Yieldstreet bucks pandemic uncertainty with $100m fundraise
US alternative investment platform Yieldstreet has raised $100m (£352.97m) in a series C funding round, as it eyes international expansion and a possible special purpose acquisition vehicle (SPAC) listing.
Yieldstreet enables investors to tap into opportunities across a wide range of alternative asset classes, including art, consumer and commercial lending, legal and property. Investors can fund single offerings or diversify with a multi-class asset fund.
It has said it is on track to hit $100m in revenue in 2021, and has returned over $960m to its lenders since its launch six years ago.
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CNBC reports the platform’s funding round will be used to expand its user base, push into international channels, widen investment products, for mergers and acquisitions and strategic new hires.
Investments on the platform have reached more than $300m this year, with a total client base of around 300,000. New members in 2021 have already exceeded all of 2020, the firm said.
Over the next decade Yieldstreet is targeting 50 million investors.
Milind Mehere, co-founder and chief executive of Yieldstreet, told TechCrunch that within the next year or two the platform is considering going public via a SPAC.
SPACs – also known as ‘blank cheque firms’ – are one of the most talked-about trends in finance at the moment. A SPAC is essentially a shell company set up by investors with the sole purpose of raising money through an initial public offering to acquire another company.
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“We are growing extremely fast and a few SPACs have approached us,” Mehere reportedly said.
“We are on a great path to potentially explore some of those options in the next 12 to 24 months.
“I think the public markets would be great for a company like Yieldstreet, purely because that gives you the visibility to expand your consumer growth but also gives you access to equity to pursue growth strategies such as potential acquisitions and other things.”