It should be no surprise that leading wealth advisers, including Charles Schwab, Vanguard and others, in addition to many syndicators and fund managers have taken their advisory platforms and capital raising online. Betterment, an online robo-adviser, has only been in existence since 2008 but now manages $40 billion in assets under management – eclipsing many brick and mortar firms that have been in business 3X and 5X times longer.
Why is that? How can an online advisory provider like Betterment attain considerably more AUM than many “brick and mortar” advisory firms that have been around for 50 years or more?
The answer: effective technology and an online presence.
Many leading sponsors and issuers are raising considerably more capital online than others utilizing more traditional models. What is it that these guys know about raising capital through the 506(c) exemption that many sponsors don’t?
The answer: by using technology you can accelerate the process of raising capital and get in front of a much larger audience. Sponsors working to raise larger amounts of capital can benefit from the efficiency and organizational advantages of raising funds online, in addition to considering working with a FINRA-member broker-dealer to manage the process, offer credibility, and leverage their network of relationships.
Sponsor syndication efforts can be faster and more efficient than traditional syndication by exploiting new technology—making your capital raising process smarter and potentially more rewarding than ever before.
By using subscription and syndicate management technology, a sponsor can effectively leverage the same tools a crowdfunding site uses to get in front of a much broader and larger audience of suitable investors. Here are three reasons to leverage technology to raise money.
1. Greater diversity of broker-dealer and advisory firms
As technology works to simplify investing by making it faster and easier, they’ve managed to attract and retain a large audience of sponsors and syndicators from all over the country. The “general solicitation” feature offered under Reg. D exemption 506(c) (made possible by the JOBS Act of 2012) provides this opportunity.
Similar to traditional syndicate management in public markets, a technology-enabled private placement syndicator can leverage time by making an offering available to many people or groups at one time. Only by leveraging technology can an invitation be sent to hundreds of potential investor decision makers at once, across a wide variety of industry, geography, and market focus.
That interest can be tracked and reported back to the sponsor in real time. By exposing your offerings to a broader audience, the sponsor or manager may get introduced to new investors they may not have had a prior existing relationship with – or may not have known existed before.
New introductions lead to new selling relationships, and in today’s world of raising capital, the process of general solicitation can help to create suitable channels for new relationships to be cultivated.
2. Greater diversity of products for the investor to review and ease of investing
A complement to the benefit to syndicators and capital raisers is that investors now have access to greater diversity and quantity of products to invest in. Potential investors can review a wide range of products by sorting through debt or equity, corporate structure, industry, geography, sponsor track record, minimum investment size, and more – and do all this from the comfort of their home.
Syndicators and capital raisers can now utilize technology that incorporates many things like funnels, email, SMS / text messaging, calendar, CRM in all in one solutions to make the job of raising capital much easier and faster.
3. Efficiency without sacrificing relationship-building activities
On the investor side, investors can choose a deal they want to explore further, evaluate offering materials, and subscribe to the opportunity — and do it all online, 24/7. Traditional paper processing of subscription docs is eliminated, meaning client social security numbers and personal information is safely delivered and stored from one encrypted entry point.
As a sponsor, you can expect a smoother, faster, safer process, because technology can streamline both the fundraising and reporting aspects of your deal, not to mention long-term organized retention and retrieval in the event of litigation or audit.
In conclusion, leveraging technology has undoubtedly changed the way sponsors can raise capital. By exposing an offering to many potential investors and inviting them to view the materials in a virtual data room, sponsors and capital raisers can reduce administrative time, thereby lowering costs, accelerating the raise, and building a larger and more far-reaching group of investors to work with.
If you would like to learn more about how marketing & sales automation systems can work for your business, register for a live training dedicated to this topic and then schedule a call here.