Decentralized autonomous organizations are providing relief from some of the problems that plague fundraising.
Vancouver proptech startup 
Action is critical given the importance of small business to the economy
Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Equity Crowdfunding, Alternative Funding
Startup CityFALCON raises $2m equity on Seedrs including participation from Holt
CityFALCON | Release | Jun 23, 2022
LONDON, June 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- London and Malta based fintech CityFALCON closed an equity fundraising campaign on Seedrs of £1.65m ($2m) to scale up the business and bring even more insightful products to market faster.
On Seedrs, the leading UK private investment platform, CityFALCON has leveraged individual investors from their growing fanbase and onboarded institutional investors. The commpany boasts 2300 existing investors, with 1200 coming on in this round, including new and repeat investors.
See: Brex is Off-boarding Tens of Thousands of Small Businesses, Not Startups
eToro, the social investing network with over 27 million registered users globally, took a small position in the company. eToro is a client and powers its News tab with CityFALCON content, providing users with a quality contextual newsfeed to inform investment decisions and increase engagement.
As further validation, The Holt Xchange, a global early-stage VC firm and platform in Canada, and Terance Butler Holdings (TBH), a property investment company in the UK, have both taken stakes.
TBH's investment enhances their portfolio of high-growth, IP-based companies. Stephen Walker, Investment Director at TBH, said "We are excited to invest in CityFALCON at what we believe is a pivotal time for the company. Having gained traction, we believe now is the right moment for the company to scale up its sales & marketing effort whilst continuing to develop the product".
See: Are you a Pig, Gazelle or Bear? Beyond Unicorns, Zoology of startups
Managing Partner at Holt Xchange, Elisabeth Laett, stated:
The democratisation of financial information is the result of a global demand to access better education and deeper financial insights for a broader audience. We have been impressed with the team's mission at CityFALCON and pleased to further support them in this seed round.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Hardbacon: Why we launched an equity crowdfunding campaign in the middle of a bear market
Hardbacon | Julien Brault | Jun 16, 2022
When we launched our equity crowdfunding round in May, the stock market was down 20% year-to-date and the value of Bitcoin had fallen 35%. While many of our investors were eager to reinvest, it was also obvious that many of our investors were impacted by the downturn and could decide not to reinvest in Hardbacon.
That said, postponing the round didn't necessarily seem like the right decision. First, I didn't have a crystal ball to tell me when, in the future, the markets would be more conducive to such funding rounds. Second, I knew that by successfully closing a round despite the economic environment, Hardbacon would be better positioned than ever for what comes next.
And it worked, since we reached our funding goal of $500,000 within a week of launching the round!
Right now, many fintechs are cutting positions in order to survive longer without seeking new capital. However, at Hardbacon, we’re actually looking to expand our team to accelerate our growth and to solidify our status as a key player in personal finance and financial product comparison tools in Canada.
As we plan to expand through acquisitions while simultaneously investing in our organic growth, the shortage of traditional sources of capital for start-ups could work in our favour. As VC funding is bound to get more scarce, our competitors will seek to sell themselves and we should be well positioned to snag the best in breed!
Hardbacon: a growth success story
As of today, Hardbacon reaches at least 232,000 unique visitors every month through its website, 38,000 registered users on its mobile app, and that doesn’t include our affiliate network and other owned websites! In February 2020, our website was only reaching 12,000 unique monthly visitors and our revenue was 10x lower than today. That’s what made people think that Hardbacon was an overnight success.
On Demand: Fintech Fridays EP51: Bacon and Eggs with Julien Brault, CEO, Hard Bacon
In fact, nothing could be further from the truth! We tested one-thousand-and-one business models, price structures, and market segments! Most of our hypotheses were rejected by the market up until we embraced our current business model back in 2020. It is the affiliate marketing model.
Realistically, it means that we help our clients, who for the most part are financial institutions, acquire customers. On the other hand, contrary to traditional media which sells ads, we invoice based on results, which might be a credit card application, an account opening, or a sign up. If you’ve ever used our credit cards comparison tool and found a card you liked, chances are that we earned a bit of money!
If you want to know more about our business model and the terms of our current round, I invite you to visit our FrontFundr page.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Improving the Regulatory Environment for Entrepreneurial Capital Formation: JOBS Act 4.0
Crowdfund Insider | | May 16, 2022
Passed with large bipartisan majorities and signed into law by President Obama, the 2012 JOBS Act was a bipartisan achievement of consequence. The JOBS Act substantially improved the laws governing entrepreneurial capital formation and has had a measurable positive impact on entrepreneurial capital formation.
On the 10th anniversary of the JOBS Act, Senate Banking Committee Republicans under Sen. Toomey’s leadership, have released a discussion draft of new legislation, called JOBS Act 4.0, that would considerably improve the regulatory environment for entrepreneurs seeking to raise capital. In all, it contains 29 discrete pieces of legislation, many of which have also been introduced as stand-alone legislation. The package, considered as a whole, can be expected to have a very positive impact comparable to that of the original JOBS Act. These bills were discussed at an April 5th Senate Banking Committee hearing at which the author testified.
Sen. Toomey is seeking public comments on how the draft legislation may be improved by June 3, 2020. Comments may be provided by email to submissions@banking.senate.gov.
See: Fintech Fridays EP57: 10 Years of Investment Crowdfunding: Past, Present & Future Since the JOBS Act
The discussion draft is divided into four titles:
Title I—Encouraging Companies to be Publicly Traded (8 sections)
Title II—Improving the Market for Private Capital (6 sections)
Title III—Enhancing Retail Investor Access to Investment Opportunities (8 sections)
Title IV—Improving Regulatory Oversight (7 sections)
The discussion below addresses 15 of the bills included in the discussion draft. All bill numbers refer to the 117th Congress unless otherwise noted.
The Impact of the Original JOBS Act
In all, as the tables below show, JOBS Act offerings amounted to about three to seven percent of the private capital raised in the U.S. in 2018 and 2019. The Title I Emerging Growth Company (EGC) provisions account for additional capital raised (although this capital is raised in the public market). The graph below showing the number of listed companies is quite remarkable. The number of public companies was in a free fall prior to the JOBS Act. Now that number is basically flat. The number of IPOs in the nine years after the JOBS Act has increased by 43 percent relative to the nine years before the JOBS Act and the amount raised has increased by 57 percent. Precisely how much of that is attributable to Title I is not clear but roughly four-fifths of issuers conducting IPOs appear to be taking advantage of EGC status.
See: More NCFA Advocacy
What's Included in the Jobs Act 4.0
- Sec. 102: Emerging Growth Company Extension Act.
- Sec. 103: Dodd-Frank Material Disclosure Improvement Act (S.3923).
- Sec. 107: The Main Street Growth Act (S.3097).
- Sec. 202: Expanding American Entrepreneurship Act (S.3976).
- Sec 204: Small Entrepreneurs’ Empowerment and Development (SEED) Act (S.3939).
- Sec. 205: Unlocking Capital for Small Businesses Act (S.3922).
- Sec. 206: Small Business Mergers, Acquisitions, Sales, and Brokerage Simplification Act (S.3391).
- Sec. 301: Small Business Audit Correction Act (H.R.8983 S.2724, 116th Congress).
- Sec. 303: Gig Worker Equity Compensation Act (S.3931).
- Sec. 304: – Increasing Investor Opportunities Act (S.3948).
- Sec. 305: Improving Crowdfunding Opportunities Act (S.3967).
- Sec. 306: Equal Opportunity for all Investors Act (S.3921).
- Sec. 307: Facilitating Main Street Offerings Act (S.3966).
- Sec. 404: Protecting Investors’ Personally Identifiable Information Act (S.1209).
- Sec. 405: Administrative Enforcement Fairness Act (S.3930).
- Additional Proposals Relating to Entrepreneurial Capital Formation That Should be Added to JOBS Act 4.0.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Blockchain-based replacement for traditional crowdfunding: DAOs
Cointelegraph | Okonkwo Chinonso | May 2, 2022
Decentralized autonomous organizations are providing relief from some of the problems that plague fundraising.
One of the most out-of-the-blue crypto headlines of 2021 is probably ConstitutionDAO. A hurriedly assembled group of United States constitution-loving crypto believers. The group raised more than $47 million in Ether (ETH) to purchase an original copy of the United States constitution at auction. The group ultimately fell short in its bid but the audacity of that endeavor brought DAOs power to crowdfund to mainstream attention.
See: Decentralizing Venture Capital: DAO
The ingenuity of that move and what it nearly accomplished provides a template for how traditional crowdfunding could be better managed. ConstitutionDAO got tens of thousands of addresses to donate $47 million without a marketing team or a dedicated growth director.
DAOs are next on the ladder of modern crowdfunding
Digitalized crowdfunding in the form of DAOs has eliminated some traditional limits of the financing form. The simplicity makes it a disruptive force to traditional crowdfunding methods.
Blockchain technology allows for more reach: One perk of blockchain technology is that it is censorship-proof. This makes all applications built on blockchains censorship-proof as well. This removes restrictions that traditional crowdfunding sites might otherwise impose on individuals or businesses. In the United States, businesses are not allowed to raise more than $5 million in a year from crowdfunding websites.
See: Arca Report: DAOs – Institutional Guide to Decentralized Governance
High flexibility and low regulation: DAOs are highly flexible and so far have minimal regulations from authorities. Every member that joins the DAO shares the risk among themselves (depending on their financial contributions) should the purpose of the DAO fail to materialize. The members of the aforementioned ConstitutionDAO who requested refunds received their money back, although gas fees were lost.
It’s feeless (mostly) and leaderless: Using conventional crowdfunding platforms exposes you to fees that vary by platform and can be a fraction of whatever amount you submit for a project. With a modern ecosystem and cryptocurrency protocols, you can send money across borders without paying neck-breaking transaction fees. DAOs also encourage public participation in a project as it leaves all decision-making processes to be made by all participants.
The decentralized nature of crowdfunding has made DAOs more popular over the years. As of April 2022, there were over 6,000 DAOs with a valuation of $10 billion in liquidity.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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FINRA Fines Wefunder $1.4 Million and StartEngine Capital $350,000 for compliance violations
Finra | Press release | May 4, 2022
WASHINGTON, May 04, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FINRA announced today that it has fined two FINRA-registered funding portals a combined $1.75 million for failing to comply with securities laws and rules designed to protect crowdfunding investors. In settling these matters, Wefunder and StartEngine accepted and consented to the entry of FINRA’s findings without admitting or denying them.
Jessica Hopper, Executive Vice President and Head of FINRA’s Department of Enforcement:
Today’s actions highlight FINRA’s vigilance over this developing area of securities regulation and our unrelenting focus on investor protection.
FINRA regularly examines and conducts ongoing surveillance of funding portal members to determine compliance with FINRA's funding portal rules and SEC requirements. The Wefunder and StartEngine matters both originated from FINRA’s examination program.
See: US Investment Crowdfunding Exemptions Explained
In the Wefunder matter, FINRA found that from 2016 through 2021, across 39 separate offerings:
- Wefunder raised approximately $20 million more than permitted under crowdfunding raise limits. It did this by diverting the excess funds raised in the crowdfunding offering to a subsequent offering conducted under a different exemption from registration. FINRA found that by doing so, Wefunder exceeded the scope of its permitted activities as a funding portal
- Failed to promptly direct the transmission of funds to issuers or investors as required
- Improperly sent emails to hundreds of thousands of investors recommending and soliciting investments being offered on its portal in violation of a rule that prohibits such solicitations; included misleading communications on its funding portal website
- Failed, in multiple respects, to maintain a reasonable supervisory system to supervise its business, including, for example, its process for tracking investments.
As part of the settlement with Wefunder, the portal will be required to retain an independent consultant to make recommendations to improve its systems and procedures.
See: Reg CF: Investment Crowdfunding Tops $1 Billion on Heals of Funding Cap Increase
In the StartEngine matter, FINRA found that at various points between November 2016 and January 2018:
- StartEngine included issuer communications on its funding portal website that it knew or had reason to know were false or misleading
- Posted its own inaccurate counts of the number of investors in the offerings on its portal
- Failed to reasonably supervise potentially misleading issuer-prepared content
For example, one issuer, whose product was a home robot, exaggerated the robot’s level of functionality in a demonstration video posted on the StartEngine website. The video depicted the robot independently performing tasks such as waking sleeping family members, teaching a child piano and art, projecting a recipe onto a cutting board, patrolling a home for intruders, adjusting a thermostat and playing peek-a-boo with a child. During the offering, StartEngine received information that caused it to know or had reason to know that these claims were exaggerated and misleading, but it failed to correct them. Although a disclaimer on the offering page noted that the robot was a work-in-progress, it was insufficient to remediate the misleading content.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Vancouver Proptech Startup addy Launches Canada’s First Crowdfunded Real Estate Investing App
Techouver | Apr 21, 2022
Vancouver proptech startup addy has launched Canada’s first crowdfunded real estate investing mobile iOS app.
addy believes in real estate for everyone with a crowdfunding platform that breaks down traditional barriers to real estate investment.
As an addy member, you can invest in institutional-grade commercial real estate (e.g., entire apartment buildings, commercial complexes and business parks) across Canada for as little as $1, enjoying fractional ownership without any work and a possible return on your investment.
See: How Proptech is changing the real estate industry
Using the addy app, Canadians get notified when a new property drops, connect with their growing community on Discord, and unlock the new addyverse – a digital twin of all of your addy investments.
Micheal Stephenson, CEO and co-founder of addy:
“We wanted to bring the accessible investing experience we’re known for closer to our members through a mobile app. From your palm, you can now invest in a commercial complex, business park, or apartment building alongside thousands of other community members. We are thrilled to offer Canadians a simple and fun way to start building their financial future with real estate.”
addy’s real estate deals are generally not available to the average Canadian, they simply trade from one wealthy individual to another and are never listed publicly.
See: Should I invest in real estate crowdfunding in Canada?
addy has listed 25 properties and counting on the addy platform and has raised over $10 million from thousands of Canadians, with a total asset value of nearly $500 million. Residents of Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec over the age of the majority can become an addy member for $25/year.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Modernizing private equity capital markets in Canada
Investment Executive | Ian Russell | Apr 5, 2022
Action is critical given the importance of small business to the economy
The Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association announced a record total of venture financings in 2021 — $14.7 billion. However, excluding the venture financings related to the public listings of eight large tech companies, the total was in line with the steady, modest annual financings in the past four years. And private company deals totalled $18.1 billion last year, well below annual private financings from 2017 to 2019.
See: NCFA Response to the Modernizing Ontario’s Capital Markets Consultation Taskforce
The domestic private equity markets have failed to keep pace with the financing needs of existing and new businesses amid a steadily growing economy and the transition to digitalization. Further, the large and growing institutional fund sector accounts for a declining share of domestic private investment. Few large investment funds have established specialized private equity funds to meet early-stage funding demand.
The Ontario Capital Markets Modernization Taskforce in 2019–20 made path-breaking initiatives for more efficient securities regulations, new proxy rules and structural reforms. Steps like consolidating the self-regulatory system, and concepts like open access to the product shelves of large financial institutions will improve the effectiveness of regulated small financial institutions.
However, the task force should be reformed to be national in scope, expanding membership to all regions and widening accountability to provincial governments and the federal government.
See NCFA Canada's Response to:
Here are specific initiatives to consider:
- As the task force resumes its work nearly two years after its initial proposals, the status of, and possible changes to, the original recommendations should be assessed.
- Small financial institutions, many with limited research capability, need access to quality financial information on private companies for investment. A regulatory framework to facilitate the exchange of information among individual angel investors through not-for-profit angel investor groups is a way forward. Further, the task force could consider a version of the Curated Capital platform developed and implemented by the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) Association in the United Kingdom, which advises the government on private investment. Curated Capital matches participating investment firms to eligible startup and small companies through a rating system, enabling small dealers and funds to invest in and build diversified investments of private companies.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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