Cash Flow Portal – Leveraging Purpose-Built Real-Estate Syndication Software That Accelerates Capital Raising

The Silicon Review

“Our services are flexible as we are the only investor portal with an ecosystem that attracts both syndicators and investors.”

Cash Flow Portal is a real estate syndication platform that helps sponsors streamline equity raising, automate operations, and reach more investors. Our software allows syndicators to add asset details, including year built, number of units, location and even projected vs. actual yearly cash flow. Cash Flow Portal’s Marketplace allows both syndicators and new investors to connect and close more real estate deals.

Perry Zheng, founder and CEO of Cash Flow Portal, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review on how his company is helping people achieve financial freedom through real estate investing.

Interview Highlights

Q. What was the motivation behind starting Cash Flow Portal?

I started Cash Flow Portal after syndicating my first deal with my business partner as Lead Sponsors and realized that the back-office work was too manual and time-consuming. I wanted to achieve scale, find more deals, and raise equity faster but could not find a cost-effective and robust platform.

I was frustrated by the amount of tedious work, so I wrote my first line of code in April 2020. We had a soft launch with seven beta users just a few months after. Since then, we’ve helped syndicators raise more than $500 million from thousands of passive investors. I’ve been fortunate to combine my engineering background previously working for large tech companies and my passion for real estate to start my own software company.

Q. Can you explain about your services in brief?

Cash Flow Portal is a YC backed, real estate syndication platform that accelerates equity raising. In short, real estate syndication is when a group of General Partners (GPs) combine resources and expertise to raise capital from Limited Partners (LPs) to acquire an asset that they otherwise would be unable to acquire alone.

We help syndicators streamline the process so that offering summaries and documents are tracked in a centralized location. This makes the process more intuitive for investors to sign, invest and receive ACH payments.

We also launched the Marketplace, which connects new and experienced syndicators with passive investors. Syndicators have LinkedIn-like profiles that provide visibility and transparency on their track record of previous deals. New investors can establish relationships with syndicators by coordinating an introductory call to get to know one another.

Q. Can smaller investors make use of your services? How flexible are your services?

Absolutely, smaller investors can make use of our services! Passive investors can check out the Marketplace to connect with syndicators based on their criteria of which markets (e.g., Dallas, Nashville, Denver, etc.) and asset types (multifamily, storage units, mobile park homes) they want to invest in. They have access to more information that helps them decide where their capital goes. This is especially important if they are new to real estate syndication and want to diversify their portfolio beyond the traditional stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.

Our services are flexible as we are the only investor portal with an ecosystem that attracts both syndicators and investors. As a start-up, we can implement customer feedback almost immediately to improve and solve pain points for our end users..

Q. New companies find it difficult to raise finance from the public. How do you assist them to raise capital?

We assist syndicators to raise private money from passive investors to acquire assets through our portal. We are the engine that accelerates equity raising by automating the manual and paper-heavy work so that syndicators can focus their time and energy on higher-value items. During a capital raise, there are lots of moving parts and stakeholders involved - tracking subscription documents should be the least of their worries. We essentially take care of the backend work.

Another way we help raise finance from the public is access to investors. Every syndicator needs a pipeline of deals through their relationships with brokers and capital to close the deal. The Marketplace supplies syndicators with access to new investors and their capital to close deals.

Q. Compliance is vital for any organization. What are the measures you adopt to comply with regulations?

Real estate syndication is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a federal agency that regulates securities markets and protects investors. Unlike other investor portals and crowdfunding sites, the Marketplace offers access to both 506(b) and 506(c) deals, which are open to non-accredited and accredited investors. I want to emphasize that we do not have a depository of publicly listed deals. It is only after a connection is formed on the Marketplace and both parties agree that they have similar financial goals that investors are added to the syndicator’s database for future deals.

Our platform can track substantive relationships when passive investors connect with syndicators. Based on government regulations, we consult legal teams to ensure that we are fully compliant with regulators.

Q. How do you protect the interest of the investors?

We protect the interest of investors by providing full transparency on syndicators and their track record of current and previous deals. We are empowering investors with access to information and the ability to build connections with syndicators that they otherwise would not have been able to do. They can invest passively and build a path to financial freedom without having to actively manage smaller scale properties and deal with tenants, trash, and termites.

Q. Do you have any new services ready to be launched?

We don’t have new services being launched and instead focus on building an incredible, reliable, and robust platform for both syndicators and investors. Rather than go wide with different service offerings, we aim to go narrow and deep. There is nothing more unsatisfying to customers than to have a broken platform with too many features.

We recently launched our ACH payment capability, where syndicators can send distributions directly from our portal. We revamped the Marketplace, added affiliations for syndicators, and allowed them to set custom biography links. We also improved emails and allowed passive investors to view email history. Based on the examples I just mentioned, a lot of our strategy is execution on improving and enhancing functionality.

Q. What does the future hold for your company and its customers? Are exciting things on the way?

We are most excited about growing our team and developing a fun, scrappy, and competent culture. We hired a Head of Revenue and are currently recruiting for an Engineering Manager. We will be sponsoring more conferences, the easiest and most impactful way to interact with our end users. We can also gather intel on market trends in the syndication space. Through our relationships, we hope to create more strategic partnerships to broaden our audience and the stickiness of our product.

One of our customers described us as the new ‘spunky’ kid on the block. We are the underdogs (for now) but excited to make our mark against the more established competitors.

Perry Zheng | Founder and CEO

Perry Zheng started his real estate investing journey about seven years ago when he bought a condo in San Francisco while working as a software engineer. He then bought seven house-hacking single families in the Bay Area and Seattle over the next few years. Having maxed out his single-family quota, Perry went into multifamily. He syndicated his first multifamily deal in 2019, a 172-unit apartment complex in Dallas, TX. That deal is now being sold and will generate 100%+ return for investors in 2.5 years. Now Mr. Zheng has syndicated a total of 850 units and been a passive investor in more than 3,000 units.

Out of all forms of real estate investing, I truly believe real estate syndication is the most accessible, easiest to start, and has the highest upside for those getting started.