Happy New Years! We hope you had a great holiday season, and continue to enjoy the time off. Last week, we gave you a recap of 2023. This week we’re giving you some 2024 predictions, breaking down the latest news, the greatest Hubtas features, and an innovative new startup!

Hubtas 2024 Predictions

2023 was a rough year for equity crowdfunding by nearly every metric. The industry peaked around late 2021 and early 2022. The industry bottomed in December of 2022 and has since been slowly rebounding but still well below their 2021 levels. Going into 2024, there seems to be a number of tailwinds in favor of a strong 2024.

It’s important to realize that the private markets are heavily tied to the public markets. High valuation multiples in the public markets mean companies in the private markets can demand higher valuations. If there’s lots of capital flowing into the public markets, stocks are climbing. This helps all companies as companies will naturally trend upwards if they are public. This means that companies will have more successful IPOs, and the subsequent performance will tend to trend upwards. This encourages more IPOs to happen over time. As well, as stocks climb, people are making money which means investors are more willing to speculate, free up cash for riskier investments, and startups have better access to capital.

There are promising signs of a strong public market in 2024. Notably, the Fed recently signaled they plan to lower rates in 2024. One of the main drivers for poor performance in 2023 has been high-yield, nearly risk-free alternatives due to high-interest rates. Many high-yield savings accounts are offering over 5%. When most funds are shooting for 7-10%, it’s pretty easy to get close by simply waiting out the storm with high yields in a risk-free way.

As those rates fall, investors will look to return to the public markets for higher yields. Similarly, inflation is still quite high at roughly 3% and the government is at an all-time high. The interest on our national debt alone is quickly becoming our #1 spending category. If government spending doesn’t substantially slow down, and inflation remains high, then investors will look to park their money in asset-based investments like stocks and funds.

There are several other bullish factors like all-time high consumer spending and a general indication that markets have bottomed following a recession. Equity crowdfunding’s monthly raise amounts have nearly doubled since their December 2022 lows, and continue to climb slowly. While it’s likely we still have a bit before equity crowdfunding is hitting record numbers, a couple of big IPOs or exciting startups could quickly propel the industry to new highs.

All of this bodes well for public markets, and, thus, private markets. If companies begin to IPO, startup investors will begin seeing liquidity in their portfolios that they can re-invest. If the IPOs are successful, and investors see big paydays from these public offerings, it will attract new investors looking to score a payday.

All in all, we’re bullish on equity crowdfunding for 2024.

SWITCH

Last week, we were thrilled to offer you an inside look into SWITCH, an innovative startup making waves in the online dating space. Our CEO sat down with the founders, KiKi & Corey, to talk about the ways they’re changing the game in the online dating space. Prospective investors can sit down for a chat of their own with the founders by emailing [email protected] to schedule a call.

Rather than endless swiping and cheap chats, SWITCH uses its patent-pending technology to connect via real-time audio, authentic speed dating, app-generated conversation starters, and comprehensive account verification. All of this has attracted the attention of $200,000 in investments prior to their ongoing raise, and the Fanbase founder and CEO as a strategic advisor. But don’t take our word for it. The startup is currently live on StartEngine, which means anyone can invest for a limited time. Click below to explore this opportunity, investment opportunity ends soon.

_{Hubtas may receive compensation for the publication of the issuer’s securities. Hubtas does not give investing advice. Startup investing is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk. This is a paid ad sponsorship for Switch’s Reg CF campaign on StartEngine. Please consult Switch’s offering circular here for more info.}

Recent News

Signs of life for StartEngine Secondary? StartEngine said they were planning on getting StartEngine’s stock listed and trading on Secondary before the end of 2023. While this didn’t happen, they did list a number of other companies recently. Checkout the full article here:

New to equity crowdfunding? Want to know a bit of history about the industry? Check out this comprehensive guide on the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act that started the whole industry!

StartEngine, Wefunder, and…. who? Republic has been falling off the list of the traditional ‘top 3’ leaving room for other companies to start taking the #3 spot. Checkout this comprehensive guide on Silicon Prairie, an innovative up-and-coming equity crowdfunding portals:

Quant Score Deep Dive

In this months deep dive, we’re exploring the #1 startup in equity crowdfunding according to our objective rating criteria: Sorting Robotics. This is an interesting one because it has all the making of a unicorn with absolutely no traction.

Sorting Robotics currently ranks #1 in equity crowdfunding with an overall score of 3.253/5. We regularly adjust our algorithms to portray better the reality of what makes a good startup. This is based on our own knowledge and intuition, what other venture capitalists look for, commonly accepted principles, and more. But our rankings are incredibly rigorous, so the top startup only doesn’t crack a 3.5/5.

Here are the highlights of Sorting Robotics:

• Backed by Y-Combinator and other top venture capitalists

• Tripled Revenue from 2021 to 2022 (a STAGGERING $1.35 million → 3.81 million)

• Founding team has 2 previous exits

• Profitable ($220k profit)

And a host of other incredibly exciting points. But why haven’t you heard about it? Probably because it’s only raised about $12,355 in total. Companies that don’t raise at least $50,000 won’t even show up on the Wefunder platform. But that’s also why, at Hubtas, we don’t focus on the amount raised.

By focusing on raise amounts, people can easily FOMO (fear of missing out) into terrible companies. Just because everyone else is investing in a company doesn’t mean it’s a great company. It often just means they are spending a lot on ads.

Using Hubtas, you can find these ‘diamonds in the rough’ that give you deal flow based on quality using our objective rating criteria.

Want to see the quant score of other companies? Create a FREE Hubtas Account.

Your friends, family, colleagues can all benefit from having their own personal investment analyst! Whether they are a first-time investor or a seasoned investor, we have the tools for all.