Item 1. Business
ITEM
1. BUSINESS.
Overview
Netcapital
Inc. is a fintech company with a scalable technology platform that allows private companies to raise capital online from accredited
and non-accredited investors. We give virtually all investors the opportunity to access investments in private companies. Our model
is disruptive to traditional private equity investing and is based on Title III, Regulation Crowdfunding (“Reg CF”) of
the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (“JOBS Act”). We generate fees from listing private companies on our funding
portal located at www.netcapital.com. Our consulting group, Netcapital Advisors Inc. (“Netcapital Advisors”), which is a
wholly owned subsidiary, provides marketing and strategic advice to companies in exchange for cash fees and previously also received
equity positions in certain select portfolio companies. The Netcapital funding portal is registered with the SEC, is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory
Authority (“FINRA”), a registered national securities association, and provides investors with opportunities to invest
in private companies. In addition, we recently expanded our model to include Regulation A (“Reg A”) offerings, which are
conducted by our wholly owned subsidiary Netcapital Securities Inc. “(“Netcapital Securities”), which is a
licensed broker-dealer with FINRA. Both A and Reg CF offerings are made available to investors via the Company’s website,
www.netcapital.com.
Our
Business
We
provide private company investment access to accredited and non-accredited investors through (i) our online portal (www.netcapital.com),
which is operated by our wholly owned subsidiaries Netcapital Funding Portal, Inc and (ii) our broker-dealer subsidiary, Netcapital Securities.
The Netcapital funding portal charges a $5,000 listing fee, a 4.9% portal fee for capital raised at closing, and beginning in fiscal
year 2025, a 1% success fee paid for with equity of the funding portal customer. In addition, the portal generates fees for other ancillary
services, such as rolling closes. Netcapital Advisors previously generated fees and equity stakes from consulting in select portfolio
(“Portfolio Companies”) and non-portfolio clients. Given our limited staff, we did not seek consulting engagements in fiscal
2025 and we do not plan to seek them in fiscal 2026. With respect to services for Reg A offerings, Netcapital Securities charges a listing
fee of $25,000 and a success fee of 4.9% of the capital raised by an issuer under Reg A.
We
generated revenues of $869,460, with costs of service of $40,344, in the year ended April 30, 2025 for a gross profit of $829,116 as
compared to revenues of $4,951,435, with costs of service of $108,060, in the year ended April 30, 2025 for a gross profit of $4,843,375
(consisting of $3,537,700 in equity securities for payment of services and $1,413,736 in cash-based revenues, offset by $108,060 for
costs of services). In fiscal 2025, we did not provide consulting services to Portfolio Companies in exchange for equity, which accounts
for the largest portion of our decline in revenues in fiscal 2025 as compared to fiscal 2024 as we received revenues of approximately
$3.5 million fiscal 2024 and compared to $0 in fiscal 2025. However, our funding portal did charge a 1% fee, payable in securities, to
every issuer that closed an offering. The dollar value of that fee amounted to $72,090 and $97,700 for the years ended April 30, 2025
and 2024, respectively.
Revenue
from portal fees decreased by $285,294, or 33%, in fiscal 2025 to $589,074 from $874,368 in fiscal 2024. Revenue from portal fees consists
of a 4.9% fee of the total capital raised by an issuer plus fixed miscellaneous charges for administrative fees, such as a rolling close,
or the filing of an amended offering statement. The decrease is attributable to a 29% decrease in the total dollars invested through
the portal, from $14.8 million in fiscal 2024 to $10.6 million in fiscal 2025. The total number of issuers on the Netcapital funding
portal in fiscal 2025 and 2024 that successfully closed an offering was 49 and 53, respectively.
Revenue
from listing fees decreased by $234,540, or 53%, to $207,500 in fiscal 2025 as compared to $442,040 in fiscal 2024. The decrease in listing
revenue is directly attributable to the 54% decrease in offerings launched in fiscal 2025, as compared to fiscal 2024. New listings dropped
from 82 in Fiscal 2024 to 38 in fiscal 2025. Listing fees are typically $5,000 per issuer, and they are the first form of revenue earned
by our Funding Portal when an issuer signs a contract with us to sell securities on the funding portal. After the listing contract is
signed, an issuer typically takes two months before it is ready to launch an offering. Most issuers remain on the funding portal, marketing
their offering, for a period of six to nine months.
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In
fiscal 2025 and 2024, the average amount raised in an offering on the Netcapital funding portal was $215,745 and $280,978, respectively.
The total number of offerings on the Netcapital funding portal in fiscal 2025 and 2024 that closed was 70 in each fiscal year, of which
21 and 17 offerings hosted on the Netcapital funding platform in fiscal 2025 and 2024, respectively, terminated their listings without
raising the required minimum dollar amount of capital.
Funding
Portal
Netcapital.com
is an SEC-registered funding portal that enables private companies to raise capital online, while investors are able to invest from almost
anywhere in the world, at any time, with just a few clicks. Securities offerings on the portal are accessible through individual offering
pages, where companies include product or service details, market size, competitive advantages, and financial documents. Companies can
accept investments from virtually anyone, including friends, family, customers, employees, etc. Customer accounts on our platform are
not permitted to hold digital securities.
In
addition to access to the Funding Portal, the Funding Portal provides the following services:
●
a
fully automated onboarding process;
●
automated
filing of required regulatory documents;
●
compliance
review;
●
custom-built
offering page on our portal website;
●
third
party transfer agent and custodial services;
●
email
marketing to our proprietary list of investors;
●
rolling
closes, which provide potential access to liquidity before final close date of offering;
●
assistance
with annual filings; and
●
direct
access to our team for ongoing support.
Consulting
Business
Our
consulting group, Netcapital Advisors helps companies at all stages to raise capital. Netcapital Advisors provides strategic advice,
technology consulting and online marketing services to assist with fundraising campaigns on the Netcapital platform. In the past we also
acted as an incubator and accelerator, taking equity stakes in select disruptive start-ups, and we own positions in ten of these Portfolio
Companies that we value at approximately $6 million. We have written off our investment in twelve Portfolio Companies and recorded a
non-cash loss of more than $19.9 million from our non-cash investment in failed entities.
Netcapital
Advisors’ services include:
●
investor
introductions;
●
online
marketing;
●
website
design, software and software development;
●
message
crafting, including pitch decks, offering pages, and ad creation;
●
strategic
advice; and
●
technology
consulting.
Broker-Dealer
Business
In
November 2024, wholly owned subsidiary, Netcapital Securities Inc. received approval from FINRA to become a FINRA-member broker dealer.
We believe that by having a registered broker-dealer, it may create opportunities to expand the Company’s revenue base by hosting
and generating additional fees from Reg A and Reg D offerings on the Netcapital platform, earning additional fees in connection with
offerings that may result from the introduction of clients to other FINRA broker-dealers and expanding our distribution capabilities
by leveraging strategic partnerships with other broker-dealers to distribute offerings of issuers that utilize the Netcapital platform
to a wider range of investors in order to maximize market penetration and optimize capital raising efforts. As of the date of this report,
Netcapital Securities has been engaged by one issuer seeking to raise capital via a Regulation A offering.
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Competition
We
compete with a number of public and private companies that provide assistance with capital raising, strategy, technology consulting,
and digital marketing. Most of our competitors have significant financial resources and occupy entrenched positions in the market with
name-brand recognition. The majority of our capital raising and digital marketing business is on the Internet.
The
barriers to entry into most Internet markets are relatively low, making them accessible to a large number of entities and individuals.
We believe the principal competitive factors in our industry that create certain barriers to entry include but are not limited to reputation,
technology, financial stability and resources, proven track record of successful operations, critical mass, and independent oversight
and transparency of business practices. Obtaining approval from FINRA to operate as a funding portal is also a barrier to entry due to
the significant internal control and capital requirements. While these barriers may limit those able to enter or compete effectively
in the market, it is likely that new competitors as well as laws and regulations of governmental authority may be established in the
future, in addition to our known current competitors.
We
face significant competition in every aspect of our business, including from companies that facilitate online capital formation and the
sharing of content and information, companies that enable marketers to display advertising, companies that distribute video and other
forms of media content, and companies that provide development platforms for applications developers. We compete to attract, engage,
and retain customers, to attract and retain marketers, and to attract and retain developers to build compelling applications that integrate
with our products.
Increased
competition from current and future competitors may in the future materially adversely affect our business, revenues, operating results
and financial condition.
Industry
Regulation
In
an effort to enhance economic growth and to democratize access to private investment opportunities, Congress finalized the Jumpstart
Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act) in 2016. Title III of the JOBS Act enabled early-stage companies to offer and sell securities to
the general public for the first time. The SEC then adopted Regulation Crowdfunding, or Reg CF, in order to implement the JOBS Act’s
crowdfunding provisions.
Reg
CF has several important features that changed the landscape for private capital raising and investment. For the first time, this regulation:
●
Allowed
the general public to invest in private companies, no longer limiting early-stage investment opportunities to less than 10% of the
population;
●
Enabled
private companies to advertise their securities offerings to the public (general solicitation); and
●
Conditionally
exempted securities sold under Section 4(a)(6) from the registration requirements of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934.
The
SEC had also adopted rules to implement Section 401 of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act by expanding Reg A into two tiers
●
Tier
1, for securities offerings of up to $20 million in a 12-month period; and
●
Tier
2, for securities offerings of up to $75 million in a 12-month period.
We
are subject, both directly and indirectly, to various laws and regulations relating to our business. If any of the laws are amended,
compliance could become more expensive and directly affect our income. We intend to comply with such laws, but new restrictions may arise
that could materially adversely affect our Company. Specifically, the SEC regulates our funding portal business, and our funding portal
is also a member of FINRA and is regulated by FINRA. We are also subject to the USA Patriot Act of 2001, which contains anti-money laundering
and financial transparency laws and mandates various regulations applicable to financial services companies, including standards for
verifying client identification at account opening, and obligations to monitor client transactions and report suspicious activities.
Anti-money laundering laws outside of the United States contain some similar provisions. We are also subject to additional regulation
and supervision of the SEC and FINRA, including without limitation Rule 15c3-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Uniform
Net Capital Rule). The Uniform Net Capital Rule specifies minimum capital requirements intended to ensure the general financial soundness
and liquidity of broker-dealers. The Uniform Net Capital Rule prohibits broker-dealers from paying cash dividends, making unsecured advances
or loans or repaying subordinated loans if such payment would result in a net capital amount of less than 5% of aggregate debit balances
or less than 120% of its minimum dollar requirement. Our failure to comply with these requirements as applicable to us could have a material
adverse effect on us.
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Our
Market
The
traditional funding model restricts access to capital, investments and liquidity. According to Harvard Business Review, venture capital
firms (“VCs”) invest in fewer than 1% of the companies they consider and only 10% of VC meetings are obtained through cold
outreach. In addition, only 2% of VC funding went to women-owned firms in 2024, according to PitchBook, while Crunchbase revealed that
only 0.4% of startup funding went to black-owned firms.
Furthermore,
under the traditional model, the average investor lacked access to early-stage investments. Prior to the JOBS Act, almost 90% of U.S.
households were precluded from investing in private deals, per dqydj.com. Liquidity has also been an issue, as private investments are
generally locked up until IPO or takeout.
The
JOBS Act helped provide a solution to these issues by establishing the funding portal industry, which is currently in its infancy. Title
III of the JOBS Act outlines Reg CF, which traditionally allowed private companies to raise up to $1.07 million. In March 2021, regulatory
enhancements by the SEC went into effect and increased the limit to $5 million. These amendments increased the offering limits for Reg
CF, Reg A and Regulation D, Rule 504 offerings as follows: Reg CF increased to $5 million; Regulation D, Rule 504 increased to $10 million
from $5 million; and Reg A Tier 2 increased to $75 million from $50 million.
According
to KingsCrowd, the 2021 increase in offering limits has served to boost the attractiveness of Reg CF to later stage issuers. While the
previous $1 million cap on annual funding was perceived as too restrictive for capital-intensive companies, $5 million every twelve months
can be a viable alternative for companies post seed stage.
Reg
CF funding grew from $74.8 million in 2018 to $343.6 million in 2024, an increase of 360%, according to KingsCrowd. Although funding
was down from its 2021 peak of $496.1 million, the number of Reg CF raises reached a new high in the final month of 2024 to 569 offerings,
above the previous high in March 2022 of 561. The average investment size also increased by 26% in 2024 to $1,500 from $1,190 in the
previous year. We believe a significant opportunity exists to disrupt private capital markets via the Netcapital funding portal.
Reg
A+ offerings raised $244 million in 2024, an increase of 7.5% from the previous year, according to KingsCrowd. While 61 offerings closed
during the year, 34 new offerings were launched. $2 million was the 2024 median Reg A+ raise, while the average raise was $7.7 million.
We plan to support Reg A+ raises through our broker-dealer subsidiary, Netcapital Securities.
Our
Technology
The
Netcapital platform is a scalable, real-time, transaction-processing engine that runs without human intervention, 24 hours a day, seven
days a week.
For
companies raising capital, the technology provides fully automated onboarding with integrated regulatory filings. Funds are collected
from investors and held in escrow until the offering closes. For entrepreneurs, the technology facilitates access to capital at low cost.
For investors, the platform provides access to investments in private, early-stage companies that were previously unavailable to the
general public. Both entrepreneurs and investors can track and view their investments through their dashboard on netcapital.com. The
platform currently has more than 100,000 users.
Scalability
was demonstrated in November 2021, when the platform processed more than 2,000 investments in less than two hours, totaling more than
$2 million.
Our
infrastructure is designed in a way that can horizontally scale to meet our capacity needs. Using Docker containers and Amazon Elastic
Container Service, or Amazon ECS, we are able to automate the creation and launch of our production web and application programming interface,
or API, endpoints in order to replicate them as needed behind Elastic Load Balancers (ELBs).
Additionally,
all of our public facing endpoints live behind CloudFlare to ensure protection from large scale traffic fluctuations (including DDoS
attacks).
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Our
main database layer is built on Amazon RDS and features a Multi-AZ deployment that can also be easily scaled up or down as needed. General
queries are cached in our API layer, and we monitor to optimize very complex database queries that are generated by the API. Additionally,
we cache the most complex queries (such as analytics data) in our NoSQL (Mongo) data store for improved performance.
Most
of our central processing unit, or CPU, intensive data processing happens asynchronously through a worker/jobs system managed by AWS
ElastiCache’s Redis endpoint. This component can be easily fine-tuned for any scale necessary.
The
technology necessary to operate our funding portal is licensed from Netcapital Systems LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, of
which Jason Frishman, Netcapital Founder, owns a 29% interest, under a license agreement with the Funding Portal. Payments under the
licensing agreement amounted to $95,000 and $195,000 in the years ended April 30, 2025 and 2024, respectively.
Proposed
Alternative Trading (“ATS”) Relationship
We
believe that lack of liquidity is a key issue for investors in private companies in our targeted market. We also recognize that secondary
trading of securities in private companies is subject to extensive regulation and oversight. Such regulation and oversight includes,
but is not limited to, the need to be a registered broker-dealer that is licensed to operate an ATS, or to partner with an entity that
is licensed to do so. In order to try to address what we believe is a large, unmet need, our wholly-owned subsidiary, Netcapital Systems
LLC, a Utah limited liability company (“Netcapital UT LLC”), entered into a software license and services agreement on January
2, 2023 (the “Templum License Agreement”) with Templum Markets LLC (“Templum”), to provide issuers and investors
on the Netcapital platform with the potential for greater distribution and liquidity. Templum is a company that provides capital markets
infrastructure for trading private equity securities, and operates an ATS with approval in 53 U.S. states and territories for the trading
of unregistered or private securities. As of the date of this report, we have paused further development and roll-out while we reevaluate
evolving market conditions and customer expectations.
The
operation of the Templum ATS is (or any similar ATS will be) subject to extensive regulation and oversight. Accordingly, any regulatory
delays or objections will also result in delays in our ability to fully launch the proposed platform. In addition, because we cannot
easily switch between operators of secondary trading platforms of this nature, any disruption of or interference, whether due to regulatory
issues or natural disasters, cyber-attacks, terrorist attacks, power losses, telecommunications failures, or other similar events, would
impact our operations and may adversely affect the ability of issuers and investors to utilize this platform. There is no obligation
for Templum to renew its agreements with us on commercially reasonable terms or at all.
Institutions
and individual investors may face significant risk when buying securities on our proposed secondary trading platform. These risks include
the following:
●
private
companies are not required to make periodic public filings, and therefore certain capitalization, operational and financial information
may not be available for evaluation;
●
an
investment may only be appropriate for investors with a long-term investment horizon and a capacity to absorb a loss of some or all
of their investment;
●
the
securities, when purchased, are generally highly illiquid, are often subject to further transfer restrictions, and no public market
exists for such securities; and
●
transactions
may fail to settle, which could harm our reputation.
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Further,
we may become involved in disputes and litigation matters between customers with respect to transactions on our proposed secondary trading
platform. There is a risk that clients may increasingly look to us to make them whole for delayed and/or broken trades. Customers may
litigate over a failure of sellers to deliver securities or over the untimely deliveries of securities. Any litigation to which we are
a party could be expensive and time consuming, regardless of the ultimate outcome, and the potential costs and risks of such litigation
may incentivize us to settle, which could harm our reputation or have a material adverse effect on our business or results or operations.
We
estimate that the cost for developing this platform will not exceed $1.0 million, most of which has already been incurred and consists
of salaries or fees paid to engineers and consultants. We have and continue to pay these expenses from our working capital. We do not
currently have a revenue model associated with the sales of securities on the proposed ATS. However, we may seek to incorporate this
revenue model in the future, provided that we determine any such revenue model is in strict compliance with all regulatory guidelines.
We
currently anticipate that we will also be able to sell our interests in any portfolio company using the Templum ATS (or any similar ATS)
provided such sales are made in a regulatorily compliant matter. We expect to place a restriction on any sales during any period in which
an issuer is offering its securities for sale on the Netcapital funding platform. In addition, securities issued in a Reg CF transaction
generally cannot be resold for a period of one year, unless the securities are transferred: (1) to the issuer of the securities; (2)
to an “accredited investor”; (3) as part of an offering registered with the SEC; or (4) to a member of the family of the
purchaser or the equivalent, to a trust controlled by the purchaser, to a trust created for the benefit of a member of the family of
the purchaser or the equivalent, or in connection with the death or divorce of the purchaser or other similar circumstance. Accordingly,
any shares owned by us would also be subject to these restrictions. Additional restrictions may be implemented, and there can be no assurance
that we will ever sell any of our interests in any portfolio company using the Templum ATS (or any other similar ATS). Further, our insider
trading policy prohibits all of our employees, officers, consultants and directors from buying or selling securities while in possession
of material non-public information and all such parties are also required to maintain strict confidentiality of all such information.
In addition, in order to maintain compliance with our insider trading policies, any affiliate or employee seeking to trade securities
in any issuer listed on the funding portal must receive prior approval and clearance from our Chief Financial Officer and all such requests
for clearance will be documented and maintained with our compliance department.
Our
Netcapital funding portal is currently registered with the SEC and is a member of FINRA. For so long as we continue to operate our Netcapital
platform solely for primary offerings by issuers under Reg CF, we believe that we are not required to register under Regulation ATS.
Competitive
Advantages
Based
upon publicly available information either published on the websites of our peer group (StartEngine Crowdfunding, Inc., Wefunder Inc.
and Republic Core LLC) or included in offering statements of issuers hosted on such offering platforms, we believe that we provide the
lowest cost solution for online capital raising. We also believe, based upon our facilitated technology platforms, our strong emphasis
on customer support, and feedback received from clients that have onboarded to our platform, that our access and onboarding of new clients
are superior due to our facilitated technology platforms. Our network continues to rapidly expand as a result of our enhanced marketing
and broad distribution to reach new investors.
Our
competitors include StartEngine Crowdfunding, Inc., Wefunder Inc. and Republic Core LLC. Given the rapid growth in the industry and its
potential to disrupt the multi-billion dollar private capital market, we believe there is sufficient room for multiple players.
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Our
Strategy
Our
strategy is to:
●
Generate
New Investor Accounts. Growing the number of investor accounts on our platform is a top priority. Investment dollars continuing to
flow through our platform is a key revenue driver. When issuers advertise their offerings, they are generating new investor accounts
for us at no cost to Netcapital. We plan to supplement our issuers’ spend on advertising by increasing our online marketing
spend as well, which may include virtual conferences going forward.
●
Hire
Additional Business Development Staff. We seek to hire additional business development staff to generate new crowdfunding clients.
●
Increase
the Number of Companies on Our Platform via Marketing. When a new company lists on our platform, they bring their customers, supporters,
and brand ambassadors as new investors to Netcapital. We plan to increase our marketing budget to help grow our portal clients.
●
Invest
in Technology. Technology is critical to everything that we do. We plan to invest in developing innovative technologies that enhance
our platform and allow us to pursue additional service offerings.
●
Accelerate
Our Advisory Portfolio Clients. The advisory portfolio and our equity interests in select advisory clients represent potential upside
for our shareholders. We seek to assist our advisory clients.
●
Expand
Internationally. We believe there is a significant opportunity to expand into Europe and Asia as an appetite abroad grows for U.S.
stocks.
●
Provide
a secondary trading feature. We believe that lack of liquidity is a key issue for investors in private companies in our targeted
market. Accordingly, we are exploring ways in which we can provide our clients with the ability to access a secondary trading feature.
In January 2023, we entered into the Templum License Agreement to provide issuers and investors on the Netcapital platform with the
potential for greater distribution and liquidity. Templum is an operator of an ATS with approval in 53 U.S. states and territories
for the trading of unregistered or private securities to provide issuers and investors on the Netcapital platform with the potential
for greater distribution and liquidity. We are currently working with Templum on the design of the required software to enable issuers
and investors on the Netcapital platform the ability to access the Templum ATS in order to engage in secondary trading of securities.
In July 2024, we announced the launch of our beta version for this secondary trading platform and our goal was to offer such secondary
trading platform through the Templum ATS to all issuers and investors on the Netcapital funding portal before the end of 2025 subject
to compliance with all regulatory requirements, As of the date of this report, we have paused further development and roll-out while
we reevaluate evolving market conditions and customer expectations.
●
New
Verticals Represent a Compelling Opportunity. We operate in a regulated market supported by the JOBS Act. We are working on expanding
our model to include Regulation A and Regulation D offerings.
●
Broker-Dealer
License. In November 2024, our wholly-owned subsidiary, Netcapital Securities Inc. received approval to become a FINRA-member broker
dealer. We believe that by having a registered broker-dealer, it may create opportunities to expand the Company’s revenue base
by hosting and generating additional fees from Reg A and Reg D offerings on the Netcapital platform, earning additional fees in connection
with offerings that may result from the introduction of clients to other FINRA broker-dealers and expanding our distribution capabilities
by leveraging strategic partnerships with other broker-dealers to distribute offerings of issuers that utilize the Netcapital platform
to a wider range of investors in order to maximize market penetration and optimize capital raising efforts.
- 10 -
Investment
Portfolio
An
additional part of our story involves the potential value creation driven by our portfolio companies. In our portfolio, we focus on companies
with emerging, disruptive technologies. A partial list of our investment portfolio is described below:
KingsCrowd
Industry:
Fintech
Trusted
by over 300,000 investors to vet startup investments, KingsCrowd, Inc. is a leader in ratings and analytics for online private markets.
The company aggregates, analyzes, and rates companies raising on platforms like Netcapital to help investors make more informed decisions.
Risks
related to an investment in KingsCrowd include, but are not limited to the following:
●
Many
of the key responsibilities of KingsCrowd’s business have been assigned to one individual, and its ability to implement adequate
internal controls depends, in part, on its ability to attract trained professional staff that allows it to segregate duties among
several individuals.
●
KingsCrowd
may become subject to any number of laws and regulations that may be adopted with respect to the Internet and electronic commerce;
and
●
KingsCrowd’s
success depends in part on its ability to grow and take advantage of efficiencies of scale;
Zelgor
Industry:
Mobile Games
Backed
by famous venture capitalist Tim Draper, napster founder, Shawn Fanning, and co-creator of Guitar Hero, Kai Huang, Zelgor Inc.(“Zelgor”)
is an interactive entertainment company featuring a new species of rambunctious alien characters called The Noobs. The Noobs are a unique
and original intellectual property introduced to the world through mobile games, multimedia content, and strategic partnerships.
Risks
related to an investment in Zelgor include, but are not limited to the following:
●
Many
of the key responsibilities of Zelgor’s business have been assigned to four individuals;
●
Zelgor
may become subject to any number of laws and regulations that may be adopted with respect to the Internet and electronic commerce;
and
●
The
business of mobile applications is competitive and is expected to become increasingly competitive in the future.
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Hiveskill
LLC
Industry:
AI
The
product is an AI-powered database and CRM hybrid that uses data and emotionally intelligent AI to boost direct one-to-one marketing efforts.
It also provides specialized experts who know how to leverage your company’s data.
Risks
related to an investment in Hiveskill LLC (“Hiveskill”) include, but are not limited to the following:
●
Competition
in the markets in which Hiveskill competes could prevent it from generating or sustaining revenue growth and generating or maintaining
profitability;
●
Hiveskill
operates in an emerging market that is characterized by rapid changes in customer requirements, frequent introductions of new and
enhanced products, and continuing and rapid technological advancement; and
●
Maintaining
its reputation is critical to Hiveskill’s ability to attract and retain clients, and any failure, or perceived failure, to
appropriately operate its business or deal with matters that give rise to reputation risk may materially and adversely harm the business,
prospects and results of operations
The
following table summarizes the components of investments as of April 30, 2025 and 2024:
April 30, 2025
April 30, 2024
Netcapital DE LLC
$ 1,985
$ 48,128
MustWatch LLC
-
440,000
Zelgor Inc.
1,400,000
1,400,000
ChipBrain LLC
-
3,366,348
Vymedic Inc.
11,032
11,032
C-Reveal Therapeutics LLC
50,000
50,000
Deuce Drone LLC
-
2,350,000
Hiveskill LLC
712,500
712,500
ScanHash LLC
425,000
425,000
Caesar Media Group Inc.
-
1,999,128
Cust Corp.
1,200,000
1,200,000
Reper LLC
1,200,000
1,200,000
Dark LLC
-
2,100,000
Netwire LLC
-
1,300,000
CountSharp LLC
-
1,170,000
CupCrew LLC
-
1,170,000
HeadFarm LLC
-
1,170,000
AceHedge LLC
-
1,110,000
Fantize LLC
-
1,110,000
StockText LLC
-
1,220,000
RealWorld LLC
-
1,170,000
1% equity fee received - 61 issuers in 2025, 30 issuers in 2024
169,790
97,700
KingsCrowd Inc.
577,743
513,550
Total Investments at fair value
$ 5,748,050
$ 25,333,386
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Major
Customers
For
the year ended April 30, 2025, the Company had one customer that constituted 20% of its revenues, and a second customer that accounted
for 11% of its revenues. For the year ended April 30, 2024, the Company had one customer that constituted 25% of its revenues, a second
customer that constituted 22% of its revenues, and a third customer that constituted 22% of its revenues.
Recent
Developments
July
2025 Warrant Exercises
In
July 2025, we issued an aggregate of 269,257 shares of our common stock to warrant holders that exercised warrants to purchase 418,510
shares of common stock on a net exercise basis.
July
2025 Registered Direct Offering and Concurrent Private Placement #2
On
July 16, 2025, we entered into a securities purchase agreement (the “July 2025 Purchase Agreement #2”) with certain institutional
investors, pursuant to which we agreed to sell 641,712 shares (the “July 2025 Shares #2”) of our common stock, at a purchase
price of $4.675 per share (the “July 2025 Offering #2”) for gross proceeds of approximately $3 million, prior to deducting
placement agent’s fees and other offering expenses payable by us. We intend to use approximately $250,000 of the net proceeds from
the July 2025 Offering #2 for the repayment of certain outstanding promissory notes and the remainder for working capital and other general
corporate purposes. The July 2025 Shares #2 were offered pursuant to our shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-267921),
which was declared effective by the Securities Exchange Commission on October 26, 2022.
Concurrently
with the sale of July 2025 Shares #2 pursuant to the July 2025 Purchase Agreement #2 in a private placement, for each July 2025 Share
#2 purchased by the investors, such investors received an unregistered warrant (the “July 2025 Investor Warrants #2”) to
purchase one share of our common stock, or 714,286 shares in the aggregate (the “July 2024 Investor Warrant Shares #2”).
The July 2025 Investor Warrants #2 have an exercise price of $4.55 per share and are exercisable immediately upon issuance for a twenty-four
month period following the date of effectiveness of resale registration statement providing for a resale of the shares underlying the
July 2025 Investor Warrants #2, which resale registration statement is required to be filed within 30-days of the July 2025 Purchase
Agreement #2.
In
connection with the July 2025 Offering #2, we paid H.C. Wainwright & Co. LLC, as placement agent (“Wainwright”) an aggregate
cash fee equal to 7.5% of the gross proceeds from the sale of securities in the July 2025 Offering #2 and a management fee equal to 1.0%
of the gross proceeds raised in the July 2025 Offering #2. We also issued Wainwright (or its designees) a warrant (the “Placement
Agent Warrants #2”) to purchase up to 7.5% of the aggregate number of July 2025 Shares #2 sold in the offering, or warrants to
purchase up to 48,128 shares of Common Stock, at an exercise price equal to 125.0% of the offering price per share of our common stock,
or $5.8438 per share. In addition, upon the cash exercise of July 2025 Warrants #2, we also agreed to issue Wainwright (or its designees)
additional Placement Agent Warrants #2 to purchase an amount of share of our common stock equal to 7.5% of the aggregate number of July
2025 Investor Warrants Shares #2 issued upon cash exercise of the July 2025 Investor Warrants #2. The Placement Agent Warrants #2 are
(or will be) exercisable immediately upon issuance for a period of five years following the commencement of the sales pursuant to the
July 2025 Offering #2.
The
closing of the sales of these securities under the July 2025 Purchase Agreement #2 took place on July 17, 2025.
July
2025 Registered Direct Offering and Concurrent Private Placement #1
On
July 2, 2025, we entered into a securities purchase agreement (the “July 2025 Purchase Agreement #1”) with certain institutional
investors, pursuant to which we agreed to sell 714,286 shares (the “July 2025 Shares #1”) of our common stock, at a purchase
price of $7.00 per share (the “July 2025 Offering #1”) for gross proceeds of approximately $5 million, prior to deducting
placement agent’s fees and other offering expenses payable by us. We used approximately $320,000 of the net proceeds from the July
2025 Offering #1 for the repayment of certain outstanding promissory notes and intend to use the remainder for working capital and other
general corporate purposes. The July 2025 Shares #1 were offered pursuant to our shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-267921),
which was declared effective by the Securities Exchange Commission on October 26, 2022.
Concurrently
with the sale of July 2025 Shares #1 pursuant to the July 2025 Purchase Agreement #1 in a private placement, for each July 2025 Share
#1 purchased by the investors, such investors received an unregistered warrant (the “July 2025 Investor Warrants #1”) to
purchase one share of our common stock, or 714,286 shares in the aggregate (the “July 2024 Investor Warrant Shares #1”).
The July 2025 Investor Warrants #1 have an exercise price of $6.88 per share and are exercisable immediately upon issuance for a twenty-four
month period following the date of effectiveness of resale registration statement providing for a resale of the shares underlying the
July 2025 Investor Warrants #1, which resale registration statement is required to be filed within 30-days of the July 2025 Purchase
Agreement #1.
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In
connection with the July 2025 Offering #1, we paid Wainwright, as placement agent an aggregate cash fee equal to 7.5% of the gross proceeds
from the sale of securities in the July 2025 Offering #1 and a management fee equal to 1.0% of the gross proceeds raised in the July
2025 Offering #1. We also issued Wainwright (or its designees) a warrant (the “Placement Agent Warrants #1”) to purchase
up to 7.5% of the aggregate number of July 2025 Shares #1 sold in the offering, or warrants to purchase up to 53,571 shares of our common
stock, at an exercise price equal to 125.0% of the offering price per share of our common stock, or $8.75 per share. In addition, upon
the cash exercise of July 2025 Warrants #1, we also agreed to issue Wainwright (or its designees) additional Placement Agent Warrants
to purchase an amount of share of Common Stock equal to 7.5% of the aggregate number of July 2025 Investor Warrants Shares #2 issued
upon cash exercise of the July 2025 Investor Warrants #1. The Placement Agent Warrants #! are (or will be) exercisable immediately upon
issuance for a period of five years following the commencement of the sales pursuant to the July 2025 Offering #1.
The
closing of the sales of these securities under the July 2025 Purchase Agreement #1 took place on July 7, 2025.
Horizon
License
On
June 26, 2025, we entered into a Horizon Software Agreement (the “Horizon Agreement’) with Horizon Globex GmbH, a company
incorporated in Switzerland (“Horizon”) pursuant to which Horizon granted us a royalty free, paid-up, non-exclusive, perpetual,
irrevocable, unrestricted license to use the Licensed Software (as defined in the Horizon Agreement) with our branding and image, in
the United States to provide capital-raising and secondary trading services to its clients in consideration for the issuance of 500,0000
shares (the “Horizon Shares”) of our common stock to Horizon or its affiliate. The Horizon Agreement may be terminated by
either party upon a default in the performance of any material obligation under the Agreement is not cured within 30-days after receipt
of such notice. In addition, the Horizon Agreement may be terminated immediately by either party in the event the other party files or
has filed against it any petition for relief under any bankruptcy statute or similar statute of any jurisdiction, or an order for relief
in any bankruptcy or reorganization proceeding is entered against the other party and such order remains undischarged for a period of
sixty (60) days; or a receiver is appointed for the other Party; or the other party is dissolved or liquidated, or ceases to carry on
its business, or makes an assignment for the benefit of its creditors.
ATM
Increase
On
June 23, 2025, we filed a prospectus supplement under our At-The-Market-Offering Agreement with Wainwright for an aggregate of $975,000
of additional shares of our common stock. From June
23, 2025 to June 25, 2025, we sold 229,404 shares of our common stock through Wainwright at an average price of approximately $4.25 per
share, resulting in aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $974,747, for which it paid Wainwright approximately $29,242 in commissions
and other issuance costs of $1,438, resulting in net proceeds to the Company of approximately $944,067.
June
2025 Private Placement
On
June 10, 2025, we entered into subscription agreements (the “Subscription Agreements”) with ten accredited investors to issue
an aggregate of 118,750 shares (the “June 2025 Shares”) of our common stock at a purchase price of $4.00 per share (the “Purchase
Price”) in a private placement, for gross proceeds of $475,000. We agreed to file a registration statement on providing for the
resale of the Shares (the “Resale Registration Statement”) within 60 calendar days of the initial closing of the private
placement (the “Filing Date”) and to use reasonable best efforts to cause the Resale Registration Statement to be declared
effective by the SEC within 90 calendar days following the final closing of the private placement date of the Filing Date. Until the
June 2025 shares are sold in accordance with applicable law, the Subscriber agrees to vote the shares in favor of all resolutions recommended
by our Board of Directors, and to deliver any proxy or voting instruction required by us to effectuate this obligation. The Subscription
Agreements include a price adjustment provision whereby if the Company issues additional shares at a price lower than the Purchase Price
during the period beginning on the date of the Subscription Agreements and prior to the date that is 6-months following the Filing Date,
investors will receive additional shares to reflect the lower price, subject to the minimum price as defined under Nasdaq Rule 5635(d)
on the date the Subscription Agreements were signed, which was $2.56. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for
general corporate purposes.
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Amendment
to Netcapital 2023 Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan
On
June 6, 2025, our board of directors approved an amendment (the “Plan Amendment”) to the Netcapital 2023 Omnibus Equity Incentive
Plan (the “Plan”) subject to stockholder approval, to: (i) increase the number of shares
authorized for issuance under the Plan to 1,547,556 shares, and (ii) crease the evergreen limit from 5% to 10% of our outstanding shares,
to allow for greater flexibility in future equity awards.
Formation
of Advisory Boards
On
June 6, 2025, our Board of Directors approved the formation of two strategic advisory boards: the Crypto Advisory Board and the Game
Advisory Board.
We
entered into advisory agreements with each member of the Crypto and Game Advisory Boards. Under these advisory agreements, each advisor
will provide us with sector-specific strategic guidance, marketing insight, partnership referrals, and other advisory services relevant
to their industry expertise. The initial term of each advisory agreement is eighteen months and may be extended by mutual agreement of
the parties. In consideration of the services rendered under these advisory agreements, we issued a total of 783,722 non-qualified stock
options to the advisors of the Crypto and Game Advisory Boards under the Plan as amended by the Plan Amendment. Such options are not
exercisable unless and until our stockholders approve the Plan Amendment.
May
2025 Note Financings
In
May 2025, we completed the sale of debt pursuant to two separate securities purchase agreements with 1800 Diagonal Lending LLC, a Virginia
limited liability company, under which it issued the following convertible promissory notes:
● A
convertible promissory note in the principal amount of $61,360, for a purchase price of $52,000,
reflecting an original issue discount of $9,360. The note carried a one-time interest charge
of 12% and is repayable in ten (10) monthly payments of $6,872.30 beginning May 30, 2025.
It matures on February 28, 2026 and is convertible into shares of common stock following
an event of default, subject to a 25% discount to the then-current market price, subject
to Nasdaq shareholder approval limits. We prepaid the note in full on July 8, 2025, with
a remittance of $52,779 after having made two of the 10 scheduled monthly payments.
● A
second convertible bridge note in the principal amount of $64,960, for a purchase price of
$56,000, with an original issue discount of $8,960. The note also carried a 12% one-time
interest charge and is repayable in five (5) monthly payments beginning October 30, 2025.
It shares the same maturity date and default-based conversion rights as the first note. We
prepaid the note in full on July 8, 2025, with a remittance of $69,845.
On
May 1, 2025, we completed a private financing transaction with a single accredited investor and issued an unsecured, non-convertible
promissory note in the principal amount of $400,000. The note was issued at a 50% OID for gross proceeds of $200,000. The note bears
interest at 8% per annum, matures three months from the issuance date, and is prepayable at any time without penalty. In the event of
default, the interest rate increases to 20% per annum. The note is due on August 1, 2025.
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Employees
As
of April 30, 2025, the Company had three members of its senior corporate personnel. As of April 30, 2025, we had approximately 20 employees,
all of which were full time. None of our employees are unionized or covered by collective bargaining agreements, and we consider our
current employee relations to be good.
Corporate
History and Information
The
Company was incorporated in Utah in 1984 as DBS Investments, Inc. (“DBS”), merged with ValueSetters L.L.C. in December of
2003 and changed its name to ValueSetters, Inc. In November 2010, the Company purchased NetGames.com to drive subscription revenue through
online games such as chess.net. In the summer of 2017, Dr. Cecilia Lenk and Coreen Kraysler, CFA were hired to bring in consulting and
advisory business. In November 2020, the Company purchased Netcapital Funding Portal Inc. and changed the name of the parent company
from ValueSetters, Inc. to Netcapital Inc., while the name of the consulting business was changed to Netcapital Advisors. In November
2021, the Company purchased MSG Development Corp. We formed Netcapital Securities Inc. in 2024.
Our
principal executive offices are located at One Lincoln Street, Boston, Massachusetts and our telephone number is 781-925-1700. We maintain
a corporate website with the address https://www.netcapitalinc.com, our funding portal maintains a website with the address http://www.netcapital.com,
Netcapital Advisors maintains a website at http://www.netcapitaladvisors.com and our broker dealer also uses https://www.netcapital.com.
We have not incorporated by reference into this Report on Form 10-K the information on any of our websites and you should not consider
any of such information to be a part of this document. Our website addresses are included in this document for reference only.
We
make available free of charge through our corporate website our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current
Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to these reports through a link to the EDGAR database as soon as reasonably practicable after we
electronically file such material with, or furnish such material to the SEC. You can also read and copy any materials we file with the
SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549. You can obtain additional information about the
operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1.800.SEC.0330. In addition, the SEC maintains a website (www.sec.gov) that
contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC, including
all of our filings.