Who can invest?

Anyone who is a Canadian Permanent Resident living in an eligible province and is over 18 can invest.  Equity crowdfunding investments are exciting but also risky, and aren’t a good fit for everyone.  Equivesto is mandated to get to know each customer and determine whether equity crowdfunding investments are a good fit for them before allowing them to proceed.  To learn more about that process, check out our “What is Know Your Client” section.

Only Canadian Residents

Only investors living in Canada can participate on Equivesto.

How do I get started?

Getting started on Equivesto is quite simple.  Click the button at the top or bottom of the page to sign up as an investor.  Once that happens, you will be directed to the portal, where you provide your email address and password.  Once we verify your email, we send you the signup forms, which take about 5 minutes to complete.  Once your forms are completed, we take a few days to review your information to confirm that equity crowdfunding investments are a good fit for you.  We may call you during this period if we have any clarifying questions.  After you are approved, we let you know your investment limits and give you direct access to all the great companies available for investment on Equivesto.  Our team is available at all times to answer any questions.  

Is there an investment minimum and maximum?

Investment minimum start at CAD $100 on Equivesto. Companies may choose to set higher minimums.

Investment maximums are set for each individual as part of your signup process, however, there are regulated investment maximums for each investor account.  

• Retail Investors: $5,000 per company

• Eligible Investors: $10,000 per company - Eligible Investors may access higher limits for certain types of deals.

• Accredited Investors: No Investment Limits

• Permitted Clients: No Investment Limits  

Learn more about Retail Investors, Eligible Investors, Accredited Investors, and Permitted Clients here.  Each company on the platform can also set their own minimum and maximum investment limits if they so choose (within the government set limits). 

What is equity crowdfunding and why haven’t I heard about this before?

Equivesto is an equity crowdfunding platform, which is different than ‘regular’ crowdfunding, which includes donation based crowdfunding and rewards-based crowdfunding.  Learn about Crowdfunding here.  Crowdfunding is a fairly recent approach to investing, made possible because technology allows issuers and dealers like Equivesto to handle large numbers of small investments and investors economically.

How is equity crowdfunding different as an investor? Are there special protections for investors?

Equity crowdfunding has some additional protections to help investors compared to traditional investing. When you choose to invest, all investors get a 48 hour backout window, where you can ask for a full refund with no questions asked. Also, companies raising funds are required to hit their minimum raise goal. If the company is not successful in hitting this goal (the raise amount indicated on the platform), the round is not successful and all investor funds are fully refunded.

Why should I consider Equivesto?  Why are we unique?

• Equivesto is focused on providing equity for all and giving access to both investors and business owners who were excluded from venture capital before.  

• To do that, we have taken the time to help explain the process, and provide the tools and education necessary to introduce both investors and founders to equity crowdfunding.

• If you are looking for a space where you can come to learn more about investing, how to review companies, or how to prepare your own company to raise capital and expand, Equivesto is here to help.

• We have a dedicated Learning Center to help you get quick access to all the information you need.  We have simplified the signup process for both companies and investors to help everyone get better access to great opportunities. 

• If there is a topic you want to learn more about and it isn’t covered, reach out.  We would be happy to discuss it with you immediately, and will work to add it to the Learning Center quickly so it can also help others.   

• With our minimum investment of CAD $100 and no fees for investors, our focus is helping more people support and invest in great Canadian companies, while still balancing and minimizing the amount they risk doing so.

• We put your security and protection first.  Equivesto makes understanding your personal situation our priority to help confirm that equity crowdfunding is right for you.  You don’t get access to invest on the platform until both you and we are comfortable that you understand the risks and that equity crowdfunding is right for you.  

• Even though Equivesto has worked hard to simplify the complex investing process, we have not hidden or obscured important areas of discussion or review, specifically those around legal documents and risk.  

• Equivesto’s digital process provides all of the company’s information directly to you the investor in a simple, straightforward way. That being said, we still give you access to all the detailed documentation so you can truly understand the companies on our platform.  

• When deciding to invest, we make document signing simple by providing clear digital signing locations, and we keep detailed records that you can access at any time.

• To protect investors on our platform, we do not allow investments to be purchased by credit card.  This ensures that no one borrows money to buy risky long term investments, and that you do not rack up any credit card bills from investing. We do not let you invest unless you have the money.

• To further protect your data, Equivesto does not keep any of your banking information within our system. When you invest, your bank account information is directly sent to our payment processing partner VersaPay, who has bank level security, and simply uses the information to process the fund transfer. 

When will I get my investment back?

Investments on Equivesto are high risk.  

There is a chance you could lose your entire investment.  Once you invest in a company on Equivesto, you are now a direct shareholder in that company.  Each company has its own projections, goals, and expectations around capital and when/how they aim to provide earnings and return to their investors.  Some companies prefer to pay dividends, returning part of their profits to shareholders; others put all their profits back into the business to grow it more quickly so that the shareholders’ profits come from increases in the stock value. Companies looking for growth are hopeful that they will reach a point where they can raise capital in the public market and therefore give their early-stage investors liquidity, the ability to liquidate their investments in public markets such as stock exchanges. When picking which companies to invest in, make sure you carefully review their goals around investor return and ensure that those align with your own investment time horizon goals.  However, given the companies on Equivesto are small businesses, it is important to plan for at least no return on your investment for at least 5 years.