Crowdfunding

By: Marianne Hudson, ACA Executive Director

Equity crowdfunding for all Americans is now more than two months old, and with that come some new stats on investment activity.  Among the key tidbits:

  • 70 companies registered offerings, requesting more than $35 million.
  • Nearly $5 million in capital was committed

By: Marianne Hudson, ACA Executive Director

A few weeks ago I attended a meeting of state securities regulators with leaders of different parts of our securities markets in the US and Canada to compare notes.  Not only do I admire the regulators for holding meetings such as this, but I learned a great deal about some of our newest types of securities – equity crowdfunding for everyone and Regulation A (Reg A+ for short).

By agreement of all attendees, I can’t share some specifics of who said what, but let me share some of my general takeaways from the NASAA Capital Formation Roundtable about equity crowdfunding:

  • Anyone can invest in equity crowdfunding offerings via two mechanisms:  1) at the federal level “Regulation Crowdfunding” opened for American citizens on May 16 and 2) “intrastate crowdfunding” allows for state residents to invest in businesses in that state.  Currently 34 states have approved intrastate crowdfunding and 29 are currently online

By: Marianne Hudson, ACA Executive Director

This post originally appeared on Forbes.com

On May 16 when new “Regulation Crowdfunding” took effect, all American citizens received a gift that angel investors have enjoyed for years—they can buy stock in startups. But behind all of the excitement are a few surprises both investors and the companies raising money might not realize. These curveballs may mean that equity crowdfunding, won’t deliver the financial impact that Congress intended for startups when it passed the JOBS Act four years ago. 

By: Marianne Hudson, ACA Executive Director

This post originally appeared on Forbes.com

Entrepreneurial finance has changed more in the last five years than the previous 100. The evolution is coming so quickly these days that it almost feels like the opening credits of the Big Bang Theory television show.  It may be, though, that 2016 speeds up the changes an innovations.  I can’t think of a more exciting era for angel investors.

So what does this all mean and what should we be on the lookout for? As the New Year begins, here are my top themes and questions for how the rapidly evolving world of entrepreneurial finance may impact angel investing:

By: Villette Nolon and Heather Krejci, Angel Capital Association

Yesterday’s (January 13, 2106) ACA webinar on Investor and Entrepreneur Experiences with Accredited Investing Platforms was a great kickoff to the year. When you watch the recording, you will see why a record number of investors attended.  The accredited platform space is growing exponentially and the rules are changing rapidly.  Highlights of this timely webinar include:

By: Marianne Hudson, ACA Executive Director

Crowdfunding experts have poured through the 685 pages of SEC rules and created a reasonable 43 page practical guide on how equity crowdfunding for the masses work.  Take advantage of this step-by-step guide that Crowdfund Capital Advisors have put together for entrepreneurs to raise funds when the rules allow it beginning May 16, 2016.

By: Marianne Hudson, ACA Executive Director

Two years after proposing rules for equity crowdfunding, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved rules for entrepreneurs to raise up to $1 million per year from all investors.  The new U.S. crowdfunding market will officially start in late April or early May of 2016.  The SEC also proposed new rules to modernize crowdfunding within states for public comment during its October 30 meeting. 

Here’s the early “skinny” on the approved rules, noting that they are 686 pages (not a typo):

By Krista Tuomi, Associate Professor, American University

European crowdfunding laws and experience provide some background on how crowdfunding might work in the US. One of my earlier blogs dealt with some implications of equity crowdfunding for angels, drawing on the experience of Sweden and the UK. It highlighted some concerns about crowdfunding, particularly the low success rates for complex products and those that require follow on financing.  Despite tax and co-funding sweeteners, repeat investment has been low.  Only 17% of Swedes crowdfunded more than once, slightly lower than the 24% reported by a Scottish Crowdcube survey.  Another oft-mentioned concern is that “naïve” investors will get burned, leading to regulatory backlash.  Recent events in Germany may be a test case of this.

Seventeen states and the District of Columbia now allow non-accredited investors to invest in startups located in their state. As more states follow suit, it is useful to look at data detailing other countries’ experiences. Both the UK and Sweden have experimented with “equity crowdfunding” for non-accredited investors for a number of years now. Their experiences so far have been interesting, as have the implications for the UK and Swedish angel communities.

By: Bill Payne, Frontier Angels

The popular press has been hyping crowdfunding since the JOBS Act passed in 2010.  The Huffington Post tells us that the #1 Losers of the JOBS Act is Angel Investors!  AngelList and Kickstarter (and their facilitated companies) are getting considerable attention and Lending Club had a huge IPO in December.  Just how large is this crowdfunding movement in the US?  And, how is it impacting seed stage and early stage investing which has been dominated by angels for the past several decades?

During the past several months, I have been on a mission to quantify the several types of crowdfunding, both in the US and the rest of the world.  We hear crowdfunding exceeded $10 billion worldwide in 2014.  But, how much of that was equity crowdfunding?  In the US, all equity crowdfunding is accredited investor only.  What can we learn from Europe about the quantity of unaccredited investor (public) crowdfunding, compared to all other crowdfunding? 

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