If you don’t have time to read the full article, here is the summary version:
In May 2019, I invested €5,000 in an Irish telemedicine company called Wellola that was raising funds on the Spark Crowdfunding platform. The Wellola share price at that time was €7.99.
In June 2022, Wellola announced that they had secured investment from the Venture Capital firm BVP at a share price of €36.76. This represented a 350% increase in the value of my shares.
However, Wellola is an EIIS qualifying company, which means private investors in Ireland can reclaim 40% of the value of their investment in the form of a tax refund. I therefore received a tax refund of €2,000, which means my actual investment was only €3,000, not the original €5,000 that I invested.
The value of my actual investment of €3,000 is now worth €23,000, which is an increase of over 650% in 3 years.
Background
Spark Crowdfunding is an equity investment platform which makes it easy for small and medium sized investors to buy shares in private companies which have high growth potential.
Founded in 2018 and based in Dublin, Spark Crowdfunding has a database of almost 10,000 private investors in Ireland. Over the last 4 years, these investors have invested in 28 Irish companies on the Spark Crowdfunding platform. Of these 28 companies, 20 also received investment funding from Enterprise Ireland, which has strict criteria for the type of company in which they invest.
Profile of Investors
Equity (or investment) crowdfunding gives small to medium sized private investors the opportunity to invest in companies that previously only Venture Capital firms or Enterprise Ireland could invest in. Investors can invest as little as €100 in a company and the average investment amount is about €2,800.
Many investors adopt a ‘portfolio approach’ to investing in early-stage companies. Instead of trying to pick specific winners, they invest a similar amount in every campaign, therein diversifying their risk, but also ensuring they don’t miss out on the one that delivers supernormal returns.
How EIIS greatly enhances returns for Irish investors
As the Wellola example at the beginning explains, the 40% tax refund on most of the companies in which private investors can invest on the Spark Crowdfunding platform magnifies the return on an investment of this nature. On the other hand, it also greatly reduces the maximum amount you can lose. With most investments you can lose 100%, but by investing in an EIIS qualifying company, the most you can lose is 60% of your investment.
How to Invest
If you are a private investor with anything from €100 upwards to invest in high potential Irish start-ups, equity crowdfunding is the easiest, quickest and least expensive way to take your first steps. You can open an account for free on the Spark Crowdfunding platform in minutes and review the various investment opportunities on offer. Click here to join for free: https://www.sparkcrowdfunding.com/
Regular webinars will allow you to hear directly from the CEOs of companies raising funds before you make a final decision to invest.
No Commission
One of the unique advantages of investing through equity crowdfunding is that investors pay absolutely no commission when they purchase shares in a company. 100% of the amount you invest goes into the purchase of shares in the company. In the long term and if you do a lot of investing, this can add up to a huge saving and greatly increase the value of your investment portfolio, no matter how large or small it is.
To open an account (for free) and invest in high growth Irish companies from as little as €100, join 10,000 other Irish investors on Spark Crowdfunding here:
