Linqto Review [2024]: Pre-IPO Investing Made Simple

Linqto basics

Minimum investment	$2,500 on your first investment $5,000 on subsequent investments
Management fees	None
Asset classes	Private investments
Account types available	Personal investment account
Features	Access to private investments Offerings guaranteed to close Ability to sell your investments at any time Referral program
Best for...	New accredited investors
	Visit Linqto

How does Linqto work?

Linqto is an investment platform that allows individual investors to access private investments. It aims to make investing in private companies as easy as investing in the public stock market.

The company was founded in 2010 and launched to the public in 2020. Based in San Francisco, California, Linqto is headed by CEO and co-founder Bill Sarris, a fintech expert who previously delivered applications for major companies like Microsoft and Intuit.

Since its launch, Linqto has helped more than 750,000 users worldwide invest more than $350 million in more than 60 companies. Its investments include unicorns — privately held startups with valuations of $1 billion or more — and early-stage companies such as Ripple and Kraken.

Who can use Linqto?

Although Linqto aims to make private investing more accessible, not everyone is eligible. To invest through Linqto, you need to be an accredited investor — someone with a net worth of more than $1 million (not including the value of their primary residence) or income of more than $200,000 in the current year and preceding two years ($300,000 for couples).

If you’re located in the United States, you can self-verify that you’re an accredited investor once you’ve reviewed the accreditation standards and are sure you meet them. Once you do that, you’ll be able to start investing.

Funding your account

You can fund your Linqto cash account in three ways: ACH, wire transfer, or Uphold. You can use ACH or wire transfers to transfer cash into your Linqto account. You can also link your Uphold account, which allows you to pay with U.S. dollars, foreign currency, cryptocurrencies, commodities, and other assets.

Once you’ve purchased investments, Linqto also allows you to pay for additional investments by leveraging your current holdings. If this option is available to you, you’ll see it as an option under the “Pay With” section of your order.

Finally, you can invest in Linqto with funds from your self-directed IRA, solo 401(k), or another entity. When you link this account, you can transfer funds from your self-directed account to your Linqto cash account and use it to invest in private companies. However, this option isn’t available for IRAs that aren’t self-directed.

Investing in private companies

Once you’ve opened and funded your account, you can start investing in private companies. You can search Linqto’s company marketplace by filtering by sector, sorting companies by valuation, or searching for companies by name.

When you’re ready to place an order, simply click on the company you want to invest in, choose how much you want to invest, and click “Begin Order.”

There’s a minimum investment of $2,500 on your first order and a minimum of $5,000 on all subsequent orders. While this may seem high to start with, the minimum on other private investments can range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.

Linqto is unique because when you invest in private companies, you aren’t buying shares directly from the company. Instead, Linqto buys shares in bulk from early investors, company advisors, and current and former employees. Linqto then turns around and sells these shares to its investors.

There are some benefits to this system. In traditional private investing, a company gets to choose who can invest — and it could choose to refuse your investment. But because Linqto owns the shares, it guarantees immediate sales and ensures the company can’t refuse your investment.

Selling your shares

Linqto is unique because there aren’t years-long lockup periods on your investments. Linqto has a minimum hold period of 90 days, which is how long you must hold the asset before you can sell it or use it to buy shares in a different company.

Once those 90 days pass, you may be free to sell your shares, which you can do by selecting a company in your portfolio and pressing “Sell.” You can enter the number of units you want to sell and submit your order. Once you submit it, the cash from the sale will immediately be available in your account.

In some cases, you may notice the “Sell” button isn’t available for a particular company. That means selling isn’t currently available for that asset, which could be due to a lack of buy-side demand or a pending company event.

Keep in mind that any number of events could happen before you sell your investment, including the company you’re invested in going public or being acquired or Linqto going out of business. In all of these cases, you’ll still own the shares you purchased. Linqto will guide you through the next steps, whether that’s transferring your public shares to a brokerage account or something else.

Linqto referrals

Linqto has a referral program that allows you and your friends to earn money to put toward your investments. Once you’ve set up your account, you can share your referral link with friends. When someone signs up from your link, you’ll earn $1,000 Linqto Bucks, which you can use to purchase investments. Your friend will receive $500 Linqto Bucks. There’s no limit on the number of friends you can refer or the number of Linqto Bucks you can earn.

How Linqto makes money

Linqto doesn’t charge any upfront or ongoing fees — no brokerage fees, management fees, administrative fees, or any other fees. However, that doesn’t mean you’re not paying to use the platform. Instead of charging fees, Linqto adds a mark-up to each share.

According to Linqto, because it gets shares for such a reasonable price by purchasing them in large quantities, it can add a reasonable market while still keeping prices affordable for investors.

Unfortunately, aside from stating that its market is “reasonable,” it doesn’t actually disclose what that markup is. This makes Linqto’s fee structure less transparent than many other investment platforms. You’re still paying to use the service in the form of a per-share upcharge, but you don’t know how much you’re paying.

What types of companies are on Linqto

Linqto aims to invest in mid-to-late-stage companies that it believes will go public or be acquired within the next five years. The company only invests in firms that are generating revenue with institutional venture capital or private equity funding.

This provides a few benefits for investors. First, it means the companies you’re investing in may be less likely to go out of business than a brand-new startup would be. They already have somewhat of a proven track record. Additionally, because the companies are likely to go public in the next few years, it could mean the value of your shares are about to increase in a big way.

Most companies featured in Linqto are technology companies, including blockchain and cryptocurrency companies, software companies, fintech companies, and more. While financials are important, Linqto also wants to invest in companies with visionary leadership who have successfully brought products and services to market.

Many of the companies currently or recently available on Linqto that may be household names include Ripple, Kraken, Chime, Stripe, Liquid Death, Patreon, Calm, M1 Finance, Acorns, and more.

Alternatives to Linqto

Linqto is a great option for investors who want access to private investments, but it’s not the only option. There are a wide variety of platforms that allow you to invest in all sorts of alternative investments, from private equity to early-stage startups to real estate.

If you’re interested in private investing but aren’t sure if Linqto is right for you, consider these alternatives:

EquityZen

Like Linqto, EquityZen allows investors to invest in private companies. Larger than Linqto, EquityZen has invested in hundreds of companies. And there are multiple investment options, including single-company funds, multi-company funds, and direct share acquisitions.

EquityZen offers a broader variety of pre-IPO companies currently available for investments than Linqto, but it does have a higher investment minimum. New investors can make their first investment with a reduced minimum of $10,000, but those with between one and five deals have a $20,000 minimum.

EquityZen also charges sales fees. The fee is based on the size of the investment, but the fee ranges from 3% to 5% of the investment amount. For actively managed funds, there are also carried interest or recurring management fees.

Because EquityZen has higher investment minimums, Linqto may be the better option if you want to start small. However, we like that EquityZen is more transparent about its pricing, that it has more companies available, and that you can choose between investing in a single company versus a fund of multiple companies.

Learn more in our EquityZen review.

AngelList

AngelList is another platform that allows individual investors to invest in private companies. It’s similar to EquityZen in that it allows you to choose between investing in individual companies and venture funds, which include several different startups.

AngelList’s minimum investment is far lower than other platforms — you can get started with as little as $1,000, but it depends on the deal. Venture funds have a management fee of 2% and carried interest of 20%. When you invest in individual companies, a percentage of the profit is retained as carry.

Like both Linqto and EquityZen, AngelList requires you to be an accredited investor to invest on the platform. It also has an added requirement that you have either worked for, invested in, or advised a startup before.

AngelList may be a good alternative for you if you want an even lower investment minimum than Linqto offers since you can start with just $1,000. We also appreciate its fee transparency and, like EquityZen, its option between investing in a single company versus a fund. However, its strict requirements about having a background in startups will likely disqualify quite a few investors.

Learn more in our AngelList review.

FAQs

Bottom line

If you meet the criteria to be an accredited investor, you could use Linqto to invest in promising companies at the pre-IPO stage, diversifying your portfolio, and potentially securing shares of high-performing companies early.

However, investing with Linqto — and private equity investing in general — isn’t for beginner investors. You need to meet the requirements for accredited investing to get started, and there is a higher level of risk with private investment opportunities.

If you are a novice investor, focus on learning the basics of investing money and consider opening an account with one of the best online brokers to get started.

If you want to invest through Linqto, learn more about becoming an accredited investor.