C businesses make up nearly half of Seedrs’ portfolio, with B2B accounting for 30% and mixed B2B/B2C making up the rest

Three quarters of deals funded have been through straight equity campaigns with a further 20% through our fund campaigns and the remaining handful of deals as convertibles

Market performance

A hypothetical portfolio that includes all 577 of deals produces a platform-wide IRR of 12.02% (26.42% when EIS and SEIS tax reliefs are taken into account)

The sectors delivering the strongest annualised rate of return on a non-tax adjusted basis were Finance and Payments (21.96% IRR), Home and Personal (21.78% IRR) and Programming and Security (18.82% IRR)

Investor performance

The top decile (10%) of investors who have made 10+ investments have achieved outstanding average IRRs of 47.90% (62.45% when tax-adjusted)

The top quartile (25%) of these investors have average IRRs of 31.34% (46.74% when tax-adjusted)

Jeff Lynn, co-founder and Executive Chairman at Seedrs, says: “One of our overarching goals when founding Seedrs was to bring the sort of data and transparency to the market for private equity that exists in other asset classes. Our groundbreaking series of Portfolio Updates is one example of our attempts to let investors and others quantify what is happening in our market. There is a lot more we plan to do in sharing our data going forward, but I am pleased that with this new edition of our Portfolio Update, we are continuing to push forward with our quest to rationalise this part of the capital markets.”

Jeff Kelisky, CEO at Seedrs adds: “Our latest report is a reflection of the positive returns investors have access to in early-stage private equity. A 12.02% platform-wide IRR is very strong, outperforming most other asset classes even before tax reliefs are taken into account. What’s really exciting about this report is the performance of our top quartile of investors. One of our aims has always been to create a marketplace that enables investors to choose the businesses they want to back and earn returns based on how well they have selected — just as venture capital investors do. The performance of our investors shows that we are doing just that.”

Andrew Rubio, investor on Seedrs and Chief Executive at a Financial Services firm, comments: “Investing in startups is something that has always interested me, as high-risk can equal high-return if you diversify properly. However, until Seedrs, the opportunity to invest personally in early-stage and growth ventures didn’t exist. I’m pleased to see Seedrs take investor protections seriously, offering a wide range of investment opportunities and continuing to innovate with products like their Secondary Market. The launch of this latest portfolio update is yet another example of how Seedrs is leading the way in early-stage investment, bringing a level of transparency and visibility that is so important before making investment decisions.”