Feb 7th, 2018 at the Harvard Club of New York
Sherwood Neiss, is a Principal at Crowdfund Capital Advisors and a Partner at Crowd Capital Ventures. He is an expert at building successful businesses.
Blaine McLaughlin is the Chief Operating Officer of VIA Folio, an innovative IPO, private and alternative investment platform that makes it easy for online platforms, issuers, investors, brokers and advisors to engage with IPOs, private and alternative debt and equity offerings.
Georgia P. Quinn is the CEO and co-founder of iDisclose, an adaptive web-based application that enables entrepreneurs to prepare customized institutional grade private placement
Sara Hanks, co-founder, and CEO of CrowdCheck, is an attorney with over 30 years of experience in the corporate and securities field.
By Paul Niederer, Founder Raiseworth. (Here is a post from 2015 when I started pushing for Crowdfunding to be moved to the Blockchain) If I go back to 2008, in the very early days of Equity Crowdfunding, the ASSOB platform has already been operating for around four years. This meant there were plenty of learnings in place even before any other equity platforms had started. There are parallels here with ICO’s as in the early days many people that approached us to raise capital on ASSOB had not much more than an idea or a sketch on paper. We learnt as the years went by that the existing regulatory structure was not detailed enough to protect investors so we put in place the ASSOB compliance framework. This stood the test of time as 300 odd raises later no evidence of fraud has emerged. This included an “offer document” not dissimilar to the “White Papers” that set out all aspects of the raise including: OPPORTUNITY KEY DETAILS KEY INVESTOR HIGHLIGHTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ABOUT THE COMPANY CORPORATE OBJECTIVES COMPETITION & RISK ABOUT THIS OFFER HOW TO APPLY FOR SHARES OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE STRATEGIC GROWTH PLAN USE OF FUNDS DIRECTORS DECLARATION DISCLAIMER GLOSSARY OF TERMS This was not […]
Wednesday, October 4, 2017 (10:00 AM) – Committee on Financial Services Hearing: “Examining the SEC’s Agenda, ICO’s Crowdfunding, Operations, and Budget”
By Navroop Sahdev Centre for Blockchain Technologies, University College London, UK Centre d’Économie de l’Université Paris-Nord, France June 2017 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. The Advent of Crowdfunding 3. Market design and Liquidity Considerations for CFE Trading on the Blockchain 3.1. Liquidity and Price Discovery 3.2. A game of Information 3.3. Asset Servicing and Voting 3.4. Market Making versus Tokenization 3.5. The impact of Transparent Holdings 4. Concluding remarks 5. Endnotes 6. References CLICK HERE FOR FULL REPORT Abstract Blockchain, the technology behind Bitcoin, promises to be nothing less than Internet 2.0. The financial services industry, in particular, is preparing for the disruption blockchain/distributed ledger technology promises to cause. In the current business environment, the majority of startups and small businesses have to look for alternative sources of funding given that ‘going public’ is increasingly expensive. The crowdfunding space has seen tremendous growth as an alternative way to raise capital by businesses. However, these crowdfunded shares cannot be traded for 7 – 10 years on average on any given platform in the U.S. currently. To build a trading platform on the blockchain which is completely P2P, immutable, fully transparent and low-cost presents some key design issues. […]
By: Sherwood Neiss and Jason Best, Principals Crowdfund Capital Advisors, LLC Into the second year of Regulation Crowdfunding there are now over 475 companies that have filed offering documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise up to $1,070,000 from their customers, communities, friends and family. But in which industries are these investors most interested in deploying their capital? The good news for companies considering using Regulation Crowdfunding, is that these online investors have a diverse appetite. While software/gaming application companies receive the most commitments, breweries, entertainment companies, personal transportation vehicles, restaurants and personal services (i.e. fitness training, veterinary, grooming, etc) aren’t far behind. They key data points for potential issuers to understand are: 1) How much money do you need to raise for your business in relation to the average amount raised for your industry? 2) Where is the crowd is engaged in deals and dollars? Meaning is there enough interest in your business (industry) to crowdfund. And 3) what is the crowd’s average check size – to determine how much you can realistically raise from your network compared with what you need? At Crowdfund Capital Advisors, we track all Regulation Crowdfunding offerings across the […]
by Brandon Raatikka According to FactRight’s tracking, the SEC qualified 21 Reg A+ Tier 2 offerings in the second quarter of 2017, maintaining a brisk pace by the standards of Reg A+’s relatively short history. Approximately 45% of the 96 Tier 2 offerings qualified since late 2015 (not later withdrawn or used for merger purposes) have been qualified in just the first half of this year. Three issuers made headlines in June 2017, when each listed common equity (that had been previously issued under Regulation A offerings) on a national securities exchange: Myomo, Inc. (NYSE: MYO), Adomani, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADOM), and ShiftPixy, Inc. (Nasdaq: PIXY). In the wake of successful public listings, it will be interesting to see whether a growing proportion of issuers will seek to use Regulation A as a stepping stone to becoming a fully public company. Interact with FactRight’s database through the charts below to glean additional insights about the state of the Regulation A space through the second quarter of 2017. The charts below are dynamic; if you click on a single data point in any chart, it will filter the data displayed on the sidebar at left and in the remaining charts. (For instance, if you click […]
By Trudy-Anne McLeary, Associate, Corporate and Finance | Benjamin T. Brickner, Associate, Corporate and Finance In an investigative report and investor bulletin, the SEC concludes that offers and sales of cryptocurrency coins and tokens may be subject to federal securities laws. On July 25, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the Commission) released an investigative report with important implications for issuers and sponsors of initial coin offerings (ICOs) that raise funds for cryptocurrency ventures. The report, prompted by the recent proliferation of such activity, concluded that coins offered to purchasers in ICOs constitute securities regulated by the Securities Act of 1933 (Securities Act) and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act). As a result, absent an exemption, such offerings must be registered with the Commission, similar to other public offerings. The press release accompanying the report notably quotes the new Commission chairman and the new heads of the Corporation Finance and Enforcement divisions. This combined statement gives the report unusual weight and makes clear to Commission Staff that its contents describe senior officials’ current thinking on cryptocurrency regulation. Background In early 2015, The DAO, an unincorporated association, organized an IPO-style offering in which investors were offered DAO Tokens in exchange for Ether, a cryptocurrency […]
Crowdfund Beat News Wire, SEC issued an investigative report stating, “tokens offered and sold by a ‘virtual’ organization known as ‘The DAO’ were securities and therefore subject to the federal securities laws.” U.S. Securities Laws May Apply to Offers, Sales, and Trading of Interests in Virtual Organizations FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2017-131 Washington D.C., July 25, 2017— The Securities and Exchange Commission issued an investigative report today cautioning market participants that offers and sales of digital assets by “virtual” organizations are subject to the requirements of the federal securities laws. Such offers and sales, conducted by organizations using distributed ledger or blockchain technology, have been referred to, among other things, as “Initial Coin Offerings” or “Token Sales.” Whether a particular investment transaction involves the offer or sale of a security – regardless of the terminology or technology used – will depend on the facts and circumstances, including the economic realities of the transaction. The SEC’s Report of Investigation found that tokens offered and sold by a “virtual” organization known as “The DAO” were securities and therefore subject to the federal securities laws. The Report confirms that issues of distributed ledger or blockchain technology-based securities must register offers and sales of such securities unless a valid exemption applies. Those participating in unregistered offerings also […]
The Baltic Honey Badger Conference of 2018, held this year in Riga, Latvia, wrapped up today with a panel featuring Adam Back, the CEO of Blockstream, Giacomo Zucco, CEO at BHB Network; Tone Vays, a former Wall Street risk analyst and Bitcoin advocate; and Eric Lombrozo,... Read More
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Elio Motors (OTCQB: ELIO) is back raising money once again for its three wheel concept vehicle that has been delayed multiple times. But this time is different as Elio is planning an initial coin offering with a security token: ElioCoin. Elio Motors hit the crowdfunding... Read More
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Shanghai Information Security Evaluation and Certification Center is Working on the Establishment of Blockchain Technical Security Standards According to a report called “Safety issues under the rapid development of the “blockchain +” industry”, blockchain security problems in 2018 have caused $2 billion in asset losses... Read More
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Austria based investment crowdfunding platform Conda has claimed to have completed the “first digitalization of shares of an Austrian stock corporation.” Conda says it has linked the registered shares issued by Conda AG with digital tokens and transferred these shares to the existing shareholders of... Read More
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A letter authored by a group of prominent cryptocurrency / blockchain advocates was forwarded to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this week. The letter was addressed to Dalia Blass, Director of the Division of Investment Management at the SEC, specifically mentioning the Commission’s Staff... Read More
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dv01, a platform that connects online lenders and investors with data management, has expanded its reporting partnership with LendingClub, according to a release by the firm. dvo1 has previously provided reporting services for LendingClub securitizations but is says it now has secured its “role as... Read More
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In June, we updated readers on the number of FINRA approved Reg CF portals. At that time the count stood at 41 regulated crowdfunding platforms. As of today (September 21, 2018), that number has now increased to 44 FINRA approved Reg CF platforms as three new... Read More
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High Times has extended its Reg A+ crowdfunding offer to the end of October from its original deadline of September 12th. The Cannabis focused company said that it had received investment subscriptions in excess of $5 million which is far short of the possible $50... Read More
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Funding Options, a UK Fintech that provides a “supermarket” of financing options for SMEs, has received a £5 million investment from ING Ventures – the VC arm of the global bank. The additional capital is expected to be used for Funding Options to expand its... Read More
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The OTC Markets Group has introduced a new service: Small Cap Listed Compliance Product. According to OTC, this service allows firms to enhance their due diligence and establish a standardized framework to analyze securities across the listed and OTC equity small cap market, providing users... Read More
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