Shares in £210,000 vintage Ferrari sell out in 24 hours, as Chip customers buckle up for alt asset investments

Shares in a £210,000 ‪Ferrari Testarossa sold out in 24 hours, as Chip investors and customers buckled up for a test sale of a vintage offering on its new Alternative Asset ‬platform.

Savings and investment app Chip has launched Alternative Asset Investing, to allow its customers to diversify their portfolio by investing in-and fractionally owning- luxury goods like vintage cars, wine, and whisky.

Shares in the 1989 Ferrari, valued at £210,400, were available to purchase by a small cohort of Chip customers and shareholders as the fintech tested demand for its new platform. 

The minimum investment amount was £210 in the Ferarri, which was independently valued by Sotheby’s and stored secretly and selected by an expert.

According to Chip co-founder Alex Latham, shares became “‪oversubscribed in 41 minutes” and the car sold out ‬in 24 hours.

“Unfortunately it was so popular not everyone who pre-registered got a chance to invest, but we're working on a solution for this,” said Latham, the firm’s CMO in a LinkedIn post.

Latham said the Ferrari sale was a MVP (Minimum Viable Product), a version of a product that is released quickly to market which users then provide feedback on.

“‪This was an MVP, where we wanted to test demand. Demand has been successfully tested and now we're looking at bringing more alternatives into Chip in an amazing user experience,” he added.‬ ‬ ‬The test sale was not available in-app, but took part on TheCarCrowd, a  crowdfunding network dedicated to classic cars .

A number of app-based startups, including Konvi and Koia, are pinning their hopes on democratising the world of rare asset investing, usually the preserve of the mega-rich, with new ventures.