How much you can invest in any 12-month period depends on a combination of your net worth (less the value of your primary residence if you own a home) and your annual income.

Note, that you don't have to make these calculations: your limit is automatically calculated when you become an investor.

If either your annual income or your net worth is less than $107,000, you can invest up to the greater of either $2,200 or 5% of the lesser of your annual income or net worth during any 12-month period.

If both your annual income and your net worth are equal to or more than $107,000 then you can invest up to 10% of annual income or net worth, whichever is lesser up to a maximum of $107,000 during any 12-month period.

Remember, this is your limit for all Title III investments, not just those on Republic.

The following table provides a few examples:

See more examples in the SEC Investor Bulletin.

Related: How do I calculate my net worth?

You’re allowed to sell your stake in a crowdfunding investment starting one year after your investment, and earlier under some circumstances. 

However, there’s no guarantee that someone will be willing to buy it at that point.

When you invest on Republic, you receive a Crowd Safe, which gives you a financial interest in the company you invested in. You can make money if that company “exits”, meaning it is acquired or goes public at a higher price than you paid for it, but could also lose your entire investment if it fails. 

Anyone 18 years or older can invest.

Republic allows international investors to invest in startups. You don't have to live in the US or be a US citizen. 

Please note, there are limits to how much you can invest based on your income and net worth.

Republic supports credit and debit cards, ACH transfers from US bank accounts and wire transfers from any, including international, bank accounts.

No. Anyone over 18 can invest on Republic. You don't have to be located in the United States nor be a US citizen.

Each company sets their own minimum investment amount. Republic’s platform-wide minimum is $10.

You get a Crowd Safe, which is a security that gives you a financial interest in the company you invested in. Some campaigns also offer perks (e.g. a pre-order of their product) for particular investment amounts.

You can calculate your annual income or net worth jointly with your spouse’s income or assets. Your combined investment limit will then be the same as that of a single investor with your combined annual income or net worth level.

Your net worth is the sum of all your assets, minus all your liabilities. For purposes of crowdfunding, the value of your primary residence should not be included in your assets, and any mortgage or other loan on that residence does not count as a liability (up to the fair market value of your home).

The following table provides a few examples of net worth calculations for the purposes of determining crowdfunding investment limits:

If you are unsure how to calculate your net worth or income, the SEC Investor Bulletin provides more details.

Related: How much can I invest?

Check out our how it works page.

Yes, if you have a self-directed IRA, a revocable trust that you are the trustee for, the owner / manager of an LLC or in a position to direct a corporations monies, you can register your entity in your investor settings with Republic and invest through it. Please remember to disclose the entity's net-worth, annual income as well as all other Title III investments made in the last 12 months here.

You can learn more about investing with your self-directed IRA in our blog post.

Remember, you cannot receive perks if you invest with your self-directed IRA due to tax law.

Feel free to contact contact us so we can help.

If the campaign reaches the maximum goal, no more investments can get accepted and all following investment commitments get added to the waitlist.

If one of the earlier investors decides to cancel or doesn’t fund their investment in time, the first person with the matching or lower desired allocation on the waitlist will get their spot. 

For example, If space opens up for $1,000 and your waitlisted investment is $1,500, you won't get in, but the person behind you with a $900 waitlisted investment will get in, and the next person with a $100 waitlisted investment or less will get in as well.

Yes, if a company fails to meet their funding goal all investments in that company will be cancelled and refunded.

You can cancel a Republic investment and recieve a refund up until 48 hours before the campaign deadline, after which point your investment is final.

No. Republic is free for investors. Companies only pay if they successfully fundraise.

Crowd Safes (SAFEs) are not common stock. Common stock represents an ownership stake in a company and entitles you to certain rights under state corporate law and federal securities law.  A SAFE, on the other hand, is an agreement to provide you a future equity stake based on the amount you invested if—and only if—a triggering event occurs.  SAFEs do not represent a current equity stake in the company in which you are investing.  Instead, the terms of the SAFE have to be met in order for you to receive your equity stake.

Read more at: investor.gov

While Republic supports multiple payment methods, you can only use one payment method per investment.

Yes, startup investing is very risky. Learn more here.

If a company fundraises on Republic via Crowd Safe or convertible note, unless and until the Crowd Safe or the note is converted into an equity stake, you will have no information or voting right as an investor in the company.

If and when you receive voting shares in a company, your voting rights will likely be diluted when the company raises additional funds.

Companies that have successfully raised on Republic are required to publish an annual update on their website 120 days after the end of their next fiscal year.

After the first annual company update, many companies will not be legally required to continue providing annual updates, others will not have to provide annual company updates after two or three years, therefore investors may not have access to current financial statements as they hold their investment.

Please note, that Republic can not be held responsible if the company fails to publish an annual report. 

Separately, we encourage companies to post regular investor updates on Republic, but they are not required to do so by law.

Yes, citizens of any country can invest from anywhere in the world, using their credit/debit cards or via a wire transfer. 

The rule states that all communications relating to your crowdfunding investment must be in writing, through Republic.

After you invest in the company, the founders can message your via a private message, but these communications can not contain any material information about the company that's not included on the public campaign page.

All communications containing or requesting new material information about the company or its business must be public and visible to all prospective investors. 

On Republic, public communications can happen on the discussion section of each campaign or in the comments to the company's public updates. 

Republic, AngelList, CoinList, and Product Hunt make up a robust "family" of startups, all under the AngelList umbrella. With complementary visions for the startup world, we often collaborate with the companies in this ecosystem.

In 2016, Republic spun off of AngelList, a community of startups and accredited investors that makes fundraising more efficient. When Title III equity crowdfunding regulations were enacted, Republic adopted a similar mission to make fundraising and investing easier for startups and all investors––especially unaccredited ones. 

Ken Nguyen, Republic’s CEO, is the former General Counsel of AngelList and co-founded Republic with Paul Menchov, a former technology officer of AngelList and co-founder/CTO of CoinList.

AngelList is a diversified holding company and operator, holding an equity interest in both Republic and CoinList. Product Hunt was acquired by AngelList in 2016.

For compliance purposes, we use each offering's closure date to select investments in the rolling 12-month calculation, and not the investment commitment date.

Investment limits are calculated as (Investment commitments as of the date of the campaign they are associated's closing for the next 365 days + any disclosed Title III investments made on other portals).

For example, an investment commitment of $100 made on 1/1/17 for a campaign that closed successfully on 2/1/18, would count as being made and going against an investor's investment limit from 2/1/18 to 2/1/19.

This means that an investment made during a campaign can count against your 12 month rolling investment limit for more than 12 months depending on when the campaign closes. Please consult your investor profile to see your current limit.