- Vint is a fintech that offers fractionalized shares of high-end wines and spirits.
- Nick King and Patrick Sanders founded the startup in 2019.
- Vint used this 13-page pitch deck to raise a $5 million seed round.
This fintech wants to make investing in wines and spirits accessible to everyone by creating a new asset class.
The market for investing in wines and spirits is “highly inefficient” and “largely inaccessible,” Vint CEO and cofounder Nick King told Insider. But wines and spirits have a strong history of good returns and tend to hold their value despite what’s happening in the wider financial markets.
That’s why King and his cofounder and CTO, Patrick Sanders, launched Vint in June 2019 as a marketplace to enable both accredited and non-accredited investors to buy shares in collections of fine wines and spirits.
“What we’re trying to do is to create a financial asset class. We’re not a wine company, we’re a fintech company, and that is the mission,” said King. “You should look at wine and spirits just like you look at stocks, bonds, and real estate when it comes to constructing a portfolio.”
Vint closed a $5 million seed round led by Montage Ventures in December 2022. In October 2021, the startup raised $1.7 million in a pre-seed round. King declined to share Vint’s valuation. The new funding comes as venture investing is expected to continue to slow this year.
Vint
On Vint, a $200,000 collection of 500 bottles of Bordeaux wines, for instance, would sell for 2,000 shares priced at $100 each. This allows retail investors to efficiently diversify their portfolio without having to buy a single bottle that could cost thousands.
The minimum investment is one share, which typically costs between $50 and $100.
A key selling point for Vint is the fact that all its shares are securitized by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“We’ve found that the more expensive the asset, the stronger the return,” said King. “So in order to offer investors the highest caliber of asset, we view this fractional nature to be the best way.”
From Robinhood users to hedge-fund traders
Vint’s users range from mom-and-pop investors to IRA custodians, hedge-fund traders, and tech execs investing over six figures on the platform. Retail investors appreciate Vint’s accessibility while high-net-worth investors appreciate its trust-factor that comes with SEC accreditation, according to King.
While some users appreciate Vint’s ability to afford them access to high-end wines and spirits, others simply look at the fintech as a way to invest in another financial asset. Their largest concern is its returns and lack of correlation to broader markets.
Vint will use its seed round funds to expand its team, better manage data, and offer additional products. One new hire included bringing on Adam Lapierre as Vint’s director of wine. Lapierre is a certified master of wine, one of only 57 in the United States to hold the title.
Part of the fintech’s plans include consolidate fragmented industry data to help investors make more data-driven decisions about the wines and spirits they invest in. Vint also plans to explore more collections, different themes, and new products, such as bourbon.
“Financial innovation, especially within investor portfolios, doesn’t happen in good times,” King said. “Losing money is painful. Loss aversion tells us that losing money is far more painful than making money feels good, so that spurs a call for action from investors or advisors.