When you create a free account on Republic, one of the first things you’ll see is this form:
We kept it short and sweet to save you time—and there’s a good reason why that second checkbox made the cut.
Due to SEC regulations, there are certain types of investment opportunities—like startups raising under Reg. D—that are only open to accredited investors. In fact, for some of these offerings, it’s illegal to share any details whatsoever with anyone who’s not accredited.
That’s why we created the Republic Deal Room, our accredited-only platform for private deals. Many of the opportunities in the Deal Room are later-stage companies with prominent investors; past deals have been backed by Softbank, Sequoia, a16z, and many others.
In accordance with the law, you can only see some of those deals if you’ve verified your accreditation status with us. Plus, accredited investors have no annual limits when it comes to investing in offerings under Reg. CF and Reg. A+ (i.e., deals on our main Companies page).
In short: if you’re accredited but haven’t taken the steps to verify it, you could be leaving a lot of world-class deal flow on the table.
We’ll walk through how to add this information to your profile in a minute—but first, let’s talk about what accreditation means and who qualifies.
What is an accredited investor?
An accredited investor is a person or entity that can legally invest in unregulated securities most investors can’t (including certain startups). An individual can qualify as accredited based on their income, net worth, or profession; you only need to meet one of the following criteria to make the cut:
- Net worth of at least $1 million, either individually or with a spouse or partner. In this instance, net worth does not include your primary residence.
- Income over $200k (or $300k if combined with a spouse or partner) in each of the prior two years, plus a reasonable expectation of making over $200k in the current year too.
- Certain investment professionals in good standing who hold specific licenses, including general securities representative licenses and investment adviser licenses (get the full list here).
- Directors, executive officers, or general partners (GPs) of the company selling securities (or of a general partner of the company).
If one or more of those descriptions sounds like you, congratulations! You are most likely an accredited investor (though it’s a good idea to double-check using the SEC’s official definition, found here).
If you do qualify and want access to the private Deal Room, here’s the next step:
Verify your accreditation status on Republic
Updating and verifying your accreditation status is a quick and easy process that should only take you a few minutes to complete. First, click here to head to your account settings page. Check the box that says “I qualify as an accredited investor” and indicate which of the criteria you meet.
Next, you’ll need to verify your status by uploading supporting documents. For example, if you qualify based on your annual income, you can submit W-2 statements from the previous two years; if you qualify based on net worth, you can use bank statements and brokerage accounts to prove your claim.
Once your supporting documents are uploaded, they go to our legal team for review. This process generally takes 3-5 business days, though in many cases it happens much faster. If everything checks out, you’ll get an email letting you know that your profile has been officially verified.
That’s it! Once verified, you’ll automatically be able to access the Deal Room and sign up for an orientation session. After that, you’re in—and ready to explore the private offerings there. By taking just five or 10 minutes to verify your status, you can expand your deal flow by an order of magnitude.
Still have questions about the process? Check out this handy video our Investor Relations team made to guide you through it.
1 comment