Frequently Asked Questions

UpMarket is an investment platform that makes it easier for individual investors to access alternative investment opportunities offered through private fund managers.

UpMarket curates investment opportunities in Pre-IPO companies, Private Equity Funds, Cryptocurrency, Hedge Funds, Real Estate, and other asset classes that were previously accessible primarily to institutional investors, family offices, and high-net-worth investors. The Upmarket platform strives to enable a seamless investment process for qualified individual investors.

Visit Upmarket.co and click the “Sign Up” button to register and see our open deals. You’ll need to provide an email address and a valid phone number to register, that’s it. There are no fees or costs to open an account.

You can view current and past offerings on UpMarket's products page.

You can expect to see Pre-IPO Investments, Real Estate Funds, Private Equity or Hedge Funds with different investment strategies, and crypto/blockchain funds as well. We add new offerings to the platform regularly and availability can change quickly if a fund has significant investor interest.

An alternative investment is a catch-all term for investments that fall outside of the “conventional” categories of investment, which include stocks (equities), bonds (debt), and cash.

Alternative investments typically include private equity funds, venture funds, hedge funds, commodities, collectibles, digital assets, and real asset funds.

Every investor will have their own reason for allocating capital to different asset classes, however, many investors look to alternatives as a way to either add diversification to their portfolio or pursue unique capital appreciation opportunities based on their views of the world and market trends.

Sophisticated investors have leveraged alternative investments throughout history.

Recent examples of the kind of investors that include alternatives in their portfolios are:

• Sovereign Wealth Funds
• Pension Funds
• Endowments
• Foundations
• Family Offices
• Insurance Companies
• Ultra-High Net Worth Individual Investors

Investing in anything is not without risk. Private market and alternative investments often are not as liquid as public market investments. If you own a publicly-traded stock, you can sell that position quickly to raise cash whenever the public markets are open.

That is often not the case with alternative investments where there may be a lockup period where you cannot sell for a period of time, often years. Even if you can sell, in some cases selling early will come at a significant cost or discount.

Alternative asset classes are also often harder to value as there is not an active market in them, so their value is often estimated based on the last selling price a counter-party was willing to pay. If a sale has not occurred recently, it may make valuation difficult.

Another consideration is that private market investments may not have as much readily available information, in public markets companies have to hold regular shareholder meetings and release data, like corporate earnings, at set times. Those obligations often do not exist for alternative assets.

Investors based in the United States must be qualified accredited investors and may need to meet additional suitability criteria as promulgated by federal and state regulators.

Non-U.S. Investors are eligible to invest on the Upmarket platform in accordance with the requirements of their country of origin. Non-U.S. Investors are eligible to invest on the Upmarket platform as well.

Yes. For more details about international eligibility please consult our product pages which detail investor eligibility on an offering-by-offering basis, or contact UpMarket’s Investor Relations team.

Please note that investments from Non-US investors will be completed through affiliated international entities. Upmarket Securities LLC services U.S.-based investors.

There is no single investor profile, however, most investors have some investment experience in public markets and are looking for ways to generate non-correlated market returns, diversify their portfolios, or seek special capital appreciation opportunities.

All U.S.-based investors on the UpMarket platform must qualify as accredited investors under the definitions promulgated by the Securities and Exchange Commission or in some jurisdictions as Qualified Purchasers, which is a higher threshold than an accredited investor.

For non-US jurisdictions please consult your local rules and regulations for investor eligibility.

After you have created an account, navigate to the products page. From there you can view the offering documents for any live offering on the platform.

Yes, entities like trusts, LLCs, S-Corps, etc. can access UpMarket's offerings as well.

For many of the funds, yes.

See the dedicated IRA investment section of the FAQ for additional information.

After you have created an account, navigate to the products page, select the product you'd like to invest in and you'll begin the Investment Application Process. You'll then be guided through the investment process from qualification to signature and investment execution.

When you sign in to your account, navigate to the My Investments page. There you can view all Current, Pending and Past Investments.

If you have a pending investment, you can check its status by clicking on the Pending investment page.

The investment process varies by offering and the fund manager involved. Most investments are finalized within 30 days of money being wired, with all executed documents available for review on your My Investments Page. If you have questions about your investment, contact the UpMarket representative you've been working with, or contact our team and we'll provide an updated timeline.

Yes. You can view and download all documents related to any investment you've made through the My Investments Page.

UpMarket prioritizes the security of our investors' data and transactions. We use advanced encryption protocols across our platform and offer two-factor authentication (2FA) to add an extra layer of protection to your account. We strongly encourage all investors to enable 2FA by visiting this link. Additionally, all sensitive documents and transaction details are accessible only through our secure UpMarket portal.

As of October 2024, investors must log into the secure UpMarket portal via upmarket.co to receive wire instructions. Also, all wire instructions must be verbally confirmed over the phone with an UpMarket sales representative before initiating any wire. This policy ensures the security of your transactions and minimizes the risk of fraudulent emails.

Individual investor documents, including subscription agreements, capital calls, redemptions, and quarterly reports, can only be accessed by logging into the secure UpMarket portal at upmarket.co. UpMarket will exclusively share investor documents through the secure UpMarket portal to safeguard your information.

You can view the current NAV (Net Asset Value) of any investment you've made by navigating to your My Investments page.

Note that the value of private market investments are not updated on a daily basis like publicly traded securities. However, you can expect quarterly valuation assessments from fund administrators to provide an idea of the current return on any existing investments.

Any dividends of the fund will be paid automatically to the investor's bank account on record.

For close-ended funds, any income distribution or return of capital and gain/losses will be automatically returned back to the bank account investors filled out in their subscription documents.

For Open-ended funds, investors are required to submit a redemption request on the platform through my investment section based on the redemption rules of the fund (Normally required to be 2-3 months before the redemption date). Redemption funds will be returned back to the bank account on record in their subscription documents.

Investors are allowed to change the bank account on record by contacting UpMarket's FundOps team at operations@upmarket.co. Investors changing their receiving bank account will have to submit a bank change authorization form e-signed by the investor and the receiving bank account name has to match with the name of the investor on record.

UpMarket structures its Private Placement Funds as all separate Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), for onshore vehicles they are usually LLCs or LPs, for offshore vehicles they are Cayman SPCs or LPs. When you invest in one of these funds you will execute a Subscription Agreement to memorialize your investment and the terms of the investment.

Yes. UpMarket charges fees to investors. Fees vary by each investment so please consult the investment documents or ask your UpMarket representative what fees will be charged for a given investment.

The most common fees for platform investments include a fee when you first invest (Subscription fee) and a fee that is charged annually to cover the cost of administering your investment (Management fee).

You will be provided with wire instructions to complete your investment. You will need to wire funds to the account provided prior to the fund close date to perfect your investment. Investors are responsible for covering the wire fees charged by their financial institutions.

Yes. Each offering on the UpMarket platform can have different terms and conditions. For certain offerings, the minimum investment amount may be higher, while for other offerings, the manager or fund may establish lower minimums.

UpMarket sources and curates investments into various companies and funds. Some of these opportunities have a maximum investment amount (cap) or a time-sensitive closing date. Once an offering caps or closes, we can no longer offer access to that specific opportunity. That said, we listen to our investors, and if a given offering is in high demand, we will do our best to source it again. We encourage accredited investors to open a free UpMarket account so they don't miss out the next time a fund or company of interest is offered. If you want to request a specific offering on UpMarket, please email invest@upmarket.co and we will do our best to source it.

If the access fund receives a distribution in kind (Shares) then the fund will allow investors to choose to receive the distribution in cash or in shares. You will be asked to fill out an election form, there you can confirm you want shares and you will need to provide your receiving brokerage account information.

Currently, we do not have a formal secondary market. That is a feature we are looking to add.

If you would like to sell an existing UpMarket investment we may be able to find a willing buyer on the platform and help facilitate a transaction. Reach out to the UpMarket representative you've been working with or contact our team and we’ll do our best to help.

UpMarket evaluates asset managers and funds for their fit on the platform.

Selecting asset managers: UpMarket works with asset managers who we believe have strong risk control capabilities and reputable management skills in their specific asset class. UpMarket evaluates managers based on management team background and experience, size of assets under management, performance track record, controlling parties' background checks, investment risk management, operational risk capabilities, and other factors we believe are important.

Selecting funds within an asset manager: After ensuring the asset manager meets the onboarding criteria, we select funds and assets that we believe are suitable for individual investors and begin an in-depth due diligence process on specific funds.

Yes. Once we choose a target fund to conduct due diligence, we follow our internal due diligence questionnaire manual to evaluate the fund, which results in a complete due diligence report.

The questionnaire includes details such as the fund's foundation, strategy, risk management, liquidity management, fees and expenses, valuation methodology, tax matters, as well as third-party providers such as the fund's legal counsel, auditor, administrator, and custodian. Due diligence information can be provided to investors upon request.

UpMarket creates Access Funds to invest directly into underlying Private Placement Funds. Unlike traditional Private Placement Funds, we seek to avoid active management in our Access Funds. Therefore, while structured in a similar way as traditional Private Placement Funds, our Access Funds simply provide an investment structure that invests directly into the underlying Fund, but with a lower investment minimum. This way, we lower the barrier to entry so that individual investors can have the same access to experienced asset managers that institutional investors do.

UpMarket and affiliated subsidiaries act as the Investment Managers for most of the Access Funds. We do not actively manage the underlying portfolios and assets.

UpMarket and affiliated subsidiaries conduct due diligence on the underlying Fund(s) that our Access Funds invest in, aggregate investor capital within our Access Funds to invest into the underlying Funds, and manage Access Fund operations which include client reporting, audits, etc. Subscription agreements are signed between the investor and our Access Funds.

Yes. Along with conducting due diligence and rigorous investment monitoring, UpMarket protects your investments by placing them into individual legal structures. Put more directly, UpMarket the company is legally distinct from all of the investment Access Funds we create. This means that even if UpMarket was to go out of business, face a legal judgment or insolvency, any claims on UpMarket’s assets would not extend to your investments or the Access Funds. The Access Funds are distinct investment vehicles and your investments in them would be protected.

Further, If one day due to unforeseeable circumstances UpMarket was unable to continue to operate, under US regulations, Upmarket management LLC or other investment management affiliated entities, as the investment manager of the Access Funds, is required to find a replacement manager to take over the Access Funds' operations. Further, the replacement is required to be approved by the majority vote of the Limited Partners (investors) of each Access Fund.

UpMarket was founded in 2019. Since then, we've helped hundreds of investors deploy over $150 million into private market alternative investments.

As explained in the answer to “Does UpMarket do anything to protect my investment?” in the Investment Offerings and Selection Process above, UpMarket protects your investment by making it a distinct legal entity beyond the reach of UpMarket creditors or claimants. If UpMarket were to go out of business, a replacement manager would be appointed to manage the Fund.

Yes. UpMarket is subject to both state and federal regulation, including regulation by FINRA and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Upmarket Securities LLC is a FINRA-registered Broker-Dealer.

You can check on UpMarket's regulation status using FINRA's Broker Check website.

UpMarket makes money through the fees it charges investors.

UpMarket is a Delaware Registered Corporation. Our Access funds are all separate SPVs domiciled in Delaware or the Cayman Islands

UpMarket is proud to be female-founded and led. UpMarket is owned primarily by its CEO and its employees.

Yes, UpMarket supports investments made through Individual Retirement Accounts.

You can choose any Third Party IRA Provider and we'll do our best to accommodate your choice. Note: Any fees charged by an IRA provider will be the investor's responsibility and not covered by UpMarket.

Please consult a tax advisor to determine what, if any, tax liability a given investment may have. Every investor's tax liability is unique and UpMarket cannot provide tax advice.

UpMarket does not charge any fees to invest through an IRA or similar vehicle beyond the standard fees we charge any investor accessing one of our funds.

If you run a fund and would like to make it available to UpMarket investors, please send an email to managers@upmarket.co.

Our investment team will follow up and begin the diligence process to determine if your offering is a good fit for our platform.