Item 1A. “Risk Factors” in this Form 10-K. These factors include:

You are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. We undertake no obligation to amend this Form 10-K or revise publicly these forward-looking statements (other than pursuant to reporting obligations imposed on registrants pursuant to applicable federal securities laws) to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

RISK FACTOR SUMMARY

Our business is subject to significant risks and uncertainties that make an investment in us speculative and risky. Below we summarize what we believe are the principal risk factors but these risks are not the only ones we face, and you should carefully review and consider the full discussion of our risk factors in the section titled “Risk Factors,” together with the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. If any of the following risks actually occurs (or if any of those listed elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K occur), our business, reputation, financial condition, results of operations, revenue, and future prospects could be seriously harmed. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently believe are not material, may also become important factors that adversely affect our business. Unless the context otherwise requires, references in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to the “Company,” “we,” “us,” “our,” and “Netcapital” refer to Netcapital Inc. and its subsidiaries.

Risks Related to Our Need for Additional Capital

We will need to raise additional funding, which may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all. Failure to obtain this necessary capital when needed may force us to delay, limit or terminate operations.

Risks Related to our Business and Growth Strategy

Risks Related to Receipt of Securities for Services

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We are not, and do not intend to become, regulated as an investment company under the U.S. Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, or the 40 Act, (and similar legislation in other jurisdictions) and if we are deemed an “investment company” under the 40 Act applicable restrictions would make it impractical for us to operate as contemplated.

Risk Factors Related to Our Common Stock

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, Reg CF of the JOBS Act. We generate fees from listing private companies on our portal. Our consulting group, Netcapital Advisors, provides marketing and strategic advice in exchange for cash and equity positions. The Netcapital funding portal is registered with the SEC, is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, a registered national securities association, and provides investors with opportunities to invest in private companies. The Netcapital funding portal is registered with the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a registered national securities association.

Development of Business

The Company was incorporated in Utah in 1984 as DBS Investments, Inc., or DBS. DBS merged with ValueSetters L.L.C. in December 2003 and changed its name to ValueSetters, Inc. In November 2020, the Company purchased Netcapital Funding Portal Inc. (the “Funding Portal”) and changed the name of the Company from ValueSetters, Inc. to Netcapital Inc.

The Company has three operating subsidiaries. The Funding Portal provides private companies with access to investments from accredited and non-accredited retail investors through our online portal (www.netcapital.com). The Funding Portal charges a $5,000 to $10,000 engagement fee, a 4.9% success fee for capital raised at closing and sometimes is paid with equity from the issuer that has listed on the Funding Portal. In addition, the Funding Portal generates fees for other ancillary services, such as rolling closes. Netcapital Advisors Inc.netcapitaladvisors. generates fees and equity stakes from consulting in select portfolio and non-portfolio clients. MSG Development Corp. provides corporate valuation services to businesses and individuals.

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 investment 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:

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. The company's consulting group, Netcapital Advisors, delivers marketing and strategic advice and takes equity positions in select companies with disruptive technologies. We also act as an incubator and accelerator, taking equity stakes in select disruptive start-ups.

Netcapital Advisors’ services include:

Valuation Business

Our valuation group, MSG Development Corp. prepares valuations.

The valuation services include:

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. While these barriers will 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 will 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:

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. Our failure to comply with these requirements as applicable to us could have a material adverse effect on us.

Our Market

The traditional funding model restricts access to capital, investments and liquidity. According to Harvard Business Review, venture capital firms, or 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 in 2022, according to PitchBook, while only 1% went to black-owned firms, according to TechCrunch.

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 from all Americans. 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, Regulation 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 Regulation A Tier 2 increased to $75 million from $50 million.

There was $494 million raised via Reg CF in 2022, according to Crowdwise. We believe a significant opportunity exists to disrupt private capital markets via the Netcapital funding portal.

Private capital markets reached $12 trillion by the first half of 2022, per McKinsey. Within this market, private equity represents the largest share, with assets in excess of $3 trillion and a 10-year CAGR of 10%. Since 2000, global private equity, or PE, net asset value has increased almost tenfold, nearly three times faster than the size of the public equity market. Both McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group predict that this strong growth will continue, as investors allocate increasing amounts to private equity, due to historically higher returns and lower volatility than public markets. In addition, Boston Consulting Group estimates that there are $42 trillion held in retail investment accounts, which we believe represents a large pool of potential account holders for us.

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).

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 $430,000 and $357,429 in the years ended April 30, 2023 and 2022, respectively.

Proposed Alternative Trading System (“ATS”) Relationship

On January 2, 2023, our wholly owned subsidiary, Netcapital Systems LLC entered into a software license and services agreement (“Templum License Agreement”) with Templum, Inc (“Templum”) to provide issuers and investors on the Netcapital funding portal 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.

The Templum License Agreement allows us to launch a customized marketplace for the trading of private securities issued under an exemption to the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Templum operates an alternative trading system under the provisions of Regulation ATS. The Templum License Agreement is for an initial term of three (3) years and will automatically renew for consecutive terms of one (1) year unless (i) either party upon at least ninety (90) days prior to the expiration of the initial term or then-current renewal term, provides written notice to the other party of its intention not to renew, in which case the agreement and the applicable order and technology services and pricing outline will expire, as the case may be, at the end of the then current initial term or renewal term; or (ii) either party terminates the agreement pursuant to and in accordance with the terms and conditions set forth in the agreement. Netcapital Systems paid Templum an implementation fee upon signing of the Agreement.

The Templum License Agreement grants Netcapital Systems a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and non-sublicensable right and license to use Templum’s software and to provide its users access to the software. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Netcapital Systems shall be Templum’s exclusive registered crowdfunding platform partner and Templum shall not provide services to any third-party whose primary business is providing services as a registered crowdfunding platform except as noted in the agreement. Netcapital Systems agreed to pay Templum a discounted license fee in year 1, and a standard license fee in years 2 and 3. After conclusion of the initial 3-year term, the annual license fee will increase by the greater of CPI+3% or 5% for each renewal term.

A beta testing platform has been established and the functionality is currently being tested. Additional milestones required to launch the platform to the public include, but are not limited to, development of the know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) functionality as well as a launch of the beta version to a closed group of users, which is currently expected in the fourth quarter of 2023. Currently, we do not know when, or if, this platform will be fully completed and launched, as there are many details that remain to be completed as well as certain regulatory matters that are required to be satisfied regarding the proposed operation of the ATS. Any regulatory delays or objections will result in delays in our ability to launch the proposed platform.

It is currently contemplated that the Templum ATS will be integrated with the Netcapital funding platform, and that issuers and investors will not be able to directly access the Templum ATS. Rather, we will be responsible for collecting and delivering any required information to the Templum ATS. Once an order request has been submitted and the Templum ATS has identified two-order (bid/ask) matching at the price level, it will inform us so that we can initiate the process of wallet reconciliation between the two proposed parties in the transaction.

Competitive Advantages

We believe we provide a low-cost solution for online capital raising versus our peer group (StartEngine Crowdfunding, Inc., Wefunder Inc. and Republic Core LLC). We also believe that our access and onboarding of new clients are superior due to our facilitated technology platforms. Our network is expanding as a result of our enhanced marketing and broad distribution to reach new investors. 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.

Our Strategy

Two major tailwinds are driving accelerated growth in the shift to the use of online funding portals: (i) the COVID-19 pandemic; and (ii) the increase in funding limits under Reg CF. The pandemic drove a rapid need to bring as many processes as possible online. With travel restrictions in place and most people in lockdown, entrepreneurs were no longer able to fundraise in person and have increasingly turned to online capital raising through funding portals.

There are numerous industry drivers and tailwinds that complement investor demand for access to investments in private companies. To capitalize on these, our strategy is to:

Industry Tailwinds

Two major tailwinds are driving accelerated growth in the shift to digital fundraising: the COVID-19 pandemic and regulatory enhancements to the Jobs Act. The pandemic drove a rapid need to bring as many processes as possible online. With travel restrictions in place and most people in lockdown, entrepreneurs were no longer able to fundraise in person and have increasingly turned to online capital raising through funding portals.

In addition, exempt offering regulatory enhancements proposed by the SEC in 2020 went into effect in March 2021. These amendments increased the offering limits for Reg CF, Regulation A and Rule 504 of Regulation D offerings as follows: the Reg CF limit increased to $5 million from $1.07 million, every twelve months. Rule 504 of Regulation D moved to $10 million from $5 million and Regulation A Tier 2 rose to $75 million from $50 million.

Investment Portfolio

A key 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.

ChipBrain

Industry: AI

Effective communicators close more deals. ChipBrain LLC’s emotionally intelligent AI assistant provides real-time emotion, tone, and facial expression feedback in live conversations across text, voice, and video. Taking the guesswork out of identifying conversational cues, the company’s technology enables sales professionals to see at a glance how they are coming across to customers.

ScanHash LLC

Industry: AI

With the click of a button and the wallet owner’s permission, ScanHash’s innovative program launches and immediately integrates with customers' technology systems to search for clues and traces of their private key, digital wallets and other crypto-enabling logs and records. Thanks to ScanHash’s proprietary digital forensics technology, recovering lost cryptocurrency is affordable, accessible, and safe.

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. 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.

MustWatch

Industry: Technology

MustWatch LLC brings your friends and favorite shows together all in one place. The Watch Party app makes it easy to find new shows, see what your friends are watching, and recommend great shows to each other. The company’s platform delivers targeted show recommendations based on the television viewing tastes of users’ friends and family. It’s not a single streaming platform’s media catalog, but a cross-platform television guide, crowdsourced from your friends and family.

C-Reveal Therapeutics

Industry: Cancer Immunotherapy

C-Reveal Therapeutics’s proprietary technology, developed at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University, helps the body's immune system to identify and destroy cancer cells by inhibiting key enzymes that conceal the disease. This patent pending approach is designed to improve the efficacy of treating a broad range of cancers.

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.

Caesar Media Group Inc.

Industry: Marketing

Caesar Media Group, Inc. is an advanced marketing and technology solutions provider. Caesar Media Group is designed to leverage its technology and data to provide lead generation, search engine optimization (SEO) website development, project development, digital marketing, content management, customer service, and sales management.

Although each of the above companies possesses potential to be a valuable liquid asset for our Company, they are subject to swings in their valuation and on a quarter-to-quarter basis, may create extreme volatility in our earnings report, as we mark the value of the investment to the most recent observable price. Some of our investments may decrease to a value of zero dollars.

Major Customers

For the year ended April 30, 2023, the Company had one customer that constituted 25% of its revenues, and four customers that each constituted 14% of its revenues. For the year ended April 30, 2022, the Company had one customer that constituted 22% of its revenues, a second customer that constituted 22% of its revenues, and a third customer that constituted 18% of its revenues. For the year ended April 30, 2020, the Company had one customer that constituted 47% of its revenues, a second customer that constituted 31% of its revenues and a third customer that accounted for 13% of its revenues. For the year ended April 30, 2020, the Company had one customer that constituted 47% of its revenues, a second customer that constituted 31% of its revenues and a third customer that accounted for 13% of its revenues.

Recent Developments

May 2023 Registered Direct Offering

On May 23, 2023, we entered into a securities purchase agreement with certain institutional investors, pursuant to which we agreed to issue and sell to such investors, in a registered direct offering (the “Offering”), 1,100,000 shares (the “Shares”) of our common stock at a price of $1.55 per Share, for aggregate gross proceeds of $1,705,000, before deducting the placement agent's fees and other offering expenses payable by the Company. The Offering closed on May 25, 2023 and we received aggregate net proceeds of $1,468,700. The Shares were offered and issued and sold pursuant to the Company’s shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (File 333-267921) filed by the Company with the SEC under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), on October 18, 2022 and declared effective on October 26, 2022.

We used approximately $365,000 of the net proceeds from the Offering to repay certain indebtedness, and the remainder of net proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Also in connection with the Offering, on May 23, 2023, we entered into a placement agency agreement with ThinkEquity (the “Placement Agent”), pursuant to which (i) the Placement Agent agreed to act as placement agent on a “best efforts” basis in connection with the Offering, (ii) we agreed to pay the Placement Agent an aggregate fee equal to 8.0% of the gross proceeds raised in the Offering, and to reimburse the Placement Agent for certain expenses, and (iii) we agreed to issue to the Placement Agent warrants to purchase up to 55,000 shares of Common Stock at an exercise price of $1.94 (the “Placement Agent Warrants”), which were issued on May 25, 2023. The Placement Agent Warrants (and the shares of Common Stock issuable upon the exercise of the Placement Agent Warrants) were not registered under the Securities Act, and were offered pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act provided in Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act and Rule 506(b) promulgated thereunder.

Repayment of Secured Debt

On May 25, 2023, we paid $367,167 to our secured lender, Vaxstar LLC, to pay off the remaining $350,000 principal balance and $17,167 in interest, using a portion of the net proceeds of the Offering. Following repayment to Vaxstar LLC the facility was closed and all related agreements were terminated in accordance with their terms.

Recent Common Stock Issuances.

In April and May 2023, we issued an aggregate of 450,000 shares of common stock to consultants in consideration of services rendered. In addition, in July 2023, we issued 49,855 shares of common stock to an unrelated third party, in consideration of a release from such third party related to settlement of an outstanding debt between such third-party and Netcapital DE LLC. We did not receive any proceeds from these issuances. Such shares were issued as restricted securities and were issued pursuant to the exemption provided by Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

July 2023 Public Offering

On July 24, 2023 the Company completed an underwritten public offering of 1,725,000 shares of the Company’s common stock, at a price to the public of $0.70 per share for aggregate gross proceeds of $1,207,500, before deducting underwriting discounts and offering expenses payable by the Company. In conjunction with this offering, the Company issued the underwriter and its designees warrants to purchase 86,250 shares of our common stock at an exercise price of $0.875.

Corporate Information

Our principal executive offices are located at State Street Financial Center, One Lincoln Street, Boston, Massachusetts and our telephone number is 781-925-1700. We maintain a corporate website with the address http://www.netcapitalinc.com, our funding portal maintains a website with the address http://www.netcapital.com, Netcapital Advisors maintains a website at http://www.com, and Netcapital Advisors maintains a website at http://www. netcapitaladvisors.com and our valuation business maintains a website at https://valucorp.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. 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.

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS.

Certain factors may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. You should consider carefully the risks and uncertainties described below, in addition to other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently believe are not material, may also become important factors that adversely affect our business. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and future prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment.

Risks Related to Our Need for Additional Capital

We will need to raise additional funding, which may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all. Failure to obtain this necessary capital when needed may force us to delay, limit or terminate operations.

Our cash balances at April 30, 2023 and July 25, 2023 were $569,441 and $1,256,200, respectively. We will need to raise additional capital following the date of this report through the offering of additional equity and/or debt securities and/or the sale of equity positions in certain portfolio companies for which Netcapital Advisors provides marketing and strategic advice. In the event that we are not able to raise additional working capital through these methods, we do not expect that our cash on hand will be sufficient to fund our current operations for the next 12 months. Our operating plan may change as a result of many factors currently unknown to us, and we may need to seek additional funds sooner than planned, through public or private equity or debt financings, government or other third-party funding or a combination of these approaches. Raising funds in the current economic environment may present additional challenges. Even if we believe we have sufficient funds for our current or future operating plans, we may seek additional capital if market conditions are favorable or if we have specific strategic considerations.

Any additional fundraising efforts may divert our management from their day-to-day activities. In addition, we cannot guarantee that future financing will be available in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, if at all. Moreover, the terms of any financing may adversely affect the holdings or the rights of our stockholders and the issuance of additional securities, whether equity or debt, by us, or the possibility of such issuance, may cause the market price of our shares of common stock to decline. The sale of additional equity or convertible securities may dilute our existing stockholders. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased fixed payment obligations, and we may be required to agree to certain restrictive covenants, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt, limitations on our ability to acquire, sell or license intellectual property rights and other operating restrictions that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business. We could also be required to seek funds through arrangements with collaborative partners or otherwise at an earlier stage than otherwise would be desirable and we may be required to relinquish rights to some of our technologies or product candidates or otherwise agree to terms unfavorable to us, any of which may have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and prospects.

Risks Related to Our Business and Growth Strategy

We have a limited operating history and our profits have been generated primarily by unrealized gains from equity securities we own in other companies. Although we have been profitable, the likelihood of our success must be considered in light of the problems, expenses, difficulties, complications and delays frequently encountered by a small developing company.

We were incorporated in the State of Utah in April 1984. Although we have reported earnings in the years ended April 30, 2023 and 2022, the majority of our earnings came from unrealized gains in equity securities that we own. These securities have observable prices but are not liquid. Furthermore, the likelihood of our success must be considered in light of the problems, expenses, difficulties, complications and delays frequently encountered by a small developing company starting a new business enterprise and the highly competitive environment in which we will operate. We were incorporated in the State of Utah in April 1984. The likelihood of our success must be considered in light of the problems, expenses, difficulties, complications and delays frequently encountered by a small developing company starting a new business enterprise and the highly competitive environment in which we will operate. Since we have a limited operating history, we cannot assure you that our business will maintain profitability.

We have substantial customer concentration, with a limited number of customers accounting for a substantial portion of our revenues.

We currently derive a significant portion of our revenues from a limited number of customers. For the year ended April 30, 2023, the Company had one customer that constituted 25% of its revenues, and four customers that each constituted 14% of its revenues. For the year ended April 30, 2020, the Company had one customer that constituted 47% of its revenues, a second customer that constituted 31% of its revenues and a third customer that accounted for 13% of its revenues. For the year ended April 30, 2022, the Company had one customer that constituted 22% of its revenues, a second customer that constituted 22% of its revenues, and a third customer that constituted 18% of its revenues. For the year ended April 30, 2020, the Company had one customer that constituted 47% of its revenues, a second customer that constituted 31% of its revenues and a third customer that accounted for 13% of its revenues. For the year ended April 30, 2020, the Company had one customer that constituted 47% of its revenues, a second customer that constituted 31% of its revenues and a third customer that accounted for 13% of its revenues. There are inherent risks whenever a large percentage of total revenues are concentrated with a limited number of customers. It is not possible for us to predict the future level of demand for our services that will be generated by these customers or new customers, or the future demand for the products and services of these customers or new customers. If any of these customers experience declining or delayed sales due to market, economic or competitive conditions, we could be pressured to reduce the prices we charge for our products which could have an adverse effect on our margins and financial position and could negatively affect our revenues and results of operations and/or trading price of our common stock.

We operate in a regulatory environment that is evolving and uncertain.

The regulatory framework for online capital formation or crowdfunding is very new. The regulations that govern our operations have been in existence for a very few years. Further, there are constant discussions among legislators and regulators with respect to changing the regulatory environment. New laws and regulations could be adopted in the United States and abroad. Further, existing laws and regulations may be interpreted in ways that would impact our operations, including how we communicate and work with investors and the companies that use our services and the types of securities that our clients can offer and sell on our platform.

We operate in a highly regulated industry.

We are subject to extensive regulation and failure to comply with such regulation could have an adverse effect on our business. Further, our subsidiary Netcapital Funding Portal Inc is registered as a funding portal. As a funding portal we have to comply with stringent regulations, and the operation of our funding portal is frequently subject to examination, constraints on its business, and in some cases fines. In addition, some of the restrictions and rules applicable to our subsidiary could adversely affect and limit some of our business plans.

Our funding portal’s service offerings are relatively new in an industry that is still quickly evolving.

The principal securities regulations that we work with, Rule 506(c) and Reg CF, have only been in effect in their current form since 2013 and 2016, respectively. Our ability to continue to penetrate the market remains uncertain as potential issuer companies may choose to use different platforms or providers (including, in the case of Rule 506(c) and Regulation A, using their own online platform), or determine alternative methods of financing. Investors may decide to invest their money elsewhere. Further, our potential market may not be as large, or our industry may not grow as rapidly as anticipated. Success will likely be a factor of investing in the development and implementation of marketing campaigns, repeat business from both issuer companies and investors, and favorable changes in the regulatory environment.

We have an evolving business model.

Our business model is one of innovation, including continuously working to expand our product lines and services to our clients. For example, we are evaluating an expansion into the broker-dealer space as well as our foray into becoming an alternative trading system. It is unclear whether these services will be successful. Further, we continuously try to offer additional types of services, and we cannot offer any assurance that any of them will be successful. From time to time, we may also modify aspects of our business model relating to our service offerings. We cannot offer any assurance that these or any other modifications will be successful or will not result in harm to the business. We may not be able to manage growth effectively, which could damage our reputation, limit our growth, and negatively affect our operating results.

We may be liable for misstatements made by issuers.

Under the Securities Act and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”), issuers making offerings through our funding portal may be liable for inappropriate disclosures, including untrue statements of material facts or for omitting information that could make the statements misleading. This liability may also extend in Reg CF offerings to funding portals, such as our subsidiary. This liability may also extend in Regulation Crowdfunding offerings to funding portals, such as our subsidiary. Even though due diligence defenses may be available, there can be no assurance that if we were sued, we would prevail. Further, even if we do succeed, lawsuits are time consuming and expensive, and being a party to such actions may cause us reputational harm that would negatively impact our business. Moreover, even if we are not liable or a party to a lawsuit or enforcement action, some of our clients have been and will be subject to such proceedings. Any involvement we may have, including responding to document production requests, may be time-consuming and expensive as well.

Our compliance is focused on U.S. laws and we have not analyzed foreign laws regarding the participation of non-U.S. residents.

Some of the investment opportunities posted on our platform are open to non-U.S. residents. We have not researched all the applicable foreign laws and regulations, and we have not set up our structure to be compliant with foreign laws. It is possible that we may be deemed in violation of those laws, which could result in fines or penalties as well as reputational harm. Any violation of foreign laws may limit our ability in the future to assist companies in accessing money from those investors, and compliance with those laws and regulations may limit our business operations and plans for future expansion.

Our cash flow is reliant on one main type of service.

Most of our cash-flow generating services are variants on one type of service: providing a platform for online capital formation. Our revenues are therefore dependent upon the market for online capital formation. As such, any downturn in the market could have a material adverse effect of our business and financial condition.

We depend on key personnel and face challenges recruiting needed personnel.

Our future success depends on the efforts of a small number of key personnel, including the founder of our subsidiary, Netcapital Funding Portal Inc., our Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and our compliance, engineering and marketing teams. Our software engineer team, as well as our compliance team and our marketing team are critical to continually innovate and improve our products while operating in a highly regulated industry. In addition, due to the specialized expertise required, we may not be able to recruit the individuals needed for our business needs. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in attracting and retaining the personnel we require to operate and be innovative. There can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain financing if and when it is needed on terms we deem acceptable.

We are vulnerable to hackers and cyber attacks.

As an internet-based business, we may be vulnerable to hackers who may access the data of our investors and the issuer companies that utilize our platform. Further, any significant disruption in service on our funding portal platform or in our computer systems could reduce the attractiveness of our platform and result in a loss of investors and companies interested in using our platform. Further, we rely on a third-party technology provider to provide some of our back-up technology as well as act as our escrow agent. Any disruptions of services or cyber-attacks either on our technology provider, escrow agent, or on us could harm our reputation and materially negatively impact our financial condition and business.

Our funding portal relies on one escrow agent to hold investment commitments for issuers.

We currently rely on First Citizens Bank to provide all escrow services related to offerings on our platform. Any change in this relationship will require us to find another escrow agent and escrow bank. This change may cause us delays as well as additional costs in transitioning our technology. We are not allowed to operate our funding portal business without a qualified third-party escrow bank. There are a limited number of banks that provide this service. As such, if our relationship with our escrow agent is terminated, we may have difficulty finding a replacement which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

If our wholly owned subsidiary, Netcapital Funding Portal Inc., fails to comply with its obligations under the license agreement with Netcapital Systems LLC under which the technology to operate our funding portal is licensed to Netcapital Funding Portal Inc., we could lose rights necessary to operate our funding portal which are important to our business.

Our wholly owned subsidiary, Netcapital Funding Portal Inc. has licensed the technology necessary to operate our funding portal from our majority stockholder, Netcapital Systems LLC, of which Mr. Frishman owns a 29% interest. These rights are extremely important to our business. If Netcapital Funding Portal Inc. fails to comply with any obligations under this license agreement, such license agreement may be subject to termination in whole or in part, which could severely impact our ability to operate our funding portal which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, and results of operations.

In addition, disputes may arise regarding the technology subject to a license agreement, including:

Disputes over technology under the license agreement with Netcapital Systems LLC may prevent or impair our ability to maintain our current license agreement on acceptable terms, and we may be unable to successfully operate our funding portal. In addition, any failure of Netcapital Systems LLC to service the technology subject to the license agreement or to operate its website could result in our inability to operate our funding portal which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Netcapital Systems LLC relies on third-party software for the technology subject to the license agreement with Netcapital Funding Portal Inc. that may be difficult to replace or which could cause errors or failures of our funding portal.

Netcapital Systems LLC relies on software licensed from third parties for the technology subject to the license agreement with Netcapital Funding Portal Inc. This software may not continue to be available at reasonable prices or on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Any loss by Netcapital Systems LLC of the right to use any of this software could significantly increase our expenses and otherwise result in delays in the provisioning of our funding portal until equivalent technology is either developed by us or Netcapital Systems LLC, or, if available, is identified, obtained, and integrated, which could harm our business. Any errors or defects in third-party software could result in errors or a failure of our funding portal which could harm our business.

Our strategy to purchase a portion of early-stage companies may provide us with investments that have no liquidity.

It is our strategy to sometimes purchase, at an affordable price, part or all of early-stage companies and cross pollinate the ideas, technology and expertise within these companies to enhance the operations, profits and market share of all the entities. That strategy may result in us diverting management attention and advisory resources to do work for early-stage companies that pay for the work with equity, which becomes impaired in value or never becomes a liquid asset. For all of these early-stage companies, the future liquidity and value of our investments cannot be guaranteed, and no market may exist for us to generate gains from our investments in early-stage companies.

Our business depends on the reliability of the infrastructure that supports the Internet and the viability of the Internet.

The growth of Internet usage has caused frequent interruptions and delays in processing and transmitting data over the Internet. There can be no assurance that the Internet infrastructure or the Company’s own network systems will continue to be able to support the demands placed on it by the continued growth of the Internet, the overall online securities industry or that of our customers.

The Internet’s viability could be affected if the necessary infrastructure is not sufficient, or if other technologies and technological devices eclipse the Internet as a viable channel.

End-users of our software depend on Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”), online service providers and our system infrastructure for access to the Internet sites that we operate. Many of these services have experienced service outages in the past and could experience service outages, delays and other difficulties due to system failures, stability or interruption. As a result, we may not be able to meet a level of service that we have promised to our subscribers, and we may be in breach of our contractual commitments, which could materially adversely affect our business, revenues, operating results and financial condition.

We are dependent on general economic conditions.

Our business model is dependent on investors investing in the companies presented on our platforms. Investment dollars are disposable income. Our business model is thus dependent on national and international economic conditions. Adverse national and international economic conditions may reduce the future availability of investment dollars, which would negatively impact our revenues and possibly our ability to continue operations. It is not possible to accurately predict the potential adverse impacts on the Company, if any, of current economic conditions on its financial condition, operating results and cash flow.

We face significant market competition.

We facilitate online capital formation. Though this is a new market, we compete against a variety of entrants in the market as well as new entrants into the market. Some of these follow a regulatory model that is different from ours and might provide them competitive advantages. New entrants could include those that may already have a foothold in the securities industry, including some established broker-dealers. Further, online capital formation is not the only way to address helping start-ups raise capital, and the Company has to compete with a number of other approaches, including traditional venture capital investments, loans and other traditional methods of raising funds and companies conducting crowdfunding raises on their own websites. Additionally, some competitors and future competitors may be better capitalized than us, which would give them a significant advantage in marketing and operations.

Moreover, as we continue to expand our offerings, we will continue to face headwinds and compete with companies that are more established and/or have more financial resources than we do and/or new entrants bringing disruptive technologies and/or ideas.

Intense competition could prevent us from increasing our market share and growing our revenues.

We compete with a number of public and private companies and most of our competitors have significant financial resources and occupy entrenched positions in the market with name-brand recognition. We also face challenges from new Internet sites that aim to attract subscribers who seek to play interactive games or invest in public or private securities. Such companies may be able to attract significantly more subscribers because of new marketing ideas and user interface concepts.

Increased competition from current and future competitors may in the future materially adversely affect our business, revenues, operating results and financial condition.

We may require additional financing in the future to fund our operations.

We may need additional capital in the future to continue to execute our business plan. Therefore, we will be dependent upon additional capital in the form of either debt or equity to continue our operations. At the present time, we do not have arrangements to raise all of the needed additional capital, and we will need to identify potential investors and negotiate appropriate arrangements with them. Our ability to obtain additional financing will be subject to a number of factors, including market conditions, our operating performance and investor sentiment. If we are unable to raise additional capital when required or on acceptable terms, we may have to significantly delay, scale back or discontinue our operations. If we are unable to attract new customers and/or retain new customers, our business, results of operations and financial condition may be materially adversely affected.

Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish certain rights.

We may seek additional capital through a combination of equity offerings, debt financings, strategic collaborations and alliances or licensing arrangements. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity, convertible debt securities or other equity-based derivative securities, your ownership interest will be diluted and the terms may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect your rights as a stockholder. Any indebtedness we incur could involve restrictive covenants, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt, acquire or license intellectual property rights, declare dividends, make capital expenditures and other operating restrictions that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business. 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. Furthermore, the issuance of additional securities, whether equity or debt, by us, or the possibility of such issuance, may cause the market price of our common stock to decline. If we raise additional funds through strategic collaborations and alliances or licensing arrangements with third parties, or otherwise agree to terms unfavorable to us, any of which may have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and prospects. Adequate additional financing may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all.

Our debt level could negatively impact our financial condition, results of operations and business prospects.

As of April 30, 2023, we had approximately $2,735,800 of principal indebtedness outstanding and we have borrowed money on three occasions from the SBA. Our level of debt could have significant consequences to our shareholders, including the following:

Our ability to make payments of principal and interest, or to refinance our indebtedness, depends on our future performance, which is subject to economic, financial, competitive and other factors. Our business may not generate sufficient cash flow in the future to service our debt because of factors beyond our control, including but not limited to our ability to market our products and expand our operations. If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flows, we may be required to adopt one or more alternatives, such as restructuring debt or obtaining additional equity capital on terms that may be onerous or highly dilutive. Our ability to refinance our indebtedness will depend on the capital markets and our financial condition at such time. We may not be able to engage in any of these activities or engage in these activities on desirable terms, which could result in a default on our debt obligations.

We may make acquisitions or form joint ventures that are unsuccessful.

Our ability to grow is partially dependent on our ability to successfully acquire other companies, which creates substantial risk. In order to pursue a growth by acquisition strategy successfully, we must identify suitable candidates for these transactions; however, because of our limited funds, we may not be able to purchase those companies that we have identified as potential acquisition candidates. Additionally, we may have difficulty managing post-closing issues such as the integration into our corporate structure. Integration issues are complex, time consuming and expensive and, without proper planning and implementation, could significantly disrupt our business, including, but not limited to, the diversion of management's attention, the loss of key business and/or personnel from the acquired company, unanticipated events, and legal liabilities.

Our future growth depends on our ability to develop and retain customers.

Our future growth depends to a large extent on our ability to effectively anticipate and adapt to customer requirements and offer services that meet customer demands. If we are unable to attract new customers and/or retain new customers, our business, results of operations and financial condition may be materially adversely affected.

We will need to attract, train and retain additional highly qualified senior executives and technical and managerial personnel in the future.

We continue to seek technical and managerial staff members, although we have limited resources to compensate them until we have raised additional capital or developed a business that generates consistent cash flow from operations. We believe it is important to negotiate with potential candidates and, if appropriate, engage them on a part-time basis or on a project basis and compensate them at least partially, with stock-based compensation, when appropriate. There is a high demand for highly trained and managerial staff members. If we are not able to fill these positions, it may have an adverse effect on our business.

Major health epidemics, such as the outbreak caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and other outbreaks or unforeseen or catastrophic events could continue to disrupt and adversely affect our operations, financial condition and business.

Public health epidemics or outbreaks could adversely impact our business. The extent to which the coronavirus impacts our operations will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence, including the duration of the outbreak, new information which may emerge concerning the severity of the coronavirus and the emergence of variants, among others. In particular, the spread and treatment of the coronavirus globally could adversely impact our operations and could have an adverse impact on our business and our financial results. To date, our business has not been impacted by COVID-19 but it could be in the future.

We may not be able to protect all of our intellectual property.

Our profitability may depend in part on our ability to effectively protect our proprietary rights, including obtaining trademarks for our brand names, protecting our products and websites, maintaining the secrecy of our internal workings and preserving our trade secrets, as well as our ability to operate without inadvertently infringing on the proprietary rights of others. There can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain future protections for our intellectual property or defend our current trademarks and future trademarks and patents. There can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain financing if and when it is needed on terms we deem acceptable. Further, policing and protecting our intellectual property against unauthorized use by third parties is time-consuming and expensive, and certain countries may not even recognize our intellectual property rights. There can also be no assurance that a third party will not assert infringement claims with respect to our products or technologies. Any litigation for both protecting our intellectual property or defending our use of certain technologies could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition, regardless of the outcome of such litigation.

Our revenues and profits are subject to fluctuations.

It is difficult to accurately forecast our revenues and operating results, and these could fluctuate in the future due to a number of factors. These factors may include adverse changes in: number of investors and amount of investors’ dollars, the success of world securities markets, general economic conditions, our ability to market our platform to companies and investors, headcount and other operating costs, and general industry and regulatory conditions and requirements. The Company's operating results may fluctuate from year to year due to the factors listed above and others not listed. At times, these fluctuations may be significant and could impact our ability to operate our business.

Natural disasters and other events beyond our control could materially adversely affect us.

Natural disasters or other catastrophic events may cause damage or disruption to our operations, international commerce and the global economy, and thus could have a strong negative effect on us. Our business operations are subject to interruption by natural disasters, fire, power shortages, pandemics and other events beyond our control. Although we maintain crisis management and disaster response plans, such events could make it difficult or impossible for us to deliver our services to our customers and could decrease demand for our services. Since the spring of 2020, large segments of the U.S. and global economies were impacted by COVID-19, a significant portion of the U.S. population were subject to “stay at home” or similar requirements. The extent of the impact of COVID-19 on our operational and financial performance will depend on certain developments, including the duration and spread of the outbreak, impact on our customers (both issuers using our services and investors investing on our platform) and our sales cycles, impact on our customer, employee or industry events, and effect on our vendors, all of which are uncertain and cannot be predicted. At this point, the extent to which COVID-19 may impact our financial condition or results of operations is uncertain. To date, the COVID-19 outbreak has significantly impacted global markets, U.S. employment numbers, as well as the business prospects of many small businesses (our potential clients). A significant part of our business model is based on receiving a percentage of the investments made through our platform and services. Further, we are dependent on investments in our offerings to fund our business. However, to date, other than working remotely, COVID-19 has not had a negative impact on the Company. While our business has not yet been impacted by COVID-19, to the extent COVID-19 continues and limits investment capital or personally impacts any of our key employees, it may have a significant impact on our results and operations.

Acquisitions may have unanticipated consequences that could harm our business and our financial condition.

Any acquisition that we pursue, whether successfully completed or not, involves risks, including:

Future acquisitions may be accomplished through a cash purchase transaction, the issuance of our equity securities or a combination of both, could result in potentially dilutive issuances of our equity securities, the incurrence of debt and contingent liabilities and impairment charges related to goodwill and other intangible assets, any of which could harm our business and financial condition.

If we do not effectively protect our customers’ credit and debit card data, or other personal information, we could be exposed to data loss, litigation, liability and reputational damage.

In connection with credit and debit card sales, we transmit confidential credit and debit card information by way of secure online networks. Although we use private networks, third parties may have the technology or know-how to breach the security of the customer information transmitted in connection with credit and debit card sales, and our security measures and those of our technology vendors may not effectively prohibit others from obtaining improper access to this information. If a person were able to circumvent these security measures, he or she could destroy or steal valuable information or disrupt our operations. Any security breach could expose us to risks of data loss, litigation and liability and could seriously disrupt our operations and any resulting negative publicity could significantly harm our reputation.

We could be harmed by improper disclosure or loss of sensitive or confidential Company, employee, associate or customer data, including personal data.

In connection with the operation of our business, we plan to store, process and transmit data, including personal and payment information, about our employees, customers, associates and candidates, a portion of which is confidential and/or personally sensitive. Unauthorized disclosure or loss of sensitive or confidential data may occur through a variety of methods. These include, but are not limited to, systems failure, employee negligence, fraud or misappropriation, or unauthorized access to or through our information systems, whether by our employees or third parties, including a cyberattack by computer programmers, hackers, members of organized crime and/or state-sponsored organizations, who may develop and deploy viruses, worms or other malicious software programs.

Such disclosure, loss or breach could harm our reputation and subject us to government sanctions and liability under our contracts and laws that protect sensitive or personal data and confidential information, resulting in increased costs or loss of revenues. It is possible that security controls over sensitive or confidential data and other practices we and our third-party vendors follow may not prevent the improper access to, disclosure of, or loss of such information. The potential risk of security breaches and cyberattacks may increase as we introduce new services and offerings, such as mobile technology. Further, data privacy is subject to frequently changing rules and regulations, which sometimes conflict among the various jurisdictions in which we provide services. Any failure or perceived failure to successfully manage the collection, use, disclosure, or security of personal information or other privacy related matters, or any failure to comply with changing regulatory requirements in this area, could result in legal liability or impairment to our reputation in the marketplace.

Failure to recognize, respond to and effectively manage the accelerated impact of social media could adversely impact our business.

In recent years, there has been a marked increase in the use of social media platforms, including blogs, chat platforms, social media websites, and other forms of Internet based communications which allow individuals access to a broad audience of consumers and other interested persons. The rising popularity of social media and other consumer-oriented technologies has increased the speed and accessibility of information dissemination. Many social media platforms immediately publish the content their subscribers and participants post, often without filters or checks on accuracy of the content posted. Information posted on such platforms at any time may be adverse to our interests and/or may be inaccurate. The dissemination of information via social media could harm our business, reputation, financial condition, and results of operations, regardless of the information’s accuracy. The damage may be immediate without affording us an opportunity for redress or correction.

In addition, social media is frequently used to communicate with our customers and the public in general. Failure by us to use social media effectively or appropriately, particularly as compared to our brands’ respective competitors, could lead to a decline in brand value, customer visits and revenue. Other risks associated with the use of social media include improper disclosure of proprietary information, negative comments about our brands, exposure of personally identifiable information, fraud, hoaxes or malicious dissemination of false information. The inappropriate use of social media by our customers or employees could increase our costs, lead to litigation or result in negative publicity that could damage our reputation and adversely affect our results of operations.

Risks Related to Receipt of Securities for Services

We are not, and do not intend to become, regulated as an investment company under the U.S. Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, or the 40 Act, (and similar legislation in other jurisdictions) and if we are deemed an “investment company” under the 40 Act applicable restrictions would make it impractical for us to operate as contemplated.

The 40 Act and the rules thereunder (and similar legislation in other jurisdictions) provide certain protections to investors and impose certain restrictions on companies that are registered as investment companies. Among other things, such rules limit or prohibit transactions with affiliates, impose limitations on the issuance of debt and equity securities and impose certain governance requirements. We have not been and do not intend to become regulated as an investment company and we intend to conduct our activities so we will not be deemed to be an investment company under the 40 Act (and similar legislation in other jurisdictions). In order to ensure that we are not deemed to be an investment company, we may be required to materially restrict or limit the scope of our operations or plans related to us, we will be limited in the types of acquisitions that we may make and we may need to modify our organizational structure or dispose of assets that we would not otherwise dispose of. Moreover, if anything were to happen which would potentially cause us to be deemed an investment company under the 40 Act, it would be impractical for us to operate as intended pursuant to our platform and our business, financial condition and results of operations would be materially adversely affected. Accordingly, we would be required to take extraordinary steps to address the situation, such as the modification and restructuring of our platform, which would materially adversely affect our ability to derive revenue.

Our consulting and advisory services are primarily paid for in restricted shares of stock of our customers, which are often private companies with no established trading market for their securities.

For our consulting and advisory services, payment is often made through equity securities of customers instead of cash. The securities issued are in private companies with no established trading market for their securities. In the absence of a trading market, we may be unable to liquidate our investment, which will result in the loss of our investment.

Risk Factors Related to our Common Stock

Concentration of ownership among our majority stockholders may prevent new investors from influencing significant corporate decisions.

As of July 26 2023, Netcapital Systems LLC, our largest stockholder, beneficially owned, in the aggregate, approximately 18.2% of our outstanding shares of common stock. As a result, this stockholder will be able to exercise a significant level of control over matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors, amendment of our certificate of incorporation and approval of significant corporate transactions. This control could have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of our company or changes in management and will make the approval of certain transactions difficult or impossible without the support of these stockholders.

There can be no assurance that we will be able to comply with Nasdaq’s continued listing standards, a failure of which could result in a delisting of our common stock and warrants.

Nasdaq requires that the trading price of a company’s listed stock on Nasdaq remain above one dollar in order for such stock to remain listed. If a listed stock trades below one dollar for more than 30 consecutive trading days, then it is subject to delisting from Nasdaq. In addition, to maintain a listing on Nasdaq, we must satisfy minimum financial and other continued listing requirements and standards, including those regarding director independence and independent committee requirements, minimum stockholders’ equity, and certain corporate governance requirements. If we are unable to satisfy these requirements or standards, we could be subject to delisting, which would have a negative effect on the price of our common stock and warrants and would impair your ability to sell or purchase our common stock when you wish to do so. In the event of a delisting, we would expect to take actions to restore our compliance with the listing requirements, but we can provide no assurance that any such action taken by us would allow our common stock to become listed again, stabilize the market price or improve the liquidity of our common stock, prevent our common stock from dropping below the minimum bid price requirement, or prevent future non-compliance with the listing requirements.

We recently sold a substantial number of shares of our common stock and warrants to purchase common stock in a public offering, which could cause the price of our common stock to decline.

In our May 2023 offering, we sold 1,100,000 shares of common stock. The existence of the potential additional shares of our common stock in the public market, or the perception that such additional shares may be in the market, could adversely affect the price of our common stock. We cannot predict the effect, if any, that market sales of those shares of common stock or the availability of those shares of common stock for sale will have on the market price of our common stock. Any decline in the price of a share of common stock will also have a negative effect on the price in the market of a warrant.

We do not expect to pay dividends and investors should not buy our common stock expecting to receive dividends.

We have not paid any dividends on our common stock in the past, and do not anticipate that we will declare or pay any dividends in the foreseeable future. Consequently, you will only realize an economic gain on your investment in our common stock if the price appreciates. You should not purchase our common stock expecting to receive cash dividends. Since we do not pay dividends, then you may have a limited ability to liquidate or receive any payment on your investment. Therefore, our failure to pay dividends may cause you to not see any return on your investment even if we are successful in our business operations. In addition, because we do not pay dividends we may have trouble raising additional funds, which could affect our ability to expand our business operations.

We may conduct future offerings of our common stock and pay debt obligations with our common stock which may diminish our investors’ pro rata ownership and depress our stock price.

We reserve the right to make future offers and sales, either public or private, of our securities, including shares of our common stock or securities convertible into common stock at prices differing from the price of the common stock previously issued. In the event that any such future sales of securities are affected or we use our common stock to pay principal or interest on our debt obligations, an investor’s pro rata ownership interest may be reduced to the extent of any such future sales.

The market price of our common stock is highly volatile and could be subject to volatility related or unrelated to our operations.

You should consider an investment in our securities to be risky, and you should invest in our securities only if you can withstand a significant loss and wide fluctuations in the market value of your investment. Some factors that may cause the market price of our common stock to fluctuate, in addition to the other risks mentioned in this “Risk Factors” section and elsewhere in this prospectus, are:

The stock markets in general have experienced substantial volatility that has often been unrelated to the operating performance of individual companies. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the trading price of our common stock in any market that develops for it. In addition, our stock price may be influenced by trading activity in our common stock as a result of market commentary (including commentary that may be unreliable or incomplete in some cases); changes in expectations about our business, our creditworthiness or investor confidence generally; or actions by stockholders and others seeking to influence our business strategies.

In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, stockholders have instituted class action securities litigation against those companies. Such litigation, if instituted, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management attention and resources, which would significantly harm our profitability and reputation.

FINRA sales practice requirements may limit a stockholder’s ability to buy and sell our securities.

In addition to the “penny stock” rules described above, FINRA has adopted rules that require that in recommending an investment to a customer, a broker-dealer must have reasonable grounds for believing that the investment is suitable for that customer. Prior to recommending speculative, low-priced securities to their non-institutional customers, broker-dealers must make reasonable efforts to obtain information about the customer’s financial status, tax status, investment objectives and other information. The FINRA requirements may make it more difficult for broker-dealers to recommend that their customers buy our common stock or our warrants, which may have the effect of reducing the level of trading activity in our securities. As a result, fewer broker-dealers may be willing to make a market in our common stock or our warrants, reducing a stockholder’s ability to resell shares of our common stock and warrants.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about us, our business or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our securities adversely, the price of our common stock or warrants and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock may be influenced by the research and reports that securities or industry analysts may publish about us, our business, our market or our competitors. If any of the analysts who may cover us change their recommendation regarding our securities adversely, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, the price of our common stock or warrants would likely decline. If any analyst who may cover us was to cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause the price of our common stock or warrants or trading volume to decline.

Our issuance of common stock upon the exercise of options granted under our 2023 Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan may dilute all other stockholders.

We have issued options to purchase 1,950,000 shares of common stock under our 2023 Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan and we expect to issue options to purchase the remaining 50,000 shares of common stock in the future to officers, directors, employees and consultants under our 2023 Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan. Any such issuances of common stock underlying stock options may cause stockholders to experience dilution of their ownership interests and the per share value of our common stock to decline.

Our compliance with complicated U.S. regulations concerning corporate governance and public disclosure is expensive and diverts management’s attention from our core business, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

As a publicly reporting company, we are faced with expensive, complicated and evolving disclosure, governance and compliance laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Act, and Nasdaq rules. As a result of the complexity involved in complying with the applicable rules and regulations, our management’s attention may be diverted from other business concerns, which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition. We may need to hire more personnel in the future or engage outside consultants, which will increase our operating expenses, to assist us in complying with these requirements.

In addition, changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure are creating uncertainty for public companies, increasing legal and financial compliance costs, and making some activities more time-consuming. These laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices. We intend to invest substantial resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards, and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management’s time and attention from business operations to compliance activities. We intend to invest resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards, and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management’s time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. If our efforts to comply with new laws, regulations and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies due to ambiguities related to their application and practice, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us, and our business may be harmed.

Failure to maintain effective internal control over our financial reporting in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act could cause our financial reports to be inaccurate.

We are required pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or Section 404, to maintain internal control over financial reporting and to assess and report on the effectiveness of those controls. This assessment includes disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting. Although we prepare our financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, our internal accounting controls may not meet all standards applicable to companies with publicly traded securities. If we fail to implement any required improvements to our disclosure controls and procedures, we may be obligated to report control deficiencies in which case, we could become subject to regulatory sanction or investigation. Further, these outcomes could damage investor confidence in the accuracy and reliability of our financial statements.

Claims for indemnification by our directors and officers may reduce our available funds to satisfy successful third-party claims against us and may reduce the amount of money available to us.

Our articles of incorporation and bylaws provide that we will indemnify our directors and officers, in each case to the fullest extent permitted by Utah law.

In addition, as permitted by the Utah Business Corporation Act, our bylaws and the indemnification agreements that we have entered into with our directors and officers provide that:

Limitations on liability and indemnification matters.

As permitted by the corporate laws of the state of Utah, our articles of incorporation include a provision to eliminate the personal liability of our directors for monetary damages for breach or alleged breach of their fiduciary duties as directors, subject to certain exceptions. In addition, our bylaws provide that we are required to indemnify our officers and directors under certain circumstances, including those circumstances in which indemnification would otherwise be discretionary, and we will be required to advance expenses to our officers and directors as incurred in connection with proceedings against them for which they may be indemnified. If we are required to indemnify, both for the costs of their defense in any action or to pay monetary damages upon a finding of a court or in any settlement, our business and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected.

ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

We are a smaller reporting company as defined by Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act and are not required to provide information under this item.