Do you invest in wine and spirits? Fintech startup Vint thinks everyone should, and hopes to facilitate this. But don’t expect bottles to be shipped to you: investments through Vint are fractional. Depending on the depth of your pockets, that’s probably for the best: The most recent sale on Vint was a bottle of Macallan 78-year-old whiskey worth $130,000.
While alternative investments are on the rise, financial advisors say the old 60/40 portfolio — 60% in stocks, 40% in bonds — is no longer enough. But “alts” come in all shapes and forms, and wine and spirits aren’t necessarily the most accessible, which Vint and others are changing.
Vint now has additional funding to fulfill its goals: after raising $1.7 million in October 2021, it recently closed a $5 million seed round led by Montage Ventures.
The fact that fine wines and spirits have outperformed other major asset classes, such as stocks, in recent years and seem immune to some of the public markets’ recent woes obviously doesn’t hurt Vint’s voice.
For example, the Financial Times recently reported that data from Scottish investment bank Noble & Co. showed that “prices for ‘fine and rare’ single malts have risen by more than a fifth this year, with volumes up 23 per cent.” In contrast, the UK’s main stock market index, the FTSE 100, said it had “traded flat this year”.
However, Vint CEO Nick King says the story is also about diversity and warns against false promises. “This is an investment. “Personally, I doubt if someone would tell me, ‘Just go down to the right,'” he said.
Still, King Vint boasts of 28.3% returns on asset exits on a net annual basis since inception. This already applies to the collections of wines and spirits that have gone through the entire life cycle of a vint: “source, secure, store, then sell.
Since it was launched a year and a half ago by King and co-founder Patrick Sanders, Vint has offered 50 “deals,” similar to many fundraising campaigns. The comparison doesn’t stop there: The startup spent eight months in the process of launching an SEC-qualified collection.
Ensuring Vint’s offerings are approved by the SEC is possible by creating a regulatory category known as Reg A+. It is itself part of the JOBS Act, which has created a tailwind for alternative investments.
The process was time-consuming for a young startup, but King thinks it was worth it. “For us, this is a long-term game. You don’t create a new asset class overnight, so it’s important to do things the right way and work with regulators to develop a structure that builds confidence in this asset class.”
Although this is framed around a “new asset class”, Vint has competitors such as Cavissima, Cult Wine Investment, iDealWine, Vinovest and U’Wine. But more than these, the company is opposed to the legacy options: do it yourself and exchange wine.
Interestingly, King thinks it’s a plus that he doesn’t come from the wine world – more than a wine company, he considers Vint a fintech. Finding unique bottles is still a big part of what Vint does, which is why the company has hired Adam Lapierre, Master of Wine Certification, as its head of wine.
Vint’s latest round is supporting the expansion of its current team of 12, along with business development and general consulting staff. As for the rest of the road map, here are some things King has in mind:
We are looking at new offers. We’ve done wines, whiskeys, scotch vaults and futures, so we’re looking at where you can add bourbon as well as new delivery styles. Then we want to add more data to the platform. We look at US market data, UK market data, auction market data to help inform our buying and selling decisions, and that’s something we want to continue to share with our users. And finally, most importantly, it continues to be out of stock.
It’s too early to say whether market conditions will be favorable for vintage collection sales as of late, but the rise of wine and spirits as an asset class will be worth watching either way. With inflation and volatility on the rise, it’s no surprise to see alts increasingly becoming a staple in portfolios.
