Vint, a new Richmond-based wine and spirits investment platform, recently experienced a champagne-worthy launch day.
In less than 45 minutes, the company sold out its first wine collection offering, CEO and co-founder Nick King said.
“Selling out that quick was a fun day,” said King, whose company describes itself as “the future of wine investing.”
Two years ago, King first became interested in alternative assets — wine in particular. With the goal to create an “investor-friendly” way for people to invest in fine wine and spirits, he and co-founder Patrick Sanders created Vint in June 2019.
In the years leading up to its May launch, Vint received SEC qualification, began building an advisory board comprised of Masters of Wine and other experts, and sourced its first five collections.
The launch collection, which centered around California wines, comprised of 1,000 shares at $46 a share, and sold out in 51 minutes, King said.
The first offering brought in 80 investors with an average investment of $575. King said their customers tend to be early adopters who are familiar with the concept of alternative investing and enjoy wine.
So why invest in wine and spirits?
“There’s a reason that the top .01% has been investing in wine and whiskey and they have these big sellers,” King said. “It’s because it’s a good tool to diversify.”
For starters, the annual return for wine in the past three decades has hovered between 8% and 12%, he said, with slightly higher returns on whiskey. It’s also a low volatility asset that has stayed resilient even through recent market downturns.
Vint’s approach, to be SEC-qualified and transparent so that investors know exactly what wines they have in their portfolio, is unique among its competitors, King said. The company is also looking into expanding into alternative trading systems.
The company charges a front-end sourcing fee if Vint is able to source the wines for below market value. Going forward, King expects the fee to be about 8% for the next four collections, with no annual fee. Vint also invests a certain amount in each collection.
Following the success of the inaugural launch, the startup has four more collections planned — and a wait list of 750 people. The next collection, Tuscan wines, will launch this month.
Vint is also working on its seed round of funding, with plans to close at the end of July.