- Business Financing
Worthy Review -- Invest in Bonds to Back Small Businesses
Worthy offers a 5.5% return on their “Worthy Bonds”, which are used to fund secured loans for small businesses and real estate projects. There are no fees and the redemption policy is very generous, though the rate of return is becoming less attractive as overall interest rates rise
Worthy
- Founded: 2016
- Investment Types: Business Financing
- Minimum Investment: $10
- Advertised Returns: 5.5%
- Open to all investors
Pros
- Good investor education materials
- Services available across the entire US, catering to various property types.
- Low investment minimums
Cons
- Not backed by FDIC (so riskier given return rate)
- Relatively low fixed return rate
- Currently retains some correlation to stock market
Overview
This Worthy Review will help you learn more about Worthy's investment offerings, including how the alternative investments on Worthy are structured, and what your potential returns might be. You can read more about the criteria we use to review investment platforms here.
Worthy is a female-founded investment platform based out of Boca Raton, Florida. Currently Worthy is structured as a Reg A+ investment offering open to any US investor over the age of 18. Founded in March of 2016, Worthy allows anyone who is interested to invest as little as $10 and offering 5.65% APR returns.
Types of investments Worthy offers
The proceeds from Worthy Bonds sold to investors are used to fund commercial loans, including loans to small businesses and real estate investors. Those loans are typically secured by inventory, property, or other collateral.
When they are unable to deploy investor capital in commercial loans, Worthy also invests in various public and private securities, including publicly traded stocks.
What do you get when investing with Worthy?
Worthy currently offers one type of debt security referred to as a “Worthy Bond”. These bonds are SEC qualified and offer 5.5% interest rates over a 36-month period.
How does Worthy make money?
Worthy itself doesn’t charge investors any fees directly to investors. Worthy makes money from various fees charged to borrowers, as well as any “spread” between the rate of return they receive from borrowers (or the gain from other investments such as stocks) and the 5.5% paid out to Worthy Bond holders.
Potential returns and cashflow
Worthy Bonds have a fixed 5.5% (5.65% APR) annual interest rate, paid out monthly. Prospective investors should understand that money invested in Worthy Bonds is not FDIC-insured, and could lose value or fail to return the full 5.5% expected.
Investors can redeem their bonds at any time with no fees. (Update: as of September 2022, Worth has apparently suspended withdrawals.)
Breadth of offerings on Worthy
As of this writing, Worthy has unfortunately suspended new investments.
Regulatory framework
Worthy Bonds offers the bonds themselves, using Tier II of SEC Reg A+, which means that the offering has been reviewed by the SEC, and as required by Reg A+ “the company will be required to provide investors with additional information, including annual audited financial statements, annual reports filed on SEC Form 1-K, semiannual reports filed on SEC Form 1-SA, special financial reports filed on SEC Form 1-K, and current reports on SEC Form 1-U.”
This review was first published on 13 July 2022.
Our Rating
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