I signed up for Venture Giant thinking they would help me with finding an angel investor. After a few days being listed on Venture Giant, the company emailed me saying they found an interested investor. I paid about $100 GBP which is equivalent to $151 US Dollars in order to contact this so called investor. After contacting the person who they claimed was an investor, he said I can pay him 10% to 15% for a loan. This means the person was not an investor, nor was he an interested investor, yet a loan broker. His minimum for a loan was $300,000, so he wanted me to pay $30,000 for a loan. This is not what I wanted or what I was looking for.
I did not want to speak to loan service providers, or be offered a loan. I only wanted to speak to an investor. This loan service provider so happened to not know who I was, as he told me he contacts a few people offering its loan services.
According to Venture Giant when emailing them, they said: "Yes we do offer refunds under certain circumstances. However, in this case I have spoken to this Investor directly on two occasions and have been following who this investor has been contacting. He has stated that he is looking to invest into entrepreneurs that have done their research. He is not interested in entrepreneurs that are just looking for funding. He is looking for genuine entrepreneurs with good ideas, that can yield him a good return."
I feel like I paid for an investor who was not a real investor, yet rather a loan broker. I asked for a refund from Venture Giant www.venturegiant.com, and they refused to provide a refund. I believe I am due a refund.
They emailed me back the following:
Firstly, he made it very clear to me that he is not a service provider - nor does he offer loans to individuals. I spoke to him when he first applied for self certification as a high net worth individual - and he also stated that he is affiliated with an Investment group based in Europe.
He specifically stated to you in your last call: that worst case if he could not secure investment in return for equity, he could secure you a loan - but this was a worst case scenario.
They also said:
All of this information is very clear in the FAQ section. We are simply a matching service - and we can not secure investment for you - nor can we be held accountable for this, as this user chose to contact you based upon the information your provided them.
We can not offer you a refund, as this investor has been contactable and I have also contacted him on your behalf as you accused him of being a loans/service provider which he has stated he is not, he also stated that he is still considering your proposal summary and that is his call.
We can not be held liable for his performance or your performance as an entrepreneur. We sent your proposal out to all of the registered users on our database as this was part of our service to you, and we also have placed your proposal as live on our database. This was the user that chose to contact you and we can be held accountable for his performance.
Further, when you paid your fees, we automatically sent out your contact details, and we have fulfilled our obligations.
Again, we do our very best to insure that every investor who registers for our service is who they say they are and sincerely interested in investing in various stage companies. Although we pride ourselves in a completely transparent, upfront and ethical approach to business, we cannot insure that all other people in the business world have the same values, and this part is up to your own due diligence - and we can not be held liable for this - which is why we employ a pay on performance business model and do not charge fees upfront.
Your proposal will be listed on Venture Giant for a minimum of six months and we do not take a commission on any money raised, and we do not get involved with the process of deal structure, which is why our fees are low.
Remember any subsequent contacts made from other investors will also be included in this fee.
To make this better value for money for you, I can add your contact details directly onto the proposal, and advertise your website on the title of your investment proposal.
I have tried to move it to number 1 spot as well, but could not do this as others have already paid for the service, and it would be unfair to them. So I have added another three months listing onto your proposal.
We are ramping up spending with Digital look our media partners this year, and they have a registered database of users that have a share portfolio of 250K per user. We are sending 50,000 invitations out to their users, so hopefully, you should see more contacts this year.
Hope all of this information helps.
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