Fintech Vint hopes to make wine and spirits a mainstream asset class • TechCrunch

Do you invest in wine and spirits? Fintech startup Vint believes everyone should, and hopes to facilitate this. But don’t expect bottles to be sent to you: Investments via Vint are fractions. Depending on how deep your pockets are, this is probably the best: A recent sold-out deal on Vint was a Macallan 78-year-old whiskey bottle collection worth $130,000.

There’s no doubt that alternative investments are on the rise, with financial advisors communicating that the age-old 60/40 portfolio — 60% in stocks, 40% in bonds — is no longer good enough. But “altars” come in all shapes and forms, and wine and spirits aren’t necessarily the most accessible, something Vint and others are working to change.

Vint also now has more funding to reach its goals: after raising $1.7 million in October 2021, they recently closed a $5 million fundraising round led by Montage Ventures.

It obviously does not hurt Vint’s pitch that in recent years good wine and spirits have often outperformed other major asset classes, such as shares, and seem immune to some of the public markets’ recent problems.

For example, the Financial Times recently cited data from Scottish investment bank Noble & Co showing that “the value of ‘fine and rare’ single malts was up more than a fifth this year, with volumes jumping 23 per cent.” In contrast, it noted, Britain’s main stock market index, the FTSE 100, “has traded flat this year.”

However, Vint CEO Nick King said the story is also about diversification, warning against false hopes. “This is an investment. “Personally, if someone tells me it’s just going to go up and to the right, I’m skeptical,” he said.

King is nevertheless proud that Vint has generated a return of 28.3% for asset exit on a net annualized basis since its inception. This refers to wine and spirits collections that have already gone through the entire Vint life cycle: “Source, secure, store, then sell”.

Since its launch a year and a half ago by King and his co-founder, Patrick Sanders, Vint has made 50 “offers,” which are analogous to a crowdfunding campaign. The analogy doesn’t stop here: The startup took eight months to get the ability to launch US Securities and Exchange Commission-qualified collections.

That Vint’s offer is acceptable to the SEC was made possible by the creation of the regulated category known as Reg A+. It is in itself part of the JOBB Act, which has provided a tailwind for alternative investments.

The process was quite time-consuming for a young startup, but King thinks it was worth it. – For us, this is a long-term battle. You’re not going to create a new asset class overnight, so it’s very important to do things the right way and work with regulators to set up a structure that gives confidence to this asset class.”

Despite this framing around “a new asset class”, Vint already has competitors, such as Cavissima, Cult Wine Investment, iDealWine, Vinovest and U’Wine. But more than these, the company is up against older alternatives: DIY and wine exchanges.

Interestingly, King thinks that not coming from the wine world is a plus – much more than a wine company, he envisions Vint as a fintech. Sourcing exceptional bottles remains a big part of what Vint does, which is why the company recently hired Adam Lapierre, who has a master of wine certification, as head of wine.

Vint’s latest round now supports the expansion of the existing team of 12, with the addition of business development and general counsel. As for the rest of the roadmap, here are some of the things King has in mind:

“We are looking at new offers. We’ve done wine, whiskey, cask scotch and futures, so we’re looking at potentially adding bourbon as well, and also new styles of offerings. Then we want to add more data to the platform. We look at US market data, UK market data, auction market data to inform our buying and selling decisions and that’s something we want to continue to share with our users. And then finally, most importantly, continue to leave assets.”

It is too early to say whether market conditions will be as favorable for Vint’s group sales as recently, but the rise of wine and spirits as an asset class will be worth following anyway. As inflation and uncertainty increase, it would not be surprising to see altars become a staple in more and more portfolios.