Feb 26, 2019
Funds will accelerate retail investor access to institutional quality investments
PRINCETON, NJ—Feb. 26, 2019—Edison Partners, the growth equity investment firm, today announced leading a $62 million financing in New York-based YieldStreet, the digital wealth management platform. YieldStreet will use the funds to introduce new investment offerings, expand investor access, and increase retail investor education and engagement.
While fintech innovation continues to upend traditional banking and investing, wealth creation and investment diversification through multi-asset investments and yields available to institutional investors remain elusive to both accredited and non-accredited investors alike. YieldStreet eliminates this inequity by enabling investors to participate in investments across a broad range of asset classes such as real estate, legal finance, marine finance, and commercial loans.
YieldStreet has created a community of more than 100,000 members who have invested more than $600 million through its platform, with a 12% IRR for their investors to date. The company has realized tremendous growth of over 3X year-over-year in revenue and investments originated on the platform. The company has been recognized by Forbes, Nasdaq, and others, as a top company disrupting the investment landscape.
“YieldStreet is democratizing the next frontier of wealth management, giving retail investors access to institutional-grade investment products that were previously off limits to them. They have found a profitable and scalable high-growth model in a variety of investments, and are now broadening their offerings with additional products,” said Chris Sugden, Managing Partner, Edison Partners, who led the investment. “There’s an important financial services element to this business as well; the ability to source and underwrite investments. This requires a blend of domain and technology expertise. Milind and Michael bring the right mix of technology and specialty finance experience to drive deals to the platform while lowering the cost of entry to investors. I couldn’t be more excited to see them bring their brand to every investor looking for diversification and wealth creation.” Sugden will join YieldStreet’s board.
The YieldStreet platform provides access to alternative investing to help individuals and originators exchange value. Initially geared to accredited investors, YieldStreet recently began to expand its platform to the mass and emerging affluent markets. For example, the company recently launched YieldStreet Wallet, an FDIC-insured savings account offering 2.2% annual interest. Additional investment, banking and wealth management product offerings are planned for 2019.
“We saw an opening to create more efficient capital allocation and lower the barriers to entry, providing investors access to make their money work harder,” said Michael Weisz, founder and President of YieldStreet. “Edison’s expertise and commitment in fintech, specifically with wealth management, was very attractive to us. We are aligned on the vision and their partnership will enable us to accelerate our growth, launch new investment products, and bring our financial inclusion vision to millions of individuals,” said Milind Mehere, founder and CEO of YieldStreet.
Edison Partners has financed and guided more than 217 private companies, including more than 44 fintech companies. The firm was recognized in 2018 as Fintech Equity Investor of the Year by Lendit Fintech and in Institutional Investor’s Fintech Finance 40 power ranking.
Noteworthy exits include Billtrust, EdgeTrade, FolioDynamix, GAIN Capital, Liberty Tax, OptionsCity and Princeton Financial. Current financial technology investments include: BFS Capital, Bento for Business, Bipsync, Clearpool Group, ComplySci, GAN Integrity, Giant Oak, MoneyLion, Predata, Scivantage and Solovis.
About YieldStreet
YieldStreet is building the largest global digital wealth management platform to change the way wealth is created. With an investor first approach, YieldStreet’s community can build a diversified portfolio of investments outside of the stock market and generate passive income. Investors get unprecedented access to asset classes such as Real Estate, Marine, Legal Finance & Commercial loans. Headquartered in New York City with offices in Brazil, Argentina and Greece the company is backed with $178M in capital from Edison Partners, Greycroft, & Raine Ventures. Join the movement at www.yieldstreet.com.
About Edison Partners
For more than 30 years, Edison Partners has been helping CEOs and their executive teams grow and scale successful companies. The firm’s investment team brings extensive investing and operating experience to each investment. Through a unique combination of growth capital and the Edison Edge platform, consisting of operating centers of excellence, the Edison Director Network, and executive education programs, Edison employs a truly integrated approach to accelerating growth and creating value for businesses. A team of experts in financial technology, healthcare IT and enterprise solution sectors, Edison targets high-growth companies with $5 to $25 million in revenue; investments also include buyouts, recapitalizations, spinouts and secondary stock purchases.
Edison’s active portfolio has created aggregated market value exceeding $10 billion. Edison Partners is based in Princeton, NJ and manages more than $1.4 billion in assets throughout the eastern United States.
