Instavest
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
Some sections are still being researched2 / 4
Sections to complete：02 · 05
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Instavest was a Mountain View-based social investing platform founded in 2014 by Saleem Khatri and Zain Allarakhia, and part of Y Combinator's Winter 2015 batch. It let lead investors post their stock trades publicly, including the company, share amount and rationale, so that other users could replicate the trades alongside them and receive notifications when the lead investor bought, sold or liquidated. In 2018 the company pivoted to an algorithmic money-management product using complex options strategies to make money in up or down markets. The company is now defunct; no shutdown announcement or date was published.
02 / FAILURE REASONS
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Company founded
Saleem Khatri and Zain Allarakhia found Instavest; the social investing startup enters Y Combinator's Winter 2015 batch.
- Seed round
Instavest raises $1.7 million in seed funding from Y Combinator, Cherubic Ventures, Jaan Tallinn and FundersClub, and integrates with ten major online brokerages so users can trade directly from the platform.
- Pivot to money manager
Out of beta, Instavest repositions as an algorithmic money manager using complex options strategies, charging 20% of profits instead of management fees.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN / AFTERMATH
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.