Vint co-founders Nick King, left, and Patrick Sanders. (Courtesy of Vint)
Still in development mode after its very first two capital raises, a three-year-old regional start-up that enables investors to buy shares of wine collections has actually filled its capital cup when again.
Richmond-based Vint just recently finished a $5 million investment round. The business plans to put the financing towards more growth of its group, co-founder Nick King said in an interview this week.
Vint currently has 12 workers, several of whom were employed while the equity round remained in the works. The plan is to have a total of 16 to 18 individuals aboard by the end of the year. While Vint is looking to fill different roles, King said software application designers are a location of focus.
Among those recent hires was Adam Lapierre, who joined Vint as director of white wine in June, though he was currently a member of the company’s wine investment committee. Lapierre has a Master of Wine accreditation from The Institute of Masters of Wine in the United Kingdom and his job is to oversee the development of the company’s white wine suppliers network, to name a few jobs.
Montage Ventures led the fundraising round. The California-based investment company was signed up with by Goat Rodeo Capital, Fintech Ventures (which led Vint’s pre-seed round of $1.7 million the business revealed in late 2021), Fantastic Oaks Venture Capital, Plug & & Play Ventures, irrvrntVC, Fiat Ventures and WTI.
King estimated the funds from the most recent raise would last Vint more than 24 months.
Vint closed on the round in mid-October, after putting out feelers for investors in the spring. The company initially aimed for a somewhat smaller quantity of money however chose to increase $1 million north of its preliminary goal as a hedge against economic unpredictability.
“Adding more capital to the war chest and extending the runway in this kind of environment. We were like, ‘Yeah we ought to oversubscribe this round,'” King stated.
King added that while financial uncertainty made it more of an obstacle to fundraise, he felt the business was successful in its efforts in part due to the fact that it provides financial investment assets removed from standard financial investment markets.
“I believe there’s an aspect of this company, i.e. uncorrelated assets, that any recessionary environment might be a tailwind for our service,” King stated.
Vint is an online service that uses shares of red wine collections that can be bought by users as financial investments. The business generates profits through sourcing charges and it also purchases shares of the collections it acquires.
The most recent collection to sell out was a 1,200-bottle collection of 2021 Bordeaux En Primeur valued at $230,000. The collection’s 4,600 shares were cost $50 a pop. King said the offering had the highest appraisal yet of a collection offered by Vint.
Vint has returned earnings from either the overall or partial sale of six collections of the 45 offerings it has actually made to date, King stated.
The business likewise is now using investments in white wine futures, or white wine that has been barreled however not yet bottled. It’s a service it began to use last spring. The Bordeaux collection was the 3rd futures collection to be provided so far.
Whiskey investments are likewise on Vint’s menu and have concerned make up a quarter of the company’s service since that item was presented in late 2021.
Recently Vint offered shares of a single, 78-year-old bottle of The Macallan whisky valued at $130,000. King stated the bottle’s 1,300 shares were sold at $100 each, and were all scooped up in a little over 10 minutes.
Vint was founded by King and Patrick Sanders, both UVA graduates, in 2019 and opened its service to investors in May 2021.
While based in Richmond, the business has remote employees in places like Baltimore, Austin and Seattle.