FAQ
Investors
Equity Crowdfunding is a method to raise capital for a company, where people (the crowd) invest in an unlisted company (a company not listed on a stock market), in exchange for shares in that company.
A Crowdfunding Campaign is an online campaign that enables a business to raise capital from individual investors by leveraging small amounts of funds from a large number of people. These individuals become investors in the business and receive a fraction of it in exchange for their financial support.
Anyone over 18 of age.
Our platform is open to EU citizens only. The following countries are allowed: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain Sweden, and Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland.
Investing through Rōnin is open to everyone, and you do not need any form of accreditation to participate. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to invest in innovative startups, and we’ve designed our platform to be accessible and user-friendly for investors of all levels of experience.
When deciding on how much to invest, we suggest you always consider all aspects of your financial commitment. Please be aware that if your investment is higher than 5% of your Net Capital (Net annual income + Total liquid assets – Annual financial commitments), you have risk exposure of losing all money you may decide to invest.
Nevertheless, there is no formal limit on how much you can invest, as long as it does not exceed the maximum amount to be raised during the Campaign.
Calculating your net capital is easy. Simply add up the value of all your assets, including cash, investments, and property, and then subtract the total value of your liabilities, including loans and credit card debt.
Net capital = Net annual income + Total liquid assets – Annual financial commitments
Your net capital is an important indicator of your financial health, but it’s important to remember that it’s just one piece of the puzzle. It’s a good idea to regularly review your net capital as part of your overall financial planning.
At Rōnin, we believe in democratising startup investing. We believe that not only sophisticated investors should reap the benefits of early investing in promising companies, but also the communities these businesses will serve. And this is why we lowered the minimum investment amount to €100.
There are only two types of costs when investing through Ronin.
There is an investment profit sharing fee. Putting it plainly, there is a 10% fee chargeable only when you gain profit and payable at your exit.
Administrative costs that come with your investment. In order for the investment to be finalised and managed, extensive legal, accounting and auditory work is required. This is payable in the early stages of your investment process, and is directly correlated to your participation in the newly formed SPV.
One-off costs
Investment costs (%)
Example
The costs you pay when you enter the investment. These costs are composed of:
(i) costs related to the actual subscription of the shares/parts
(ii) the costs related to the underlying asset (if any; such as locator and agent commissions, notary fees, property taxes and other acquisition charges).
Exit costs/sale of shares (10%)
Example
The costs you pay when exiting the investment (calculated as 10% applied to the difference between the amount at which the sale will be made and the initially invested amount)
Recurrent costs
They are directly proportional to the invested amount.
Example
The costs you incur during the investment holding period (SPV management fee)
It refers to a total annual cost of SPV administration of approximately 3,000 Euros and to a cost of registering the SPV of approximately 1,500 Euros. The costs are paid, the first time, in advance for 3 years, when you become a shareholder of the SPV. Starting from the 4th year, the annual cost of 3,000 Euro will be paid in advance, at the beginning of each year.
The amounts paid by each investor are calculated in direct proportion to each investor’s ownership in the SPV.
Priority investment is a mechanism that allows investors to be the first to secure a successful investment in their selected campaigns. The mechanism consists of two phases. Firstly, when a new campaign is being published, it enters as a “coming soon” campaign. At this point, any investor who is interested in this campaign can subscribe to the “Priority Investors List”. This allows for the investor to gain access to the “Priority Investment” phase. When the campaign progresses to the “Priority Investment” phase, enlisted investors will be notified that they can now invest. This phase is only available for 48 hours, after which, the campaign becomes public to all investors.
At Rōnin, we operate under the Regulation on European Crowdfunding Service Providers (ECSPR) for business ((EU) 2020/1503), that provides uniform rules for investment-based and lending-based crowdfunding services related to business financing across the European Union.
The European legislation is based on the desire to create a more accessible market with a single EU regime, arriving at the elimination of divergent national rules regarding crowdfunding service providers within the European Union.
The regulation applies directly to Romania, as it became binding automatically throughout the EU on its application date, without any necessary supplementary domestic implementing legislation. However, at domestic level, based on and in accordance with the provisions of the Regulation no. 2020/1503, it has been also enacted the Law no 244/2022 on laying down measures implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 October 2020 on European providers of participatory finance services to businesses and amending Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 and Directive (EU) 2019/1937, which set several local specificities such as appointment of Financial Supervisory Authority of Romania (RO ASF) as competent authority in Romania responsible for carrying out the functions and duties provided for in the ECSPR, as well as the designation of RO ASF as single contact point for cross-border cooperation between the competent authorities, as well as with ESMA, etc.
These regulations help to ensure a safe and transparent environment for our investors and startups, and we take our responsibility to comply with them very seriously.
KYC (Know Your Customer) is an important part of our commitment to security and regulatory compliance. It consists of verifying our customers’ identities during their account creation and periodically over time, so we can help prevent fraud, money laundering, and other illegal activities. This helps to protect our investors, our business, and the broader community, and it is a mandatory process that we take very seriously.
In 2021, Rōnin was founded with the aim of democratizing startup investing, making it accessible to anyone who wants to participate in the growth and success of innovative new businesses.
We recognized that traditional financing and investing options are often limited to a select few of wealthy individuals or institutions and the many who are passionate about supporting businesses and earning returns on their investments are left out of the equation. Our platform provides an alternative to these traditional options, allowing anyone to invest in startups and help them grow.
At Rōnin, we believe in the power of the crowd to drive innovation and progress. We believe that by bringing together a diverse community of investors, we can tap into a broad range of expertise, perspectives, and resources that can help startups succeed.
We carefully evaluate each business listed on our platform, ensuring that all startups with strong potential for growth and success are given the opportunity to connect with investors. This helps our investors feel confident in their choices and also gives a diverse range of startups access to the capital they need to thrive.
Moreover, we operate under strict regulatory guidelines and employ advanced security measures to keep your investments safe and secure.
So far, we’ve been supporting startups in industries ranging from augmented analytics, e-commerce, automotive, pet food to telecommunications, artificial intelligence and HR tech, raising over €1.5 million from hundreds of investors.
Issuers
Equity Crowdfunding is a method to raise capital for a company, where people (the crowd) invest in an unlisted company (a company not listed on a stock market), in exchange for shares in that company.
A Crowdfunding Campaign is an online campaign that enables a business to raise capital from individual investors by leveraging small amounts of funds from a large number of people. These individuals become investors in the business and receive a fraction of it in exchange for their financial support.
Our team of financial experts uses an internally designed Matrix Method to evaluate and get the startups a step further in their process to start raising money. The vetting process is based on a proven framework, is highly accurate, and requires a proper business plan, pitch deck, and other information contributing to the proposed valuation cap, future scalability and business development estimations.
Here is the set of criteria we use to evaluate the investment opportunities before listing on our platform:
Investability & investment terms — How investable is the company? What are the perspectives about this round? How has the company financed itself to date? Are there notable investors backing the company’s efforts?
Novelty in the competitive edge – What is the company’s core competitive advantage? How reliable and stable is this advantage in a changing dynamic market?
Viable business model – How the company capitalises and monetizes? What are the long-term perspectives and how do the numbers look? What about the company growth and business model validation since the launch? (users, revenue, retention, etc.)
Efficient market rate – We size the market opportunity rate based on the company’s insights and market data. Does the go-to-market strategy match the market status and estimates?
Stability of the product – How robust are the core features of the product? What are the steps related to product road map and how does this translate into rapid growth, scalability, market adoption and retention?
Traction & Team – How do the company’s community and user base look, and are the marketing efforts put in place for the company’s growth? What does the team look like? Do they have complementary skills? What is their background?
If you are a startup looking to raise funds through Rōnin’s crowdfunding platform, the amount you can raise will depend on a variety of factors, including your business model, financial projections, and market potential.
In accordance with European Union regulations, startups are allowed to raise up to €5 million a year (€1 million per round) on any equity crowdfunding platform. However, the amount you raise will ultimately depend on the interest and support of investors on our platform.
There is no guaranteed outcome when it comes to crowdfunding campaigns, as the success of your campaign will depend on a variety of factors such as the nature of your project, the strength of your pitch, the level of engagement with your community, and the overall economic climate at the time of your campaign.
Furthermore, the success of an equity crowdfunding campaign is highly wired to the efforts and input of the founders and their teams. We support founders throughout the entire process, from pre-launching to post-campaign efforts, to help them achieve their funding goals.
The platform had an average fundraising amount of approximately €250,000 in 2022.
When applying for fundraising, a startup will be asked to provide a set of information. Among these information, the following are mandatory in order for the application to progress further: general information (company name, reg. no., address, contact details, etc.), information about the company’s legal representative(s) and shareholder(s), but also a business plan, a pitch deck and the articles of incorporation of the company.
No, raising money on Ronin does not affect your cap table. We use a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to invest in the name of all investors in a startup. This means that your investors will hold shares in the SPV, rather than directly in your company, and the SPV will appear on your cap table as a single investor. This structure allows for greater flexibility in managing your cap table and makes it easier to manage multiple investors with varying levels of investment.
For sure. Raising capital with Rōnin doesn’t exclude raising money from VCs. Startup founders usually raise money with the help of crowdfunding platforms complementary after raising money from a VC or planning to do so.
At Rōnin, we operate under the Regulation on European Crowdfunding Service Providers (ECSPR) for business ((EU) 2020/1503), that provides uniform rules for investment-based and lending-based crowdfunding services related to business financing across the European Union.
The European legislation is based on the desire to create a more accessible market with a single EU regime, arriving at the elimination of divergent national rules regarding crowdfunding service providers within the European Union.
The regulation applies directly to Romania, as it became binding automatically throughout the EU on its application date, without any necessary supplementary domestic implementing legislation. However, at domestic level, based on and in accordance with the provisions of the Regulation no. 2020/1503, it has been also enacted the Law no 244/2022 on laying down measures implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 October 2020 on European providers of participatory finance services to businesses and amending Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 and Directive (EU) 2019/1937, which set several local specificities such as appointment of Financial Supervisory Authority of Romania (RO ASF) as competent authority in Romania responsible for carrying out the functions and duties provided for in the ECSPR, as well as the designation of RO ASF as single contact point for cross-border cooperation between the competent authorities, as well as with ESMA, etc.
These regulations help to ensure a safe and transparent environment for our investors and startups, and we take our responsibility to comply with them very seriously.
In 2021, Rōnin was founded with the aim of democratizing startup investing, making it accessible to anyone who wants to participate in the growth and success of innovative new businesses.
We recognized that traditional financing and investing options are often limited to a select few of wealthy individuals or institutions and the many who are passionate about supporting businesses and earning returns on their investments are left out of the equation. Our platform provides an alternative to these traditional options, allowing anyone to invest in startups and help them grow.
At Rōnin, we believe in the power of the crowd to drive innovation and progress. We believe that by bringing together a diverse community of investors, we can tap into a broad range of expertise, perspectives, and resources that can help startups succeed.
We carefully evaluate each business listed on our platform, ensuring that all startups with strong potential for growth and success are given the opportunity to connect with investors. This helps our investors feel confident in their choices and also gives a diverse range of startups access to the capital they need to thrive.
Moreover, we operate under strict regulatory guidelines and employ advanced security measures to keep your investments safe and secure.
So far, we’ve been supporting startups in industries ranging from augmented analytics, e-commerce, automotive, pet food to telecommunications, artificial intelligence and HR tech, raising over €1.5 million from hundreds of investors.
In addition to helping you raise money through our crowdfunding platform, Ronin can provide a range of support services to help you grow and scale your business. Here are some examples:
- Strategic advice: Our team of experienced business experts can help you refine your business plan, develop your go-to-market strategy, and provide valuable feedback on your product or service. Check out our business support experts community.
- Marketing and branding: We can help you develop and execute a comprehensive marketing and branding strategy that will help you stand out in a crowded market and reach your target audience.
- Investor relations: We can help you manage your relationship with your investors and provide ongoing support in areas such as reporting, compliance, and governance.
- Network and community: We have a strong network of investors, mentors, and partners that we can connect you with to help you grow your business.
- Educational resources: We offer a range of educational resources, including webinars, workshops, and guides, that can help you develop the skills and knowledge you need to succeed as an entrepreneur.