Meow Wolf share offering raises $1M
‘We want it to be a communityowned company,’ CEO of Santa Fe arts collective says
SANTA FE — That meow heard in Santa Fe may be on the verge of becoming a financial roar.
Meow Wolf, the group whose interactive art installation here has been a smash hit over the past year, raised more than $1 million in about two days by selling shares to investors.
The arts collective posted an offer to sell shares for $40 apiece on Saturday morning. By Sunday afternoon, 480 so-called general or unaccredited investors — the maximum that Meow Wolf could attract under federal
Securities and Exchange Commission rules for this kind of fundraising effort — had bought in more than $900,000.
After that, the shares became available to accredited investors, defined by law generally as individuals with a net worth of more than $1 million.
The number of investors was 630 and climbing Monday. The total raised had reached an unspecified “$1.07 million+,” according to Meow Wolf’s WeFunder.com page — $1.07 million was the maximum that less affluent investors could put in. Accredited investors have until Monday to purchase shares to put in more money.
Meow Wolf set a speed record by raising the $1.07 million in just over 48 hours under equity crowdfunding that was regulated by the SEC under a 2015 federal act, the Santa Fe group said in a news release Monday afternoon.
“This is faster than any company before,” said Dylan Enright, director of fundraising for WeFunder.
Meow Wolf’s WeFunder page set its “pre-money valuation” at $62.3 million. Pre-money valuation is how much a start-up says it’s worth before fundraising and determines the percentage of the startup that new investors own after the money is raised.
The new money will go toward Meow Wolf’s expansion plans. The group is considering adding exhibits in cities such as Denver; Austin, Texas; and Las Vegas, Nev., and is buying a former Caterpillar plant in south Santa Fe that will become a creative studio and “world headquarters” for manufacturing, fabrication, technology, digital media and management.
Meow Wolf’s immersive art project “House of Eternal Return” — an allages fun house whose rooms in different styles and areas are said to reveal a story about the family who lives there — opened in March 2016 at the old Silva Lanes bowling alley on Rufina Circle. The exhibit drew 400,000 people and brought in a reported $7 million its first year. It also has a popular performance space presenting touring and local bands.
The WeFunder.com campaign was intended to “even the playing field” among the general public and rich investors, said Meow Wolf CEO Vince Kadlubek.
Investors need at least $1,000 to purchase a required minimum of 25 shares. “This is a way to democratize investment,” Kadlubek said.
Previous Meow Wolf backers include “Game of Thrones’” author George R.R. Martin, who lives in Santa Fe, and Etsy co-founder Jared Tarbell, a New Mexico native. Before the WeFunder campaign, Meow Wolf had raised some $7 million from investors, Kadlubek said.
According to Kadlubek, there’s currently no vehicle for people to sell their Meow Wolf shares or have a guaranteed return on investment, a standard situation among early startups.
“That’s where the risk is,” he said. “Meow Wolf, we’re unable to know how our future is going to play out. We feel good about our trajectory … but it’s too early to tell,” he said.
The group’s hopes are high. On the WeFunder page, Kadlubek wrote that Meow Wolf’s goal is to compete with “creative brands like Disney, Universal and Marvel” within 10 years.
For now, people who buy shares are offered a range of “perks.”
Those who put in the minimum $1,000 receive four Meow Wolf tickets, which go at the door for $14 to $20 apiece. For $2,500 in shares, investor/donors also get a single year-long pass, and $5,000 bumps that up to a family pass.
Investors of $10,000 receive a signed Meow Wolf artwork of their choosing; $25,000 gets a VIP invite and tickets to the grand opening of a future location; $50,000 comes with a lifetime pass to all current and future locations; and investing $100,000 means two tickets to Meow Wolf’s documentary premiere.
Meow Wolf will be announcing other expansion projects in the fall, and there will be additional investment opportunities at that time, Kadlubek said. He said he was “humbled and motivated” by the crowdfunding support.
“A public benefit corporation has interests beyond just profits,” he said. “We want our company to be owned not just by our employees, but we want it to be a community-owned company. It makes it really difficult because it opens up the amount of legal wiggling we have to do, but we’re willing to take on the complications … for the betterment of the company and community.”
Inset on the cover: Danielle Romero with Wise Fool New Mexico performs outside Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return as part of “Summer in the Multiverse” in Santa Fe on May 31. (Eddie Moore/Journal)