What does the Investment Clearing Process Look like?

All investments undergo an extensive clearing process. This process can vary depending on the payment method the investor uses, as well as the results of the compliance checks automatically completed by our banking partners — these include AML and KYC alerts. If these alerts are triggered, our Investor Experience team will manually work with investors to clear them. Large, IRA, entity, and international investments often take longer to clear, as AML/KYC issues are more likely to occur.

Credit card transactions often take about 3 days to clear. ACH transactions can take 5–7 business days. Wire transactions are the most manual and time-intensive for investors, because we cannot debit their account directly — the investor must initiate the payment themselves using the wire instructions we provide. On average, credit card investments account for the majority of investments submitted on StartEngine, followed by ACH and then wire.

You can review all of your investments via the “Investment Breakdown” tab on your Issuer Dashboard. Our team follows up with investors to confirm pending investments, but feel free to flag any pending investments to the Campaign Management team at hello@startengine.com.

Once the compliance checks are complete and payment has been received or charged, we are able to submit the funds to escrow. Issuers are only able to close or disburse on funds that are cleared and received in escrow.

At the end of your campaign, we allot about 30 days for investors to fulfill payment post close. Following that timeframe, we will reach out to you, cancel anything that has not cleared, and have you request your final disbursement.