This document summarizes the findings from onboarding to 30 crowdinvestment platforms. It finds that 97% of platforms asked similar registration questions and required similar documents. The total onboarding time varied significantly between platforms, from just a few minutes to over 20 minutes. The number of questions in applications ranged widely as well, from under 10 to over 70. The document identifies Republic, Wefunder, and Fundrise as having particularly easy and intuitive onboarding processes. It was conducted by researchers at Byzantine Solutions and A.ID to study user experience and compliance requirements in crowdinvesting.

1. The Eternal Battle Between
User Experience and Compliance
September 2021
What we’ve learned from onboarding
to 30 crowdinvestment platforms

2. Crowdinvestmentment
Transactions, 2021
US $978M
Europe $2,516M
APAC 2,744M
LAC $55M
Africa $33M
China $1,351M
Source: https://www.statista.com/outlook/dmo/
f
intech/alternative-
f
inancing/crowdinvesting/europe

3. We onboarded to 30 crowdinvestment platforms
Angellist
Republic
Wefunder
Microventures
Seedrs
Crowdcube
StartEngine
YieldStreet
Nextseed
SMBX
WiseAlpha
Percent (ex-Cadence)
FundRise
CrowdStreet
Modiv
RealtyMogul
Cadre
Otis
RallyRd
MasterWorks
Vinovest
MyRaceHorse
ForgeGlobal
Sharespost
EquityZen
UnitedTraders
M1
f
inance
WeBull
Groww
Moonfare

4. Accessible for
US citizens Only
YieldStreet
Modiv
FundRise
Cadre
for accredited investors only
MyRaceHorse
Nextseed
RealtyMogul
RallyRd
Otis
WeBull
Microventures
Percent
You are an accredited investor if you
— Earn more than $200,000 and expect no less in
a coming year;
— Have a net worth over $1M;
— Own a trust or total investment assets of $5M.

5. Accessible for
Global Customers
Angellist
ForgeGlobal
EquityZen
StartEngine
YieldStreet
for accredited investors only
CrowdStreet
Wefunder
requires SSN or another tax residency
Republic
Seedrs
Crowdcube
Nextseed
SMBX
MasterWorks
Vinovest
MyRaceHorse
Sharespost
M1
f
inance
Moonfare

6. Unavailable for US Citizens
Seedrs
Crowdcube
UnitedTraders
M1
f
inance
Groww
WiseAlpha

7. Most Common Questions
in onboarding questionare
For registration: email, phone, full name;
For veri
f
ication: ID, address, date of birth;
Investment-related data: income, risk tolerance, previous investment experience.
The list of documents for onboarding:
• State ID, Passport, Driving license or another form of ID;
• Proof of address: a utility bill, or a signed lease agreement;
• SSN or another tax residency number;
• Bank statement or another documents to prove your income or net worth;
• Proof of employment.
7

8. 97%
Match in questions asked and documents requested
on crowdinvestment platforms

9. Total time spent
on registration and onboarding
Republic
Percent ex-Cadence
Nextseed
SMBX
Angel
Microventures
Wefunder
YieldStreet
Modiv
Seedrs
WiseAlpha
FundRise
CrowdStreet
Minutes
0 4 8 12 16 20

10. The number of question in the application
Republic
Percent ex-Cadence
Nextseed
Angel
SMBX
Microventures
Wefunder
YieldStreet
Seedrs
WiseAlpha
FundRise
Modiv
CrowdStreet
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

11. Onboarding champions
Republic Wefunder Fundrise
Easy and friendly interface,
intuitive process and
thoughtful design
With the pre-selected
answers and checkboxes
Integrated banking
statements and source of
income

12. The empirical research was designed and
conducted by
Alexandra Vachnadze, co-founder of Byzantine.Solutions,
f
intech research
lab
and Ekaterina Romanovskaya, co-founder of A.ID, Identity and Compliance
Platform