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Groundfloor Labs Launches To Incubate New Product Offerings

People standing around an abstract building surrounded by symbols of ideas and finance. Represents Groundfloor Labs

What Is Groundfloor Labs?

Groundfloor set the stage to expand their product offerings and enhance their platform with the launch of “Groundfloor Labs” last fall.

This is a way for the Groundfloor team to beta test and gauge interest in new things. That could be new investment opportunities, payment methods, or third-party integrations.

The Groundfloor team believes that this platform will allow them to partner more closely with their investment community to more quickly launch new products.

How Does Groundfloor Labs Work?

Labs is organized into “categories.” Each category is a new idea that could become an official part of the Groundfloor platform. How investors respond will help shape which new ideas are prioritized.

Depicts a list of available investment categories on Groundfloor Labs. The opportunity name and Lab type are shown.
A sample list of offerings from the Groundfloor real estate investment platform

There’s no guarantee that a category will make it to Groundfloor though. In the testing processes, they may decide some categories will be sunset. This could be for a variety of reasons, including a lack of participation and interest from investors.

If a category is sunset, it won’t affect existing investments. They will continue to be managed by Groundfloor. There just won’t be any new deals of that same type.

If a category moves to Groundfloor, it will do so with a more polished user experience. Specifically, the minimum investment will likely be lower than the current $1000 on Labs and investment opportunities will each be SEC-qualified.

Is The Labs Investing Experience Different?

Yes, it is quite different.

Everything in Groundfloor Labs will be a beta experience, described by the company as “fundamentally an MVP.” Investments will still be rigorously vetted though.

Each investment opportunity has an “Opportunity Details” document that provides an overview of the investment. It includes things like the projected IRR, financial models, and an FAQ on the category.

Depicts an example of an opportunity details document for Groundfloor Labs investments.
An example of some of the information for a Cash Flow Advance opportunity The full document contains more details

After reviewing the details and deciding to move forward, investments can be made starting from $1000 – if the deal isn’t fully subscribed already.

User Experience Limitations

The user experience is the main area where the limitations of Labs will be felt.

Labs are only available to Groundfloor shareholders or accredited investors. You can apply for access from the Groundfloor Labs landing page.

A few examples include not being able to use the automatic investing features and only seeing records of the investments in the Transactions page.

Click “show more” below to see a more detailed list of user experience limitations.

  • You will need to use the Transactions page to see a record of your investment.
    • The Transactions page will only show “Groundfloor Labs” as an investment.
  • Updates will be communicated through monthly email updates.
  • Auto investing will not work for these offerings.
  • Labs investments will not be eligible for promotional activity.
  • An investment opportunity you participate in may be a part of a testing category that does not come to the main platform. That means you will never get a full, polished reporting and monitoring experience.
  • The deal flow pipeline is less consistent.
  • You may allocate capital to an investment that does not fund or is otherwise dissolved. In this case, your money will be returned to you. However, you will not be able to participate in that discontinued opportunity.
Show more +

Types Of Groundfloor Labs Offerings

There have been 10 different Labs launched so far. Here’s an overview of each of them:

Groundfloor Labs FAQs

Do You Want To Learn More?

There are also a couple of good resources from the Groundfloor team. Both the Labs launch video, as well as the Groundfloor Labs FAQ provide a lot of additional information.

You can also check out our other resources:

A simple house structure made made out of $100 bills. Cover image for an article covering groundfloor, groundfloor labs, ground floor notes, groundfloor real estate, and groundfloor investing.

A comprehensive walkthrough of Groundfloor, their offerings, and how to use the platform.

Want To Get Started With Groundfloor?

You can register using this referral link to receive a bonus. After registering and making $1000 of investments on the platform, you’ll be eligible to receive a $100 credit.

author avatar
Josh Heier
Studied and working in the computer networking field. Interested in technology, finance, investing, and learning new things. Smalltime Angel Investor.

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