Classic Car Investment App Rally Rd. Announces $7M Funding Round

Startup investment company Rally Road has developed an application for members to invest in classic cars like Ferraris and Jaguars  for as little as $50. High-value assets are secured, split into shares and offered as equity investments to all users, according to the company.

The company won the "best alternative asset" award at the 2018 Benzinga Global Fintech Awards in May.

What Happened

Rally Road announced the launch of a live investing ecosystem and a Series A funding round Thursday.

The $7-million funding round was led by Upfront Ventures with participation from Anthemic Group, Social Leverage, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Anthony Saleh’s WndrCo, Nas, Eli Broverman and Jeff Cruttenden, according to the startup.

The funding will aid an expansion into retail showrooms, beginning in the SoHo neighborhood in New York, then markets like Los Angeles, Houston and Miami, according to Rally Road. 

“If you want to invest in the best blue-chip collectibles — like art and classic cars — you need to travel the world to attend exclusive auctions, and you need very deep pockets. These events are not accessible to or top-of-mind for most Americans,” co-founder and CEO Christopher Bruno said in a statement.

“We’re building showrooms in large markets where everyone can go and actually see the collectibles they love and then directly invest in them through our platform.”

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Why It’s Important

The funding round will be used to update application features to keep up with market demand, according to Rally Road co-founder Rob Petrozzo.

“We wanted to design a platform that’s sleek, user-friendly and democratizes rare asset investing."

In just one year, the company said its customer base has expanded to more 50,000 members who have taken part in a dozen offerings worth millions. The average age of Rally Road investors is 26, and most are first-time asset investors, the company said.

What’s Next

Rally Road said it will hold regular trading windows for individual assets where users can buy and sell shares in a secondary marketplace through registered broker-dealers.

Each listed asset will be made available to investors by means of an SEC-registered stock offering with a minimum investment of one share, according to Rally Road. Recent assets include Jerry Seinfeld’s 1989 Porsche 911 Speedster and a 1980 Lamborghini Countach Turbo.

“The company plans to expand into other vertices in early 2019, including high-end sports memorabilia and art. The Rally Rd. app is now easily available for iPhone and web, with Android coming in late 2018," Friday's announcement said.

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