Equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs is incorporating automation into its offering with the launch of a new product, AutoInvest.
Until now, investments on equity crowdfunding platforms have been entirely on a self-directed basis, with investors hand picking every campaign to invest in individually. With AutoInvest, investors select the amount they would like to invest per-campaign and the product then automatically invests based on criteria they have chosen.
Seedrs says AutoInvest opens up early-stage private equity to investors who have long been interested in the asset class, but not able to dedicate the time, allowing them to build a diverse portfolio of early-stage businesses more efficiently than ever before. Investors that use AutoInvest won’t miss out on campaigns that suit their investment preferences.
The initial launch is based around set criteria, however Seedrs is planning to roll out further customisable features, allowing investors to select from criteria such as S/EIS tax eligibility, sector or stage of business, over the coming weeks.
The launch of AutoInvest follows Seedrs’ GBP10 million funding round in October 2017 led by Neil Woodford, where the London-based fintech company pledged to use funds raised for advances in AI and automation.
Jeff Kelisky, CEO at Seedrs, says: “Seedrs continues to demonstrate innovation leadership in early-stage and growth investment. After launching our pioneering secondary market, which has gone from strength to strength, last year, we expanded our focus to advances in automation and AI, and now we’re thrilled to be launching another sector first with Seedrs’ AutoInvest. This exciting new feature makes building a diversified portfolio of investments in this asset class easier than ever before.”
Joel Ippoliti, Chief Product Officer at Seedrs, adds: “Understanding what our customers want is at the core of what we do. There are investors who want it to be quicker and easier to build a diverse early stage investment portfolio, but still want to have oversight and control over their investments. Bringing customisation and transparency to an auto invest tool such as this is a real game changer; there’s nobody else doing anything quite like it.”
