Toronto – Crowdfunding should advance social welfare and the rate and direction of innovation, according to a new paper released this month by a team of economists at the University of Toronto.  Professors Ajay Agrawal, Christian Catalini and Avi Goldfarb released a paper entitled “Some Simple Economics of Crowdfunding” to offer some economic insight into the [...]

Commentary by David Drake After three months since being nominated by President Barack Obama, the U.S. Senate on Monday approved Mary Jo White as the new chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.  How will this affect the final steps of implementing the last two laws of the JOBS Act?  Our prediction is that she [...]

Commentary by David Drake Research firm Massolutions came out yesterday with a crowdfunding industry report based on Research Form 582. It said that crowdfunding sites globally will will reach close to $5.1 billion in transactions for 2013, double from $2.7 billion in 2012.  That is an 81% growth in 2012 versus a 64% growth in 2011. [...]

Commentary by David Drake Today, FundersClub received the notorious European equivalent of a “no-action” letter from the SEC. Although FundersClub claims they are the world’s first online venture capital platform, there are other platforms like OurCrowd that run in the same gambit and will be talking at the Thomson Reuters Secondary Market conference in Boston next week, with Greg [...]

Commentary by David Drake Some of the leading crowdfunders fall into different categories like Equity (see my earlier post), Donation, Reward and Debt (a.k.a.micro finance and peer-to-peer lending). That last group is critical.  Here is my take on top 10 up-and-coming crowdfunders for debt players. 1. Lending Club - lends up to $33,000 towards consumer debt and has [...]

Commentary by David Drake Since the JOBS Act became law in 2012, the Crowdfunding industry has spawned multiples businesses and an ecosystem made up of investors, entrepreneurs, and communicators. That’s right communications, or in this case Investor Relations is the key to getting funded or not. The key to a good conference call and the power to [...]

Commentary by David Drake If you’ve got a small business or startup that needs investors, attending angel or venture capital investing events will provide you the opportunity to meet with and market your ideas to potential investors. These events will also provide you the opportunity to learn from the successes of others who have “been [...]

Commentary by David Drake In spite of prior delays, last year on August 29, 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued its first proposals for rules under the Jobs Act that would relax general solicitation for accredited investors. Signed into law on April 5, the Jumpstart Our Business Start-ups (JOBS) Act makes revolutionary changes to federal security [...]

Commentary by David Drake It seems crowdfunding for equity in the US will take at least another year before it transforms the legislative and regulatory Securities & Exchange Commission Act of 1933 and 1934.  The US is the first and only country in the world actually changing its charters to allow crowdfunding for equity to [...]