Bolsa Social is a participatory financing / equity crowdfunding platform that connects social enterprises with impact investors, the first platform of its kind authorized by the CNMV in Spain. Bolsa Social seeks to finance the growth of companies with a good business model, growth potential, and which produces a positive impact on society and the environment. At the same time, Bolsa Social is aimed at investors who seek to obtain not only a fair financial return on their investments, but also an "impact" return, in an economic, social and/or environmental way. Bolsa Social promotes impact investments in society.

These are companies that produce goods or provide services in an innovative, sustainable and profitable way, producing at the same time a positive impact on society and the environment.

In Bolsa Social, companies have a mission of social impact, and their activity is intentionally focused on solving some of the most relevant social and / or environmental challenges of our time. In this sense, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) serve as a framework to know what social or environmental challenge each company is facing.

Impact investing is a type of investment that seeks both a fair financial return for the investor and a positive, measurable and creditable social and / or environmental impact. According to the GIIN (Global Impact Investing Network), one of the reference sources in terms of impact investing, this type of investment moved a total of approximately 715 billion dollars in 2020, as stated in their latest annual guide.

At Bolsa Social we promote impact investment, since through the platform anyone can invest in companies with a social impact, with potential for profitability and with a social impact that is measured through impact indicators.

Crowdfunding is a participative finance mechanism that represents an alternative to traditional funding. Thanks to crowdfunding, projects and business ideas can be easily financed with the contributions of a plurality of investors through an online platform.

Bolsa Social is an equity crowdfunding platform, this means that investors acquire shares or stock of the capital of the companies financed on our platform, becoming shareholders of the social companies.

The platform receives proposals from companies seeking funding. The best ones are selected and the platform establishes an investment agreement that is balanced both for investors and the company. The relevant information about these companies is published on Bolsa Social for 2 to 3 months. Within this period you can invest in the company. During the campaign, your money is kept in a special account (an escrow account) held by Triodos Bank, the leader in ethical and sustainable banking in Europe. If the capital targeted is reached, the money is transferred to the entrepreneur and the process of the capital increase is started. If the investment target is not attained before the deadline, the money is transferred back to investors with no costs for them.
 
You can read more about how La Bolsa Social works here.

It is a way of equity crowdfunding aiming to produce a positive social and environmental impact by connecting companies and investors with values. Bolsa Social is the first crowdimpacting platform in Spain.

Yes. On the 16th of April 2015, the Law on the Promotion of Corporate Finance was passed. This act regulates the activity of this type of platforms (equity crowdfunding and crowdlending) in Spain. These platforms have to be authorized by the CNMV, the Spanish National Securities Market Commission. 

Yes. Bolsa Social is the first equity crowdfunding authorized by the Spanish National Securities Market Commission.

Yes. An audit firm checks annually that we fulfill the requirements of Law 5/2015 for the Promotion of Corporate Financing, and audits our annual accounts. The audit firm is Capital Auditors & Consultants. It is registered in the Official Register for Accounts Auditors of the Spanish Accounting and Auditing National Institute (ICAC).

If the campaign is successful, La Bolsa Social charges the entrepreneur up to 6% of the amount raised, plus 500€ annually during 5 years. This includes transfer fees. If the campaign is not successful, La Bolsa Social only charges a publication fee of 1000 €.

In addition, Bolsa Social has other lines of business independent of participatory financing rounds, such as the private search for impact investors (M&A consultancy), or the search and management of public financing (grants, Enisa ...), among others.

No. Bolsa Social is an eqiuty crowdfunding platform. In other words, investors acquire stock in the companies’ capital in exchange of their investment.

You can contact us by filling this contact form; we would be delighted to help you.

In order to select the companies you can invest in we apply the following filters:

1. The company must have a good and proven business model, generating a turnover (at least) in the last year.
2. The company must have growth potential.
3. The company must produce a positive impact on society and the environment. This is to say, they must improve people’s lives and must be concerned about the environment.
4. The company must be an SL or SA based in Spain.

When we verify that the projects meet the four criteria set out above, our analysis team proceeds to analyze in depth the quality and involvement of the team, the idea, the business plan, the market, the competition, etc., in order to select the best companies. Once this analysis has been carried out, we present the best opportunities to a Selection Committee made up of professionals outside the Bolsa Social, who give us their vision and an external opinion.

Finally, the projects selected by Bolsa Social undergo detailed analysis and simplified legal due diligence with the help of a law firm.

You can access all the information about the projects published and the analysis by registering on the platform.

Yes. The information displayed in the projects’ page is confidential. By signing up you commit yourself to respect this confidentiality and refrain from showing this information to other people. You may find all the relevant information in the section privacy policy.

Your personal data are confidential and we do not share them with anybody. We keep them in our private data register (filed with the Spanish Data Protection Authory) and we use your data in order to keep you updated about the projects. We would only share your personal data with the company and with the notary in case you invest, when proceeding with the capital increase, or with the Spanish financial authorities if they request them (Spanish National Securities Market Commission and Bank of Spain).

In addition, in “My Account” section you can decide which part of your "public" profile is visible to other registered users.

If you want more information on this topic, have a look at our privacy policy.
 

During the campaign your money is kept in a special account (an escrow account) in Tríodos Bank waiting for the target of the campaign to be attained or until the end of the campaign. If the target amount is reached, Tríodos transfers the money to the campnay and we perform the capital increase on in your name and in the name of the other inverstors at the notary. We will send you a certificate with all the information.

In the event that the campaign does not reach the minimum objective established, the funds will be returned to you at no cost.

You can do both.

In case you invest using your credit card, your investment will be immediately confirmed. Bolsa Social will not keep the card number because the wire will take place outside the platform, via Redsys. Just take into account that your bank may have established a limit for your card payments.

In case you choose to invest via bank transfer, please be aware that Bolsa Social would only recognise your investment once we confirm that you have actually transferred the money to the escrow account in Triodos Bank. In case a company is overfunded, Bolsa Social would give prevalence to the investors that transferred the money first.

Triodos Bank will give you your money back free of charges or fees.
 

Yes. Normally the minimum investment is 1,000 euros, but it can vary depending on the company.

Professional and experienced investors can invest with no limits in the companies of Bolsa Social. However, if you are a “non-certified” investor in accordance with the Spanish law 5/2015, you cannot invest more than 3,000€ per company or more than 10,000€ annually in the different projects published in Bolsa Social. 

The Law distinguishes between “certified” and “non-certified” investors according to their knowledge, experience and risk aversion. “Non-certified” investors cannot invest more than 3,000€ per project or more than 10,000€ annually in different projects in Bolsa Social. “Certified” investors do not have any limit for the sum they can invest nor for the number of projects in which they can do so.
 

The following qualify as “certified” investors:

• regulated professional investors (funds, credit institutions, investment firms, etc.)
• companies with a large number of assets
• natural or legal persons that either a) have a contract with an financial advisor that contemplates Bolsa Social´s operations or b) can demonstrate that they have economic capacity and appropriate investment knowledge.

Investor other than those are “non-certified” investors.
In your personal account you can check if you are a certified or non-certified investor.

By default, all the natural and legal persons not falling under the description given in the answer to the previous question are considered “non-certified” investors and, thus, can only invest up to 3,000 euros per company and 10,000 euros annually at Bolsa Social.

Yes, you can.

If you are a natural person, you can ask Bolsa Social to upgrade your investor status in "My account" section.

It is a very simple process: you will have to confirm that you have sufficient capacity and experience to invest in the capital of the companies published in Bolsa Social by doing two things: first, you have to confirm that, either you earn more than € 50,000 per year or you have financial assets worth over € 100,000; second, you will have to answer and send to us a simple questionnaire that you will find in the “My Account” section once you have signed up.

Alternatively, you can be upgraded to cretified investor if you confirm that you have signed a contract on financial advise with an investment firm that covers the type of operations that we do at Bolsa Social.

If you are a legal entity, you just have to ask Bolsa Social to treated you as a “certified” investor. You can do so from "My account" section, at "Investor status".

The companies published in Bolsa Social are young and have high growth potential; these are companies that can offer high returns but also they have high risk. In addition, the investment horizon is normally long, because in order to recover the money invested you must wait either for the company to be sold to a third party or for the company or the shareholders to buy your stock in the company.  In some cases, an exit may also occur in future capital increases after a specified number of years. In this post we explain in detail what are the possible cases in which you can make your investment profitable.

It is very complicated to quantify beforehand the risk and return of this type of investment. In accordance with a survey carried by NESTA (www.nesta.org.uk) and the British Business Angels Association, the average return is around 2,2 times the money invested in an investment period of 3,6 years. This is to say a TIR higher than 20% a year, besides the important tax incentives derived from investing in less than 3 years old companies. It should be noticed that the average return of this study is the sum of very diverse returns: 56% of investments generate losses, with a return below the capital invested. Only 44% get a return higher than the capital invested; only 9% generate a return 10 times higher than the money invested.

Since our birth in 2015, two companies on the Bolsa Social have had profitable exits for their investors: Nostoc Biotech and Utopicus.

Diversification is a way to mitigate the inherent risk of investment. It is essential to distribute the money invested in a high number of investments, in different sectors, state of maturity, moments in time or geographical distribution. Diversifying is essential when you invest in young companies, because failure is common in this type of companies. The aim of having a diversified portfolio is to achieve a positive global return of investment, taking into account the high risk of these companeis, individually considered. For more information, please read carefully, our warning and recommendations.

May be. When you invest in companies that are younger than 3 years old you can deduct up to 30% of your investment from your personal income tax in Spain. The maximum amount that you can deduce is 60.000 € per year. This would allow you to deduct up to 18.000€ a year of the national tax liability. In addition to this deduction, there are regional deductions that change according to the autonomous community. Our recommendation is that you consult with your tax advisor to know the exact amounts in each case. You should comply with two requisits:

• You should hold your shares a minimum of 3 years and maximum of 12.
• In your tax declaration you should present a certificate from the company/s in which you have invested specifying the amount you have invested.

If you have more questions, in this blog post we give you more information.
 

Yes. Investing in the capital of the companies published by Bolsa Social is of high risk, because generally these are very young companies and their success is uncertain. When you invest in a company published in Bolsa Social, you become a shareholder of the company you have decided to support and you assume its benefits and the risks, just as entrepreneurs (now your partners) do. Therefore, if things do not go well for the company, you may lose all or part of your investment (however, never more than that). Returns are not guaranteed and, since these are non-listed companies, it may not be easy to find buyers for your shares.
 
Bolsa Social targets investors who understand the risks and can assume them. Our advice is that you should not invest any money you can not afford losing (so that you are prepared for the worst case scenario) and that you diversify your investments by investing in several companies.
 
Please read carefully the description of the risks and the information on the projects we give you. If you have any doubts we recommend you to seek the advice of an expert.

Yes. In fact, it is advisable that you do so. Diversifying your investment by investing in several companies reduces risk. It is not safe to put all your eggs in one basket.

We invest in every company that we advertise only when we are able to, an amount that never exceeds 10%, which is the limit imposed by the law on crowdfunding.

By signing up to Bolsa Social you will be able to access the forum on each project (tab "Comments & News") and ask questions to the entrepreneurs. In addition, you will be able to participate in the projects presentation events we organise and meet the entrepreneurs in person.

All the investors form a joint ownership and are represented by the key investor (the one who has invested the biggest amount during the campaign). The key investor represents the rest of the investors on the company’s board of directors and in the stockholders meetings and defends the interests of the new stockholders.
 
In addition, the stockholders agreement specifies the circumstances that govern the tag-along and drag-along rights. To know all your rights as a shareholder, you can download the Investment Agreement that you will sign in each case in the "Documents" tab, in the campaign page.

By investing in the company’s capital you become one of its stockholders. The investor who makes the largest contribution will have the right to occupy one seat on the company’s board of directors and votes in the stockholders meetings on behalf of all the new stockholders. A standard stockholders agreement that we have drafted with the assistance of a prestigious law firm protects your rights as a stockholder. To know all your rights as a shareholder, you can download the Investment Agreement that you will sign in each case in the "Documents" tab, within the campaign.

Usually 2 or 3 months long. Upon agreement with the entrepreneur, the campaign can be extended 15 more days.

Projects have a minimum and a maximum objective (that is why the investment percentage appears as a range between two figures). A campaign is considered to be successful when the minimum objective is attained, but it goes on until it reaches the maximum objective or until the deadline.

If you have invested once in the project and want to invest again during the same investment round, you can do it freely.

Bolsa Social proceeds with the capital increase on your and the rest of the investors’ behalf before a notary public and you become one of the company’s stockholders.

Once the investment round is finished, companies must send their shareholders quarterly reports on the progress of the project (its results, relevant events and social and environmental impact reports) which you can access from your account at any time.

All the communication of the company with its shareholders will be through the platform. In addition, from Bolsa Social we organize an annual meeting of companies with their shareholders, generally at the end of the year, where companies present their results until then and where the shareholders can send their questions and comments.

Yes, you can. The condition established by law to invest in Spanish companies is that you have a Foreigner Identity Number (NIE). If you don't have it, the process to obtain it is explained here.

What happens if you don't have a NIE?

In the event that you still do not have your NIE, you can also invest. You can register on the platform using your passport number, and invest in any of our opportunities. Now, take into account that once the capital increase operation has been formalized, in the coming months you will have to obtain your NIE so that the company can successfully register the capital increase in the Commercial Registry. If this is your case, both the company and the Bolsa Social will help you throughout the process.

No. Investing through Bolsa Social is free. However, if in the future you make your investment profitable, we will charge you a commission of 7.5% on your profits.

Example: imagine that you invest 10,000 euros in a certain company. At the time of your investment you will not pay any commission. However, if after several years the company revalues ??and you have the opportunity to sell your shares for, for example, double the value (20,000 euros), we will charge 7.5% on your profits (which in this case are 10,000 euros). That is, we would charge a commission of 7.5% of 10,000 = 750 euros + VAT. In this way, you would finally receive a total of 20,000 euros - (750 euros + 157.50 euros of VAT) = 19,092.50 euros.

Bolsa Social asks you to meet three requirements in order to select your company:

1. You must have had turnover for at least a year
2. You must have growth potential
3. Your business model must incorporate values that improve the life of others and/or take care of the environment.
4. That you are an SL or SA based in Spain.

Besides, we specially take into consideration the quality and involvement of the team, the value of the idea and the presentation of the business plan. In the “Companies with impact” section you will find which information you should send us and how to do it.

You have to send us detailed information about the company, the team, the business model and the financial situation and perspectives. This should be done according to the description on this document. You should register and follow the instructions that you will find in "My Project" section of your personal account. If you need help you can contact us at contacto@bolsasocial.com or by phone (+34) 917370746.

Yes. A Selection Committee will asses your proposal and after a thorough financial and business analysis, we will decide whether we publish your project in La Bolsa Social or not. The process lasts approximately a month, if we have all the necessary information.

The analysis team from Bolsa Social analyse your proposal and the Selection Committee of Bolsa Social makes a decision. We will contact you within a month to communicate the decision to you. If your project is selected the law firm we work with will perform a simplified due diligence to decide if the project will be presented in Bolsa Social. You will be authorised to upload your project in the platform from your personal account.

• Fee of € 1,000  to cover the analysis of the company before its publication. 
• Only if the campaign is successful, Bolsa Social charges the entrepreneur a success fee of 6% of the capital gathered, with a €6,000 minimum.
• Monitoring fee of € 500  annually during 5 years.

The following services are included in the price:

• Registration of the project.
• Analysis of the proposal.
• Publication in the platform.
• Support in the communication strategy.
• Media campaign through an external media agency.
• Contacts with investors.
• Compliance with the requirements of the Law 5/2015 for the Promotion of Corporate Financing.
• Drafting the investment agreement.
• Opening and management of the escrow account; transfers fees.
• Revision of the shareholders list, adjustment of the shares, preparation of the minutes of the shareholders meeting, coordination with the notary.
• Distribution of the legal documents to the investors.
• Preparation and distribution of investment certificates.
• Creation and maintainance of a private space for investors at the platform.
• Tracking of the periodical information to be sent to shareholders.

For the modification and adjustment of bylaws and shareholders agreement for the notary, we have agreed a very advantageous fee with the law firm we work with.

It is borne by the company. Its cost amounts to € 1,500.

As established by the law on crowdfunding, the maximum funding for a project and a platform can’t exceed €2,000,000. If the project is only addressed to “certified” investors, this limit can be as high as €5,000,000.

Yes. The capital increase must be higher than €50,000.

No, but updates can be added.

Usually 2 or 3 months long. Upon agreement with the entrepreneur, the campaign can be extended 15 more days.

If the crowdfunding campaign is successful, we will proceed with the capital increase on behalf of all the investors. This binds you to the following:

• Offering at least one seat on the board of directors to the investor who has made the largest contribution.
• Amend the by-laws of your company in order to incorporate the points of the shareholders agreement.
• Periodically informing investors through La Bolsa Social about the development of the company, its performance and social and environmental impact, at least for 5 years.

Projects have a minimum and a maximum objective (that is why the investment percentage appears as a range between two figures). A campaign is considered to be successful when the minimum objective is attained, but it goes on until it reaches the maximum objective or until the deadline.

In addition, as established by law, entrepreneurs who wish to do so may extend the round by 25% once the maximum objective is reached.

By investing in the company’s capital, the investor becomes a shareholder. The investor who makes the largest contribution will be entitled to a seat on the board of directors, and will represent the rest of the investors in the stockholders meetings. The shareholders agreement establishes clauses to protect your investors: drag-along, tag-along, anti-dilution, preference in case of liquidation fo the company, etc. Please read the investment agreement carefully.

If the investment target is not met before the deadline, we would order Triodos Bank to transfer back the money to the investors, with no cost for them.

Yes. In fact, we encourage you to do so.

Yes. The success of a crowdfunding campaign is based on you ability to mobilize all your community of clients and partners. If during the process you find other sources of funding, let us know and we will add it to your project.

Yes. In Bolsa Social we will provide you with tools that would allow you to contact your investors in a fast and simple way and we will organize meetings with them.

Yes. Publication in social networks is key to the success of the project and we recommend that you do so.

You’ll have to inform them periodically through La Bolsa Social about the progress of the company, its performance and its social and environmental impact according to the description on this document.

The costs of formalities, like adaptation of the company bylaws, notarization or trade registration, are paid by the company.