Why Invest in Private Companies?  Diversification – alternative investments enhance your portfolio with private market exposure.  Increased Returns – private companies are staying private longer, investing in private companies has generated superior returns compared to traditional investment options.   Investment advisors have historically had difficulties accessing private markets due to the high barriers of entry, liquidity issues, lack of information and a prolonged investment period of more than 3 years.  To start, there are  ..read more

As an investment adviser, you may wonder what proportion of my clients’ assets should be allocated to private equity? This article will show you the types of investors who traditionally invest in private equity, how much of their portfolio they allocate to private equity, and how to identify clients whose investment goals are best suited to investing in this asset class. What is Private Equity? The term ‘private equity’ can be used to describe any kind of investment in a private company. It is sometimes used to describe investments such as mezzanine debt, distressed debt, or leveraged buyouts ..read more

“This is the beginning of the bankless world” As an investor, one of the crucial questions to ask before investing is: what is the addressable market size? Well, for SoFi, its addressable market is $13 trillion ($1.2 trillion student loan industry + $12 trillion mortgage market). SoFi was founded in the fall of 2011 by four graduates of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. The co-founders are not your average 20-something fresh out of business school students. They are made up of top-notch industry experts in finance and software, including Mike Cagney, former Vice Pres ..read more

“For Wojcicki, her success and the success of her company is about determination” Founded in 2006, 23andMe, Inc. (23andMe) has become the world’s leading personal genetics company. The company offers saliva-based genetic testing service and provides genetic information to their customers. Through their services, customers have access to their genetic information such as health traits, wellness, carrier status, genetic ancestry, etc. To date, 23andMe has more than 5,000,000 customers and published more than 90 peer-reviewed studies in scientific journals. Prior to co-founding 23andMe, Anne Wojc ..read more

In the recent report by Research and Markets, the global genetic testing market is expected to grow from $4.6 billion in 2017 to $5.8 billion in 2022 with a CAGR of 11.76%. This calculation is measured by many different aspects of the industry such as, aging global population, rising incidences of genetic and hereditary diseases, growing awareness, technological advancements, etc. With genetic genealogy tests more than doubled in 2017, the genetic testing industry is one of the fastest-growing industries. Inside of this rapid-growth industry, 23andMe, Inc. is their major player. 23andMe, Inc ..read more

Great news for all InvestX clients and advisers who participated in our Instacart offering Bloomberg reported yesterday that the company has added $200 Million in a Series E funding round led by investment firms Coatue Management and Glade Brook Capital Partners. This funding values Instacart at approximately $4.2B. In a post on Instacart’s website, Founder and CEO Apoorva Mehta said the company will be working hard to innovate for their customers by offering them better selections at competitive prices. Instacart is currently the favorite grocery delivery service used by ..read more

Bitcoin’s fantasy meets reality with volatile week. View full story on The Globe and Mail.  Bitcoin’s deep plunge and subsequent recovery this week underlines the battle of wills over how to value the world’s best-known cryptocurrency. The virtual money, which soared as high as $18,674 (U.S.) in mid-December, has been losing ground this month. It started Wednesday by plummeting as much as 14 percent, sinking below $9,300, before rebounding to pass $11,000 on Thursday. The gut-wrenching volatility demonstrates how divided investors are when it comes to valuing a pseudo-money that has no ba ..read more

Managers of a new investment fund have a message for those who made staggering gains from Bitcoin before the recent selloff: diversify and avoid the fate of early dotcom believers who were wiped out when tech crashed. Find full article on BNN.  “They need to diversify — take a portion of the profits and do what Mark Cuban did,” says Marcus New of InvestX Financial (Canada) Ltd., referring to the billionaire who made his fortune in the early days of the Internet. “What we’ve tried to do is to make it really easy for them.” While a slew of funds already accept cash to invest in virtual ..read more

Vancouver-based InvestX has launched a growth equity fund that will accept both traditional and cryptocurrency. Find the full article on BetaKit.  The fund will be available to accredited investors in Canada, the US, and internationally. InvestX’s platform provides advisers and their clients with access to investments in late-stage private companies, and said that its investments have included Uber, Lyft, Spotify, Dropbox, DocuSign, Pinterest, and Instacart. “We recognize that this is an unprecedented time for cryptocurrency,” said Marcus New, founder and CEO of InvestX. “At the same time ..read more

InvestX offers investors holding on to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to ‘de-risk’ their portfolio by investing them in companies. Find the full article on the Financial Post. A new fund launched Thursday is offering to accept digital currencies such as bitcoin and translate them into investments in pre-IPO companies. Vancouver-based InvestX Master GP1, a wholly owned subsidiary of InvestX Capital, said in a release that its “first-of-its kind” global growth equity fund will provide access to investments in “late-stage” private companies to investors who are holding on to cryptocurrencies ..read more