FounderCatalyst

Here is our step-by-step guide to onboarding on the platform as an investor.

You can jump to the needed step or see our video guide just below:

Getting Started - Account set up
Finalising the Funding round
Making Payments
Viewing your potential companies
FAQ’s

Getting Started - Account set up

Step 1

When you receive an email inviting you to the platform, click ‘Accept Invitation’.

This will take you to the pending invitation page, where you must create your account.

Step 2

Fill in all the required details as shown below:

Your Personal Details

Add your Signature

Step 3

You must now enter your password to sign the Non-disclosure Agreement. If you and your founder have agreed upon skipping this step, please raise a ticket requesting this.

  Note: The password used to set up your account is the same one needed to sign the NDA

Step 4

Select your Investor type.

We are required to ask these questions as per the Financial Promotion regulations which came into force 31st Jan 2024.

You are then required to sign the High Net Worth Individual Investor Statement by entering your password, as displayed below:

Step 5

View and sign the Term Sheet - again, by entering your password.

Finalising the Funding round

Note: Until the Founder(s) lock the round for final signatures you are not required to sign anything else on the platform. Until then you can peruse the Intelligent Data Room

You will be prompted when the round is locked; at this point you will be able to view any further documents intended for you.

In order to sign them, go to ”Sign my Documents”:

Select which documents you wish to approve and enter your password, as below:

Making Payments

Finally, it's time to pay up! You can view the bank details of the company on the page shown below:

The Founder(s) will be able to issue Share Certificates once they have received payment.

Viewing your potential companies

You may have multiple companies to invest in, luckily we keep everything in one place to make life easier.

If you wish to view any other companies that you have been invited to view, go to the top of the column on the left, and select ‘View a Different Company’. This will take you to the screen shown below.

Once you have selected the company you wish to view, you will be able to look at both the existing Cap Table and pending Cap Table, along with the Intelligent Data Room (IDR).

From within the IDR, you will see both ‘Company General Information’ and ‘Initial Funding Rounding’. If you are an ‘Entry Level’ investor, you will only be able to see Folder 1 of ‘Initial Funding Round’, which should contain items such as the Pitch Deck, Profit & Loss sheet, or Business Plan.

FAQ’s

How do I set up as both an investor and advisor?

We recommend setting up with 2 different email addresses for an investor and advisor account respectively. If you stick to 1 account per role, you will be able to view your different potential companies to invest in, and to advise on your separate accounts.

I’m not receiving the invitation email?

To ensure you are able to access the account, please ensure that you have completed the sign-up process. This includes filling out all required fields and providing all necessary information, including adding a signature.

If you have already followed these steps, and yet still haven't received the email, please let us know and we can send out a fresh invitation.

I’ve been invited to an Agile round, but I cannot access it?

Agile rounds can't have "entry level investors" (normal investors in funding rounds with an uncommitted number of shares). Ask your founder to set you as having any number of shares, even if you haven’t committed to anything yet.

Getting Setup

If a company you're interested in has told you to create an account on FC - don’t; wait for them to send you an invitation link, then complete all fields required.

Do I need to be a self certified sophisticated investor/high net worth individual?

Please note: this answer does not constitute regulatory or legal advice. Technically we need to ask these questions or it’s a breach of the revised Financial Promotion regulations which came into force 31st Jan 2024 – you can read more here

This isn’t in any way related to SEIS or EIS, we have this obligation if you invest outside of these schemes too.

We have followed advice from the UK British Angel Association and their legal counsel when implementing the new legislation and you should only invest if you meet some of the criteria offered under the High Net Worth or Self-Certified Sophisticated Investor statements (see Schedule 1 & 2 in the above link to see this criteria).

To qualify as a High Net Worth Individual, an investor needs to declare either condition A or B on that form. To qualify as a Self-Certified Sophisticated Investor, they need to declare either Condition A, B or C in Schedule 1 and 2 of the legislation accordingly. Those are the only two options available under the legislation.

Do keep in mind that the founder isn’t under any obligations to check your answers and there are no repercussions to you for your answers.

Ultimately we implement this FCA process as a protection for both the founder and investor. If you wish, we can drop the FCA signing requirement if you wish.

How do I change my details?

For any changes to your personal details, see this article.

Can potential investors looking through the data room, before they invest, see other potential investors?

Yes, each investor appears in the CapTable and the investment documents.

Captable - it is very standard for CapTables to be open (not least because details are published openly on Companies House anyway). If investors want to be secret then they should use an SPV.

Documents - the draft documents contain the names of other potential investors, specifically the Term Sheet and Subscription and Shareholders agreements list all current and proposed investors in a round

Knowledge Base: The Investor Experience