Accredited investors

1. People

You are an accredited investor if any one of these is true:

• Net worth: over $1 million, alone or together with your spouse or partner, not counting your main home.
• Income: over $200,000 a year (or $300,000 together with your spouse or partner) in each of the last two years, and you expect the same this year.
• Licenses: you hold a Series 7, Series 65 or Series 82 license in good standing.
• Insiders: you are a director, executive officer or general partner of the company selling the securities.
• Family offices: you are a “family client” of a family office that is itself accredited.
• Private funds: for investments in a private fund, you are a “knowledgeable employee” of that fund.

2. Companies, funds and other entities

An entity can be an accredited investor too, for example:

• a corporation, partnership, LLC, trust, nonprofit (501(c)(3)), employee benefit plan or family office with more than $5 million in assets, or any entity owning more than $5 million in investments;
• an entity whose equity owners are all accredited investors;
• registered or exempt-reporting investment advisers, and registered broker-dealers;
• banks, insurance companies, registered investment companies, business development companies, and small business or rural business investment companies.

3. Why SeedSpark asks

Early-stage companies usually raise money through private offerings that are limited to accredited investors. SeedSpark is for accredited investors only, so every investor confirms this statement when they sign up:

I confirm that I am an accredited investor as defined in Rule 501(a) of Regulation D under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, or that I am signing up on behalf of an entity that is an accredited investor. I will tell SeedSpark if this stops being true, and I understand that SeedSpark may ask me for proof and may suspend my account.

We store the exact text you confirmed, when, and from which IP address. We review investor accounts before they can contact creators, but that review does not confirm your accredited status: creators and the companies you invest in may ask you for proof, and so may we.

This page is a summary, not legal advice. The full rules are in Rule 501(a) of Regulation D. Read the SEC's own explanation at sec.gov.