INSTRUMENTS
You can invest to different instruments on the Funder platform. Below, there is a more detailed overview of what every instrument means
EQUITY CROWDFUNDING
Equity crowdfunding is a way of raising capital for your business from multiple investors by selling company’s shares: i.e., new capital is raised directly to the share capital. An investor has an opportunity to obtain shares in a company via a monetary investment.
Those investors who do not have a Nairobi securities account can invest via a convertible loan instrument if the campaign organizer allows this option.
CONVERTIBLE LOAN / SAFE INSTRUMENT
A convertible loan / SAFE instrument is an investment instrument, which entitles the investor to convert the investment to company shares at a specified conversion rate within a specified timeframe. In Funder’s equity campaigns, this instrument is offered to non-resident investors, who do not have accounts in Kenyan banks and therefore cannot open securities accounts. Once the Kenyan legislation changes (presumingly, in the second half of 2020) and a securities account will be possible to get opened without an account at an Kenyan bank, investors will be able to convert the investments to company shares at conditions specified in the convertible loan / SAFE agreement. In Funder’s convertible loan campaigns, this instrument is offered to all the investors at conditions specified in the campaign documentation.
SPV
SPV is an abbreviation of single/special purpose vehicle. It is a legal entity established for some “special” activity: e.g., for consolidating crowdfunding investments. If, under a traditional scenario, an investor (a natural or legal person) invests and gets a share directly in the company, which is raising capital, then under an SPV scenario the investor receives a share in the SPV, whose sole purpose of existence is to acquire a share in the company, which is raising capital, and successfully handle this share in the future. The SPV doesn’t have any other operations or goals.
An SPV can also be necessary to handle crowdfunding campaigns of companies, which start raising capital abroad because such campaigns cannot be launched in their home jurisdictions due to legal or other restrictions. In such cases the SPV is founded in the country where the campaign is launched and after the end of the campaign the SPV acquires a share in the operating company. Read more from our blog post.