Want to know when vegan startups are raising money and you can invest a small amount?

It’s a free-to-join community where vegans come together to learn from each other about early-stage investing and aligning your money with your values. Club members get email announcements about opportunities to invest sometimes, starting at just $100 in exciting vegan companies. The goal is to accelerate the vegan economy and do well by doing good.

It was started by Mark Perlmutter, a vegan entrepreneur whose first career was in the investment industry. He then used his experience to start a vegan film company, a vegan convenience food company, and now the Vegan Investing Club. After consulting former Wall Street colleagues on the best way to fund his vegan food company and take it all the way to IPO, he found no clear path. Vegan companies rarely go the route of IPO or acquisition like many Silicon Valley tech startups, so if prospective investors don’t see an exit strategy it’s hard for the entrepreneur to raise early-stage money. So he designed a 5-year plan for his food company to scale and go public which would exit its early investors at a great profit. When he told his colleagues they remarked that so many vegan entrepreneurs also need a plan like this. And they asked could it be templated?

With feedback from eight vegan leaders and influencers a template including a way to raise early money was created. And poof ….. this Club was born. The Club was announced on July 15, 2020 by Happy Cow’s founder Eric Brent to members of his site and then ads were run to gather members.

It grew from the solution for one vegan entrepreneur, into a Club to support hundreds of vegan entrepreneurs over the coming decades. The goal is bringing together tens of thousands of vegan advocates to accelerate the vegan economy by each investing small amounts in promising startups.

Members share a mission: “to make the world more vegan by growing the vegan economy.” By applying best practices from the investment world we can succeed.

No. Investments are not made on this site. The Club simply notifies members as soon as a vegan company announces an offering that follows the Club template and if there are early-bird specials. The first notifications were in Phase 2 and those were successful. We’re now in Phase 3 and announcing more companies. So after joining you’ll begin getting announcements.

Once you get an announcement, you link to the regulated Crowdfund Portal to view details of the company. If you choose to invest, that is where you will make your investment.

All companies announced by the Club will be in the early-stage and raising money on a regulated Crowdfund Portal where it is legal for anyone & everyone to invest. As investors ourselves, we like to see companies with a defined exit strategy, a smart use of funds, some traction or a compelling idea, a reasonable valuation, bonus shares for early investors, and allowing investors to start with $100.

Previous to the Crowdfunding laws, early-stage opportunities were not available to 98% of the public. Through the Club, tens of thousands of vegan advocates and small investors will be notified when young vegan companies are available for them to invest in.

Inevitably, member discussions in the Club’s Facebook group and LinkedIn group include public vegan companies. But our Club’s purpose is to notify members about young startups raising early funds via Crowdfunding. And our educational efforts will address the how to’s of Crowdfunding.

Investing early before a company goes public can be lucrative. But it requires access to early-stage deals. The Crowdfunding laws allow every American to view opportunities previously reserved for about 2% of us.

Our Club is advised by vegan leaders with many years in the vegan movement. We will continue evolving to help advance the vegan economy and that may someday include announcements of public companies.

Member engagement is encouraged & necessary for best learning. Please share & participate! Everyone welcomes relevant questions and answers from other vegans. There are no wrong questions.

If you have a private question don’t hesitate to email us at Hello@VeganInvestingClub.org or use our contact form on our website.

No. We are neither. No transactions take place on our Club’s site.

We simply notify members of vegan Crowdfund offerings posted on Portals and suggest interested members link to view the offering. As such we are not licensed by the SEC.

As of February 2022 we are in Phase 3 and companies planning a Crowdfunding on a Portal can contact us. We can suggest a 5-year funding plan recommended by our Advisors. It’s suitable for scalable companies and culminates in an IPO or acquisition to let early investors and founders exit.

In the near future, we hope to have an array of helpful resources available for all kinds of vegan companies.

When a Crowdfund company gives free shares to investors as an incentive in the early-bird period, these are known as Bonus shares. This is one of things we like to see in a company.

The Club does not evaluate or do due diligence on companies. We do not have the expertise for that. Crowdfund Portals and broker dealers may do that. Rather, we simply notify members of vegan companies raising funds on a Crowdfund portal that we love their product or service, or believe their success would make the world better.

Once a member receives our email alert, the rest is up to them.
If they visit the Portal to view the company’s Crowdfund offering, and wish to invest they must do it on the Portal.

We do not charge members any fees.

Instead we collect a per member fee from companies for announcing their Crowdfunding to members.

We use these fees to accelerate the vegan economy, for ads to attract more members, website, writing time, email SaaS services, research, and other operating costs of the Club. Every announcement includes this disclosure.

We are gathering thousands of vegan advocates to act in unison for a more vegan world.

Yes, investing in young companies is risky. Conventional wisdom teaches that diversifying into ten or more startups each year can be wise. This may increase the chances of one big win to make up for others that don’t succeed. If one of your early-stage companies is a success, it may be enough to pay for the others that are not. When investing in young companies, taking advantage of early-bird discounts and Bonus shares can be important.