“What’s your track record?”
This is the first question out of most investors’ mouths when they’re looking to invest with WebStreet for the first time.
Investors want to know what digital asset returns are really like.
Could the projected 20%+ annual returns from online business investing be a reality?
It almost sounds too good to be true. Investors can now hold minority investment in online business assets while skilled portfolio managers acquire and grow the businesses. It transforms online businesses from an active investment into a passive one.
With two years behind us under Empire Flippers Capital, now rebranded as WebStreet, we’re excited to showcase our funds’ performance and the returns our investors have received.
We’re here to say, online business investing is just as good as it sounds; the money investors are making is an absolute reality.
Let’s let the numbers speak for themselves.
Our Track Record for Investors
To start, here’s what we have achieved in just two years:
- Despite a tumultuous economy, Round 1 portfolios have delivered 15% cash distributions in the last 12 months and are on track for over 20% annualized returns over the lifetime of asset ownership.
- Over the last 24 months, we launched 4 rounds of investment under EF Capital (now WebStreet). These 4 rounds have brought in $22M+ in investments from 300+ investors.
- We brought on 13 high-performing operators, who have purchased 30+ digital assets across content businesses, Amazon FBA, Kindle Direct Publishing, and soon SaaS.
Considering this asset class was just an idea not long ago, it’s safe to say online business investment has solidified at a rapid pace.
What’s most exciting about online business investing picking up steam are the returns investors have already realized.
Out of the four rounds, three now have enough historical data to review. Below, we have an overview of each round’s cash yield to investors to date.
The data shows that time is on our side, as our earliest Rounds have begun to align with our projected 20%+ annual returns for investors.
Looking back on this initial overview of Round 1’s performance, the growth is clear cut: the Round initially brought in 4.9% cash returns and has a cumulative 17.7% life-to-date cash yield today. In particular, Fund 8001 has an exciting 23% life-to-date cash yield for investors.
As this round of investments continues to generate returns, it sets the tone for what yield rounds can produce and the kinds of returns younger funds can aspire to reach.
Round 2 has been interesting to watch as it incorporated KDP into the acquisition pool.
KDP is a monetization we’ve only dipped our toes in. Available KDP assets are harder to find across available marketplaces, however, there’s generally less competition for these assets allowing our Portfolio Managers to acquire KDP businesses with a more favorable deal structure. Round 2 performance numbers are still underway, but our KDP fund is looking strong with a life-to-date 11.8% cash yield across only 3 quarters.
The buyer pool for high-performing KDP businesses is growing and we anticipate that it could lead to higher exit multiples down the road. This monetization will be one for investors to watch.
Round 3 has a majority of FBA-focused funds.
It’s worth noting that FBA businesses take longer to generate returns as more capital is set aside in the beginning for inventory and growth capital for the asset. Oftentimes, unless the portfolio manager executes immediately on significant growth, the quarterly distributions will be smaller on a percentage basis. However, there can be more growth later on, in which case investor returns for FBA businesses will be backloaded.
FBA has been one the strongest performing monetizations over the past few years as it has become an asset class all of its own thanks to eager investment from FBA-focused private equity.
While there is a bit of wait for investors to generate full returns, the investment model for FBA assets is well-established and robust, meaning the roadmap to scale acquired FBA assets is clearly laid out for our Portfolio Managers.
That being said, we don’t advise cherry-picking monetizations for investment.
How to Protect and Boost Investments
Diversifying across funds is key to balancing investment performance for two main reasons.
First, each monetization requires a different growth strategy and will require a different timeline to expect returns.
Second, online businesses still carry their own risks and we’ve projected that some deals in a round could fail. Online businesses may be somewhat insulated from market trends, however, they’re still reliant on Amazon’s changing Terms of Service and have to bear Google updates that could impact site performance.
That’s why in a diversified basket of deals, the growing deals can offset any losses.
We have structures in place to make investing across portfolios easy for investors. Our “Invest in All” option allows investors to make a simple lump sum investment that is dispersed across all funds in one Round. We want to offer investors a one-stop-shop approach to diversification and make balancing risk and reward simple.
Overall, looking back at these two years we can say that our returns are looking solid for our investors.
We’re on track to not just meet, but in some cases exceed the expectations of our investors, and that is something we’re truly proud of. Investors are walking away with cash returns that are actually paid after each quarter—a relative feat considering we recently laid the foundation for this asset class.
What’s most exciting is these businesses are projected to continue to grow. After the holding period of 2-4 years, investors can realize even greater returns once the businesses are sold.
Thirty acquisitions later we are making great headway on making online business investment easy for accredited investors. Our rounds continue to build momentum and create a track record investors can trust.
How Investment is Changing in Our Current Rounds
We recently announced the mission behind WebStreet and what makes our rebrand exciting for investors.
In short: we’ve set out to make online business investing more accessible than ever before.
We’re creating and leveling the playing field for those who’ve always wanted to get into digital assets. To do this, our vision is to deploy $100 million per year into cash-flowing online business opportunities, so that every investor gets a chance to invest in this lucrative asset class.
Furthermore, we’re creating an entirely new pathway for individuals to invest in assets that have their own unique path for growth.
Let’s zoom in on one example: the world has been an uncertain place during the pandemic and markets are bracing for a potential recession.
Yet, In the midst of (and despite) it all, our investments have continued to grow.
Webstreet’s investments have significantly outperformed other asset classes including traditional inflation hedges in 2022:
| EF Capital: | +15% |
| Equities: | -20% |
| REITs: | -27% |
| Bonds: | -14% |
| Gold: | -9% |
| Bitcoin: | -62% |
We see this and recognize that the potential here is huge.
While investors anxiously hold their breath wondering how their investments will pan out, we are able to offer an alternative that can help balance out market lows. We can give investors an investment class separate from traditional markets. We can give people a little bit of hope that there are other ways to profitably invest their hard earned money.
This is what drives us at WebStreet, and it’s why we are changing the way we do deals to maximize opportunities for investors.
Our most notable change was to open to acquisitions across deal sources, including most trusted marketplaces and private deal networks.
This expands our deal sources considerably and gives Portfolio Managers greater leverage to execute their most ambitious growth strategies on best-in-class digital assets.
Thus, we anticipate rounds to fund faster than previous rounds due to growing interest in the space and excitement for a wider range of deal opportunities.
We’re seeing this come to fruition in Round 4 currently. This round wrapped in January 2023, raising 3.8 million across three funds.
The 90-day acquisition period will last from February to April 2023. Portfolio Managers are already capitalizing on greater access to deal flow and are successfully finding quality acquisitions with the help of our in-house acquisition advisors.
As acquisitions are only underway, investors can expect their first performance report in mid-August.
Round 5 is Open for Investment
Round 5 just opened featuring four Portfolio Managers, including one repeat PM. Investment into funds is already pouring in and we believe the Round should fund quickly.
As a note, in Round 5 our minimum investment stays the same at $30,000. However, past investors in EF Capital have early-bird investor advantages. Those investors looking to easily diversify can take advantage of the “Invest in All” option at a $60,000 investment minimum which allows them to diversify their investments across all four funds.
If you are interested in joining in Round 5 investment, don’t wait. This round has a finite investment period so make sure to sign up here to look at the available funds.
