Due Diligence

What is Gee Funding's due diligence process?

As a platform registered by Security Exchange Commission and a pending member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, we review and approve every pitch on the Gee Funding portal to ensure that all the information presented to the crowd is fair, clear and not misleading.

We conduct thorough due diligence on the issuer, its legal structure and directors by vetting the info their submitted to our platform and by using third-party provider service as well. We also verify evidence supporting any claims being made by the business such as market size, contracts and partnerships to ensure the information provided is accurate. This process can take between days or weeks, sometimes longer if the company or raise is complicated.

To make this process more open and transparent to our members, our Due Diligence Charter outlines in detail the analysis and verification that is conducted by the Gee Funding team as part of the approval process. It is also regularly updated when we make improvements to our due diligence processes.  

In line with our company values, our guiding principles for this Charter are:

• Integrity; to act with integrity and treat our investors and fundraising companies fairly;
• Diligence; to act with skill, care and diligence; and
• Transparency; to be open and transparent with our customers always.

Investor protection and transparency are of the utmost importance to us, so we continually review our existing due diligence processes to ensure we remain at the forefront of the investment crowdfunding market. This Charter outlines Gee Funding’s current standard due diligence process. 
 
Due to the diversity of businesses that raise finance on Gee Funding’s platform, we cannot cover all situations in this Charter, which should be read as guidance. Gee Funding, Inc., and or Gee Funding portal does not endorse any of the businesses raising finance on the platform, nor do we provide investment advice of any description, so before deciding to invest we strongly encourage all Gee Funding members to undertake their own research and if there is uncertainty, to receive independent financial advice from their tax consultant, financial advisor, and or lawyer before investing in any offerings find in GeFunding.com
 
Prospective investors should also take care to:

• carry out their own due diligence and read all information and documents on the pitch page carefully. This Charter outlines areas that are not reviewed as part of our standard due diligence process;
• read the risk warnings; and
• understand that forward-looking statements and entrepreneur opinions may not turn out to be correct and many early-stage companies fail.

Investors should be aware that Gee Funding relies upon information provided by every issuer or company and its directors who are required to ensure all information provided is true and accurate. Gee Funding also relies on third-party tools to conduct some due diligence. Gee Funding’s investor terms and conditions, including Gee Funding’s limitation of liability, apply to investments made on the site and can be found here.

The following due diligence is carried on each company before the pitch is open to investment:

We vet and conduct background checks on the company and its directors including personal credit and bankruptcy checks, director’s disqualification checks, previous company checks and accreditation checks. These processes are done in-house and also, by using third-party service provider;

conduct checks on the directors to confirm there are no un-discharged bankruptcies;

fact check all statements and claims made in the pitch text to ensure it is fair, clear and not misleading by obtaining, where possible, independent evidence. Certain statements may rely on the company’s own systems - for example, stock or customer management systems;

obtain any commercial contracts mentioned in a pitch, and

verify any material professional accreditations.

In addition, every company that raises capital on Gee Funding's platform provides SEC Form C also, warranties to Gee Funding in Gee Funding’s terms and conditions that include:

that the share capital table accurately reflects the fully diluted position, which means all dilutive elements, such as granted and unallocated share options, are considered in calculating the percentage of equity on offer to investors; and

that the company is not party to any current litigation and that it is not aware of any threatened litigation.

During the time the pitch is live on Gee Funding's platform, the compliance team will also:

review any investment patterns notified by Gee Funding’s pitch manipulation tool to ensure investments are genuine and not made to unduly enhance the performance of a pitch.

We do not:

review any of the restricted documents, pitch videos, pitch updates, forum discussions or the content of investor events that aren’t organized by Gee Funding.

Once a pitch has reached its funding target we conduct further due diligence on the business before investments are completed and prior to any funds being released: 

• check the company’s share structure and seek clarification of any discrepancies; 
• review any existing Investment Agreements to check whether the shareholder rights and company obligations are compatible with a crowdfunding round. Based on this review we may, if we consider necessary, recommend amendments to the documents or make appropriate disclosures to investors to outline investor rights or risks;
• review any known agreements, require any undocumented material to be documented;
• a full search and review of intellectual property rights are not carried out but claims of trademark, patent, or URL ownership in pitch text are checked by seeking verification from the company and searching public registers. We also require the transfer of ownership to the company if Gee Funding becomes aware that any material intellectual property rights are not wholly owned by the company.

Any necessary disclosures from the post-funding legal due diligence process are set out and the Form C, to investors by the issuer at the beginning of the seven days cooling off period. 

The following information, unless specifically mentioned in the pitch, is not always reviewed as part of our standard due diligence, so investors should assume that the following have not been checked:

• commercial contracts;
• employment contracts;
• ownership of assets or the potential that a company infringes third-party intellectual property rights;
• property related documents such as leases;
• complete site visits to a company’s offices; and
• licensing and regulatory arrangements;
• historical financial performance of the company;
• financial projections of the company;
• cash position and cash burn of the company;
• key suppliers or customers of the company.

Whilst we do provide guidance on valuations, it is the company’s decision to price their investment offer and ultimately the crowd then decides if they are willing to invest at that price.

Under Gee Funding’s Terms and Conditions, every issuer or company, acting by its directors, must ensure that all information which is provided to Gee Funding is true and accurate.