Raisebook, an affiliate of Finfeed.com’s parent company, S3 Consortium, is a Melbourne-based fintech startup that has been operating in the digital investment space since late 2015.

Its mission? To provide investors with an even playing field and a more streamlined, transparent way to connect with capital markets, and to do this with user-centric proprietary technology.

Underpinning this aim is Raisebook’s core product: a central digital platform intended to provide investors with unprecedented access to a range of early-stage investment opportunities that they wouldn’t usually be able to tap into.

These offerings are handpicked by the Raisebook team and tend to be diverse. They come from both ASX and unlisted companies, are situated in a range of market sectors from mining and tech to green energy and medical cannabis, and tend to be on the small or micro-cap side of the fence. They might come in the form of IPOs, pre-IPOs, seeding opportunities, and private placements.

A not-so-secret club

Raisebook’s platform is bound up in the logic of interconnectivity and collaboration that underpins hyper-modern, tech-injected forms of exchange like crowdfunding, the sharing economy, and peer-to-peer ecosystems.

It therefore has a lot in common with digital marketplaces like Realestate.com and app technologies like Uber and Airbnb.

Raisebook co-founder and CEO, Jason Price, said that the company was originally designed to open up a new landscape of opportunities for investors who may not have exposure to a full spectrum of deals.

“We wanted the platform to be a doorway for investors to gain entry into what would previously have been a sort of secret, exclusive club,” he said, “so they could access all the best deals without having to push up against all the traditional barriers that can make for a pretty onerous experience.”

In contrast to the more traditional model of investment connections, Raisebook aims to provide a direct pathway to “the kinds of unique, early-stage deals that you might hear about but wouldn’t normally have access to.”

There’s also a focus here on precision targeting. In addition to letting investors bid directly on the platform, Raisebook is also able to provide users with a customised level of deal exposure fine-tuned to personal preferences like individual investment style and interest levels in particular market sectors.

Raisebook CTO, Myles Eftos, said, “By looking at the way investors bid, we’re able to pre-select deals that we know they will be interested in.” He highlighted the way this makes for a more precise and relevant user experience: “With the sheer volume of deals that are around, having the Raisebook platform filter them for a more personalised experience will make investing simpler for our users.”

Who is it for?

Raisebook is designed to make things smoother for investors, stockbrokers and corporate clients alike, and has a separate suite of capital raising services it offers the latter.

However, its focus is on sophisticated investors — a category of investor deemed sufficiently experienced to be able to evaluate the merits of offers of securities without needing the usual protection of a prospectus, as outlined by the Corporations Act.

To qualify as a sophisticated investor, you need a certificate from a qualified accountant stating that you have net assets of $2.5 million, or that your gross income for the past two financial years has been at least $250,000 per year.

An important thing to note is that this isn’t for the faint-of-heart— it’s potentially risky stuff.

Early-stage investment opportunities are, by definition, more speculative, and are therefore considered high-risk — one of the reasons why they tend to be restricted to sophisticated investors.

At the same time, they have the potential to deliver high returns, making them particularly attractive to growth investors.

It also goes without saying that as a predominantly digital platform, Raisebook will resonate with and particularly appeal to plugged-in investors with a level of tech confidence.

In any case, an investor considering making an investment via the platform should take into account their own personal circumstances and risk profile before choosing to invest.