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
Bitreserve Raises $9.6 Million in Crowdfunding Campaign
Coindesk | | Jan 13, 2015
Bitreserve has closed its crowdfunding campaign after raising over $9m.
The final total of $9,620,802 (£6,363,024) was reached after 157 investors bought 11.27% of the equity offered. Crowdcube investors raised $739,219 (£489,744) whilst the remaining $8,911,645 (£5,873,280) was contributed by a combination of Venovate and institutional investors. The crowdfunding activity on Venovate amounted to $126,000 (£83,020) whilst the remaining balance of $8.7m (£5.7m) came from institutional investors.
Tim Parsa, Bitreserve's president of global strategy and markets said:
"It's been a real pleasure interacting with the savvy Crowdcube and Venovate investor. Raising venture capital has been secretive and elitist for far too long. We share Crowdcube and Venovate's commitment to transparency and inclusiveness."
He went on to say he is proud to welcome so many new investors to the "Bitreserve family".
Twin platforms
The company had decided to list its equity offering on two separate platforms in a bid to ease the investment process for its members.
Crowdcube was used by UK-based members, while Venovate was the chosen platform for those who qualified as 'accredited' under US securities law.
The bitcoin storage platform has confirmed that its capital injection will be used to expand its engineering team, increase corporate hiring and support its international expansion.
'Medieval' system
While promoting its transparency features, including live accounting of its assets and obligations to its users, Bitreserve said that the opportunity to invest in the company "should not be limited to a few wealthy individuals or well-connected venture capital funds".
In an earlier interview with CoinDesk, Bitreserve founder and CEO Halsey Minor explained that the company's decision to finance through crowdfunding platforms was a "supplement" to other fundraising efforts.
Check out:
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Bitcoin 2.0 Crowdfunding Is Real Crowdfunding
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Google Hangout: Can Bitcoin Co-exist with Crowdfunding?
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA Canada) is a cross-Canada crowdfunding hub providing education, advocacy and networking opportunities in the rapidly evolving crowdfunding industry. NCFA Canada is a community-based, membership-driven entity that was formed at the grass roots level to fill a national need in the market place. Join our growing network of industry stakeholders, fundraisers and investors. Learn more About Us | Crowdfunding | Support
Fintech Trends for 2015: Investing Services, Anti-Social Trading, and Digital Crowdfunding
Forex Magnates | Ron Finberg | Jan 4, 2015
We look at three fintech trends that are slated to grow during 2015 but that also have their risks. The uniform theme of each is that they use technology to bring efficiency to the financial markets.
Fintech was a great sector to be in during 2014, being the beneficiary of hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars of venture capital. The year ended with a bang, with alternative non-bank lenders LendingClub and OnDeck both going public. Overall, the forces of momentum guiding the fintech sector are based on a perfect storm of emerging technology, public desire for financial transparency as well as government regulation beginning to favor capital market alternatives following the global financial crisis.
Looking towards 2015, there are a few trends that are worth watching within the industry, as they could become either huge opportunities or stumbling blocks. Along with them we present reasons why the trend may not create the pot of gold expected of it.
Related: A Fearless Look at Canadian Crowdfunding for 2015
1) “Service-based investing” – If you haven’t heard of this term yet, it’s for good reason, since it’s being made up now (idea first appeared when we reviewed Simply Wall St). “Service-based investing” or perhaps better termed “low-cost service-based investing” is a term I am coining for an upcoming industry of paid services around low cost investing.
One of the more anticipated financial launches of 2014 was the public release of RobinHood, a mobile based commission-free trading brokerage. Backed with “A-list” Silicon Valley funds, RobinHood wants to make investing cheap for everyone. Rather than being compensated by commissions, RobinHood collects fees on margin usage as well as probably receiving some sort of kickback on order flow for trades sent to ECNs that offer payment to liquidity providers.
The idea isn’t new, though, with other brokers like Zecco having tried a commission-free model in the past only to scrap it later. In RobinHood’s case, an area of friction is that their target audience for maximum revenues are speculative investors who will be routinely using margin. Those customers, though, don’t seem like candidates to trust their investing choices to a mobile app.
This is where the “service-based” companies come in. Along with its brokerage services, RobinHood will be providing developer access for the creation of trading apps like charts, signals, fundamental analysis, etc. It’s these “paid” products that might ultimately attract experienced traders and speculators to RobinHood. The combination of paid apps with commission-free investing could result in a combination of sophisticated trading products in an environment that costs less than what one or two trades would cost at a competing online broker.
Why it won’t work – One of my childhood memories is seeing a movie which was abruptly stopped when the sound system at the theater failed. In addition to ticket reimbursement, the movie theater offered free food from the concession stand, with the announcement being followed by two dudes saying loudly, “IF IT’S FOR FREE IT’S FOR ME.”
View: Early Bird Registration NOW OPEN 2015 Canadian Crowdfunding Summit March 3 @MaRS
On this note, service-based investing has to look no further than the forex industry to see why it won’t work. Unlike in other asset classes, customers are provided free everything. From platforms to analysis to webinars, there are plenty of free offerings to seduce forex customers. As such, getting clients to pay for added services and third party offerings is rarely an effective business model. The result is that the best products tend to be licensed by brokers and offered for free to their customers, while paid offerings are limited to get-rich-quick-scheme items like signals and expert advisors, where the majority aren’t marketed by the broker.
A similar fate could take place among RobinHood customers and any other similar model that copies it. Like in the forex industry, stock traders that are attracted to “free” may be adverse to paying for premium products.
2) Robo investing – Unlike service-based investing, robo investing is a topic that has appeared on our pages and many others during 2014. I like to think of robo investing as the anti-social trading. With social trading, the big buzz word is democratization of investing, where anybody can develop a track record and become trade leaders.
With robo investing, the edge rests with the fact that managed investments underperform over the long term when taking fees into account. Therefore, why not build low cost portfolios that simply invest in indexes. The year 2014 was a breakout year for robo investing with the leaders in the space, Wealthfront, Betterment and Nutmeg, probably now having reached around three billion in assets.
The total figure of assets under management is still a drop in the bucket compared to actively managed funds. But the low cost and simple approach makes sense for many long-term savers who don’t want to ruffle through pages of prospectuses and understand terms like Net Asset Values, Performance Fees and Up-front Charges. With robo investing, users enter information such as their age, risk tolerance, years until retirement and expected savings amount. The platforms then automatically invest funds in ETFs that track indexes. This is all done for fees at a fraction of those charged at actively managed mutual funds and professional financial advisors.
Why it won’t work – There is little doubt that the products work and hitting a hundred billion dollars in managed robo-invested assets is an easy bet to make. Nonetheless, the fear here is that incumbents like Charles Schwab, Fidelity and Vanguard will enter the market and commoditize robo investing. It will remain a high-growth sector, but the already tight margins will get even smaller. The early players, though, stand to do well as the market grows and could be compensated handsomely as buyout candidates when (and if) existing financial-advisor behemoths decide to buy their way into the market. But, smaller players and new firms may find it too tough to scale large enough to become profitable.
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA Canada) is a cross-Canada crowdfunding hub providing education, advocacy and networking opportunities in the rapidly evolving crowdfunding industry. NCFA Canada is a community-based, membership-driven entity that was formed at the grass roots level to fill a national need in the market place. Join our growing network of industry stakeholders, fundraisers and investors. Learn more About Us | Crowdfunding | Support
Fearless Look at Canadian Crowdfunding 2015
About NCFA Canada | Bret Conkin, Ambassador | Jan 5, 2015
Crowdfunding hit the mainstream in Canada in 2014 with a record Rewards campaign for wireless speaker The Core by Mass Fidelity raising $1.3M to lead the way. This raise was 60% higher than the $817k raised for the top 2013 campaign for the magnetic Polar Pen/stylus in 2013. Donation campaigns supported many more causes and individuals than ever before. Equity and Lending models both gained traction with the promise of much more funding access to come.
What will the New Year hold for alternative finance and crowdfunding in Canada? Here is a quick look back at 2014 and some fearless crystal ball gazing from Advisors and Ambassadors of the National Crowdfunding Association of Canada as we look to the coming year. For more on predictions for the past year, visit the post, How well I predicted Crowdfunding in Canada for 2014.
What was your favourite Canadian campaign of 2014?
This question generated a mix of responses spanning entrepreneurs to causes from the top grossing campaigns of the year including the VanHawks Valor smartbike ($820k) on Kickstarter and the Plexidrone photography drone ($1.2M) on Indiegogo to several campaigns for the family of fallen soldier Nathan Cirillo ($400k+), the first cross-border equity campaign for WAFU dressings and mayo to a new Opera for schools adaptation with an anti-bullying rallying cry, Stickboy for Vancouver Opera, by Black Press 4 Good.
Suzanne Paschal (@suzannepash) of Indie Ink Publishing: “… a super-smart campaign focused on all the ways they could help potential customers buy this product before it went to market, as well as have a say in product design. They got great market research, and kept in contact with their contributors - used stretch goals to follow through on what their customers said they wanted to see...”
What was your favourite International campaign of 2014?
Two of the most covered Kickstarter campaigns also captured the attention of the experts: The Coolest Cooler and Potato Salad. Sunny Shao (@explicitivity), NCFA Advisor pointed out, “Coolest Cooler was such a simple yet innovative concept and Potato Salad because it was just so dumb yet got everyone talking about crowdfunding.” I have to admit I’m waiting for the delivery of my cooler in 2015 myself and the communications to backers have been excellent.
Other favourites included Literacy and a Science campaign that literally asked, “What’s in your Gut?” The relaunch of Reading Rainbow aims to continue to promote literacy for digital natives and the disadvantaged. “Well executed in all respects and found a way to connect to a whole new audience,” stated Shahab Khan (@shahabkan). Daryl Hatton (@darylhatton) of FundRazr suggested American Gut: “This is a great example of an innovative application of crowdfunding technology to help fund scientific research.”
Bruno Rakotozafy (@seedingfactory) of Seeding Factory offered up French platform Wiseed’s campaign, Rachetonslaeroportdetoulouse, for citizen ownership as a testament to crowdfunding’s impact.
What stood out to you/was significant about Canadian crowdfunding in 2014?
The themes included the greater focus on equity crowdfunding and that crowdfunding had hit the mainstream in 2014:
(DH) “The most significant thing about crowdfunding in Canada in 2014 is that it entered the mainstream with a significant component of the population starting or participating in crowdfunding campaigns.”
Gil Michel-Garcia of WAFU (@WafuBrand) pointed to Title II of the JOBs Act and Rule 506 (c) of Reg D: “which for the first time allowed both US and non-US companies to publicize their securities offerings on the Internet.”
View: Early Bird Ticket Deals for 2015 Canadian Crowdfunding Summit
(BR) suggested the establishment of “the first Canadian Crowdfunding Summit” to be held March 2015 as a significant milestone.
Other comments included the emergence of NCFA, greatly increased media coverage, new venture funding models and increased interest from the financial sector. Several comments pointed to the progression of legislation in various provinces but that homogeneity was unlikely from the securities regulators.
Which model of crowdfunding will grow the fastest in Canada next year?
Which model will grow fastest in 2015?
The experts predicted Lending would see the fastest growth, based on it’s current small base and success in other markets, with Rewards close behind and Equity taking longer to establish itself.
Lynn Blanchard of Creekstone Consulting commented, “Regulation will remain a barrier for equity based Crowdfunding however reward based Crowdfunding will continue to grow and mature as another arrow in the entrepreneur’s capital raising quiver. More attention and awareness is building about Crowdfunding in Canada which will eventually lead to a broadened adoption cycle.”
(GMG): “2015 will bring the finalization of Canadian equity crowdfunding regulations and the final implementation of the regulations for Title III of the JOBS Act by the US SEC.”
(DH): “The lending sector is likely to grow the fastest as a percentage next year given it is starting from a very small base but is a huge market and proven model in the US and the UK.”
(SP) “This is a tough one between lending and rewards. I know most people might say equity, but I think the struggles with regulations and the need for the business infrastructure and ecosystem to develop will hold that growth off until 2016.
Lending is already in place and is growing in awareness, so I believe it may be the fastest to grow. Increased education and support tools for rewards may make it the fastest to grow in terms of success rates, though.”
What are the 2 biggest issue facing the Crowdfunding sector next year?
Biggest issues for Crowfunding 2015
The two biggest issues had wide agreement: 1) Awareness/Education/Lack of Market Data and, 2) Bureaucracy and Regulations. Market maturity will help address the first issue. Let’s hope the regulators can strike the right balance to support the growth of venture capital and personal alternative finance while maintaining reasonable levels of investor, entrepreneur and creditor protection.
Interestingly, Fraud/Scams, Investor Confidence and Lack of Venture Capital were not considered as significant issues but Expertise/Best Practices was noted as the next most significant issue.
Fearless Predictions for Canadian Crowdfunding in 2015
The experts predict the emergence of new support services to increase funding outcomes, better educational resources, new models, platform concentration/consolidation and progress, albeit slower than anticipated, for equity crowdfunding regulations and infrastructure. Here are their fearless predictions:
(BR) “I hope the booming crowdfunding scene will experience a concentration wave in 2015. It'll prove some actors are becoming big enough to secure the business and guarantee a sound growth. “
(DH)
1. The equity crowdfunding market will continue to emerge but much more slowly than everyone wants. This is because the confluence of lack of market awareness, the difficulties of getting the model "right" and the wariness of the regulators in their goals of prevention of fraud will continue to great major friction in achieving adoption.
2. There will continue to be consolidation in the crowdfunding market with many small market entrants closing their doors.
3. Crowdfunding and cause marketing will continue to strengthen their relationship inviting much larger corporations to participate in the game and reaching many more consumers. This will shift the funding of many causes from "donations only" to a "give to get" model that rewards commercial behavior while supporting philanthropic activities.
(LB) “Education will begin to focus on "how to launch a winning CF campaign" with tools and seminars dedicating to improving the odds of a campaign's success. This means that education will expand from general awareness to more nuts and bolts implementation.”
(SP)
1. “Support services for campaign development & implementation will proliferate dramatically in Canada as both established marketing services and start-up entrepreneurs see the opportunity to serve an emerging market of funders…
2. Provincial securities regulators will continue to struggle to … create an appropriate equity crowdfunding business environment in their relative markets. Saskatchewan will continue to be a maverick and go with its own first-out-of-the-gate model.
3. A first-of-its-kind book about the crowdfunding industry will emerge late in 2015 that will not only create a unique picture of the industry and its impact on Canada, but will challenge the way non-fiction books are created and published.”
View: Canadian Crowdfunding Ambassadors (learn more)
(SK) “Will become standard approach in marketing effort and test bed for startups developing MVP. Will be viable alternative to VC/Angel funding with larger rewards targeting that segment of investors. Will be officially recognized as equity investment alternative.”
(SS) “More equity crowdfunding attention - Crowdfunding due diligence and fraud prevention - More charities and non-profits adopt crowdfunding.”
(GMG) “2015 will see the first simultaneous cross border equity crowdfunding offering in Canada under the new regulations and in the United States under Rule 506(c) (Title II of the JOBS Act).”
Anything else you would like to share with those interested in crowdfunding in Canada?
(SK) “This is now a viable alternative to allow startups to test and get feedback on their minimum viable product. It has matured and is now a decision point in their early stages.”
(SP) “One of the most important tasks and responsibilities facing the industry, and those who want to see it grow, is the development and encouragement of qualified education resources to help increase that low percentage campaign success rate... If you're doing it right, crowdfunding isn't just about funding. In fact, in some instances, the money you raise might be the smallest benefit at the end of the day. That's an incredibly important educational message.”
(LB) “… Entrepreneurs wishing to get involved in Crowdfunding have to ask this one basic question. Is my company or organization making a valuable contribution to society? … there will be a trend toward a deeper education of entrepreneurs in the “art of the start” … We will see a shift away from "post a page and they will come" to more digitally based education mechanisms … This means the quality of the organizations wishing to launch campaigns will increase in 2015 ….”
(GMG) “The rise of equity crowdfunding is going to be transformational event for Canadian small companies, because it will allow them to turn customers and social media followers into shareholders.”
(SS) “More cross-border collaboration in crowdfunding data, research, and support.”
(DH) “Canadian consumers, startups and established businesses need to start or continue to support our local market entrants by using their products. If we insist on simply using and promoting platforms developed elsewhere in spite of the quality of domestic competitors we will lose our ability to compete and control this market with the resulting loss of innovation and jobs in Canada.”
There you have it. A look into the crystal ball at the year ahead from the Advisers and Ambassadors at the National Crowdfunding Association of Canada. Please leave a comment with your thoughts on what is ahead for 2015 alternative finance below. For more 2015 predictions by ITBusiness.ca bloggers visit our Technology Predictions post here.
Source: Bret Conkin, CEO, Crowdfund Suite and NCFA Ambassador
The National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA Canada) is a cross-Canada crowdfunding hub providing education, advocacy and networking opportunities in the rapidly evolving crowdfunding industry. NCFA Canada is a community-based, membership-driven entity that was formed at the grass roots level to fill a national need in the market place. Join our growing network of industry stakeholders, fundraisers and investors. Learn more About Us | Crowdfunding | Support
OurCrowd’s 2014 Year In Review [Infographic]
OurCrowd Blog | Dec 31, 2014
In 2014, OurCrowd reached new heights investing in Israeli and global startups. As we continue to build on the strong foundation we set down just two years ago, OurCrowd managed to shatter records and rise even higher as a leader on the equity crowdfunding scene.
To name a few:
- With ReWalk, we celebrated the first equity crowdfunding-backed IPO
- We kicked off the largest investment round in the history of equity crowdfunding
- Members from the OurCrowd investor community now hail from 94 countries worldwide
- Our deal flow team has seen a total of 3,000 startups from across the globe
The National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA Canada) is a cross-Canada crowdfunding hub providing education, advocacy and networking opportunities in the rapidly evolving crowdfunding industry. NCFA Canada is a community-based, membership-driven entity that was formed at the grass roots level to fill a national need in the market place. Join our growing network of industry stakeholders, fundraisers and investors. Learn more About Us | Crowdfunding | Support
Here’s what Silicon Valley can tells us about Fin Tech trends for 2015
Jaguar Capital | Gerard Buckley | Dec 30, 2014
This month I had the opportunity to attend a Fin Tech Conference The Future of Money and Technology in San Francisco. It was a well organized and mostly an American audience. I recommend you go to the website and you can check out the audio recordings of many of the presentations.
In addition to the spring-like weather conditions I experienced vs. winter in Canada there were clearly several trends in addition to Bitcoin and other cyber currencies that emerged in the various panels. Although it is often said that the Bay area receives 50 per cent of the country’s VC funding, the Halo Report published by The Angel Research Institute suggests a more even distribution of angel investment throughout the U.S. with only 17.7 per cent of angel investment in Q2 of 2014 originating in California.
Public Market vs. Private Market Investments
It is not clear that the budget-conscious consumer is interested in whether they are invested in or have access to Private Market Investments. It appears that private equity investments is a domain of high net worth individuals or investors that are particularly tech-savvy to the industry of the target investment. But there is not a significant percentage of investors waiting with baited breath for equity crowd-funding to invest their next year’s savings.
What does exist besides established VC firms in Silicon Valley is a number of Hollywood-style stars with money to burn who are interested in investing in tech. These investors do little due diligence, are individuals, and generally are passive investors who often bring their star studded name to the product but not much more. I have not observed many of these type investors in Canada. However on the other hand when Silicon Valley instant messaging startup Frankly announced going public in Canada it raised more than a few eyebrows. Canada offers a fast track to a public listing that the U.S. doesn’t provide for companies of similar size and Canada has considerably less red tape than the U.S. when it comes to listing public companies.
View:
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Investments in crowdfunding platforms have already doubled this year
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Bitcoin 2.0 Crowdfunding Is Real Crowdfunding
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Crowdfunding: An Investor's Perspective
Data: Corporations desire to understand their customers
Financial services companies are most interested in learning the behaviour of their customers and clients alike. Capturing this data in the past has been left to the institution’s internal systems and has left the company with only a partial understanding of their customer, since most people are using multiple financial institutions.
Simple online banking is passe and the future of financial services technology lay in data, trading systems, security for cyber-currencies, etc. Since financial services has been one of the earlier industries to innovate, we are now completing the last digital mile in regards to the digitization of money. Smartphones are becoming an ATM in your pocket with various payment applications such as Starbucks and more recently Canadian Tire Money (I confess to being an early adopter).
Most financial services innovation is focused on improving customer experience or data collection. Little effort is being spent in innovation on the business of the financial services firms themselves in such areas as ALM (Asset Liability Management), securitization, credit management, risk capital or regulatory capital. Many of the other opportunities for financial services innovation are in credit and risk scoring, automated underwriting systems, decentralized lending, etc.
Consumer trends of Millennials and others with regards to financial services
Currently there are 25 million Americans and 2.5 billion people globally that are underbanked according to the World Bank. There are over 100 million Americans that live paycheck to paycheck. Here lies the biggest potential target group for startups to disrupt the financial services industry.
Consumers that currently don’t have access to traditional banking services that are moving to peer to peer lending services, pay as you go cards, and other collaborative consumption products for their financial services needs. There is a dramatic rise in the number of these peer to peer lending systems, which at their basic level are debt-based crowd-funding sites with no collateral.
It’s these customers that use high cost financial services such as Money Mart, Pay Day Loans, and various credit cards today and are looking for ways to reduce their dependency on the high service fee and interest rates charged by the lenders. The day is not too far away when consumers will view Walmart as a network and money will be transferred from one Walmart to another in different countries.
View:
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Early Registration NOW OPEN for 2015 Canadian Crowdfunding Summit (Tue, March 3, 2015)
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KPMG Best of Fintech innovation revealed in inaugural report
It’s not clear how the next generation will approach their long term savings for such things as retirement, their children’s education, etc. Their buying behavior had been for the most part demand driven. Notwithstanding services such as Mint.com and WealthSimple.com are gaining traction. Relationships in financial services are intact as interpersonal relationships and trust are ultimately important to consumers as after all we are dealing with people’s money. That being said, this interpersonal relationship can and will be delivered electronically as long as trust is maintained.
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA Canada) is a cross-Canada crowdfunding hub providing education, advocacy and networking opportunities in the rapidly evolving crowdfunding industry. NCFA Canada is a community-based, membership-driven entity that was formed at the grass roots level to fill a national need in the market place. Join our growing network of industry stakeholders, fundraisers and investors. Learn more About Us | Crowdfunding | Support
2015 Canadian Crowdfunding Summit (Early Bird Registration Now Open)!
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2015 Canadian Crowdfunding Summit
Date: March 3, 2015
Time: 7:30am – 6:45pm
Location: MaRS Discovery District (Auditorium)
Address: 101 College St., Toronto, ON, M5G 1L7 (map)
Ticketing: Member Registration is $200 (super early bird $160) + (non-members $275)
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13% HST to be added
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CONFERENCE OVERVIEW
Join us at the foremost destination for leaders in the Canadian Crowdfunding economy (#CCS2015)
Join us on Tuesday, March 3, 2015, at MaRS Discovery in Toronto for an exclusive opportunity to learn vital content and network with industry experts gathering to highlight economic progress, regulatory updates, emerging opportunities, best practices, insights and trends impactful to the future growth of the Canadian crowdfunding industry (release).
The Fintech sector is growing rapidly around the globe, playing a significant role in mobilizing capital and resources to innovative ventures and social enterprises by streamlining the process of how how organizations connect with prospective customers and investors over the internet.
Crowdfunding is helping innovative Canadian firms to launch businesses such as $1.14 million to Mass Fidelity's wireless multi-room speakers, $1 million to DreamQii's PlexiDrone and $820K to Vanhawk's connected carbon fibre bicycle. The recent Lending Club $5.4 billion IPO clearly demonstrated the appetite and potential for online lending marketplaces.
The Canadian crowdfunding industry is poised for growth. On March 20, 2014, a total of six (6) provincial regulators announced two main proposals for new Crowdfunding prospectus exemptions that would allow early stage companies such as start-ups and SMEs to raise up to $1.5 million of capital online through the issuance of securities.
With favourable regulations imminent in Canada and the global crowdfunding industry experiencing explosive growth from $1.5 billion raised in 2012 to over $5.1 billion in 2013, crowdfunding has emerged as an increasingly popular source of innovation and social capital for small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs), new ventures, projects and cause-based organizations.
Educational Programme (Full Day)
The #CCS2015 full day educational summit will feature high profile keynote speakers, panel discussions, workshops, entrepreneurial 'showcase pitches', mentor sessions and exhibitor tables featuring leading crowdfunding platforms and service providers. The program will cover all aspects of Crowdfunding including equity, debt/lending, rewards, pre-sale/product, causes, and emerging online models such as royalty streaming.
Topical Content:
- Overview of raising capital online in current markets (challenges, solutions and options)
- Regulatory briefing on the current status of equity crowdfunding regulations in Canada?
- Global and Canadian crowdfunding market data/pulse, trends, predictions
- Funding success stories (and failures) and lessons learned
- Crowdfunding for social enterprise, impact investing, charities, causes and non-profits
- Breaking down the anatomy of a successful crowdfunding campaign
- Building a crowd and working with media
- Preparing your company for raising capital online: Equity crowdfunding best practices and legal considerations (e.g., shareholders, term sheet, and intellectual property)
- Crowdfunding infrastructure for portals, provider solutions, opportunities for new entrants
- Portal landscape review, exemptions, transaction sizes, success rates
- International crowdfunding and cross-border activity
View the 2015 Canadian Crowdfunding Summit schedule & directory.
Who should attend the 2015 Canadian Crowdfunding Summit?
300+ delegates from across the country who are the decision makers in Canada’s fast growing and lucrative crowdfunding industry:
- Industry participants and experts including crowdfunding portals, legal, accounting and finance professionals, regulators, dealer-brokers, consultants, marketers, technology providers and advisory groups
- Entrepreneurial and innovation networks seeking to raise capital and commercialization ventures including incubator/accelerators, entrepreneurs, start-ups, high impact SMEs
- Social enterprise-impact investing companies, NFPs and cause-based organizations actively seeking funding
- Government (federal, provincial, municipal) involved in small business and innovation
- Private angel investors and venture capital groups, fund managers and corporate investors seeking to work emerging crowdfunding companies
- Media journalists and content creators tracking innovation, technology, small business and finance
Help Shape the Future of Crowdfunding
By attending the 2015 Canadian Crowdfunding Summit, you and your organization will have 'ground floor' opportunity to participate and help shape the impact (e.g., benefits) of crowdfunding industry (view Prezi):
- Crowdfunding spurs economic growth, creates jobs, generates revenue and stimulates innovation and entrepreneurship
- It unlocks a new source of efficient and transparent capital to fill ‘Funding Gaps’ in the Canadian economy
- It improves the quality and levels of risk capital funding in Canada to support the next generation of young, innovative firms. Crowdfunding also provides support for underserviced communities across verticals, geography and social economic tiers
- It helps SMEs achieve strong growth through regional and global market diversification and helps connect scalable ventures to angel and venture capital investment groups
- Crowdfunding accelerates the commercialization of new products, ideas and services in Canada that can compete globally and ultimately works to strengthen Canada’s entrepreneurial backbone at grassroots levels
Join Our Rapidly Emerging Industry
- Canadian Crowdfunding markets have grown significantly across the country (see Canadian Directory) since NCFA Canada launched in 2012, and is currently experiencing rapid growth in terms of the number of operating and planned portals, total funding volume, and successful transactions (85 portals, 22 providers)
- KPMG Best of FinTech Innovators (inaugural report; Dec 2014)
- Globally, crowdfunding has grown to $5.1 billion in 2013, according to US-based Massolution’s industry research report and experts expect to clear $10 billion by the end of 2014
- 2014 UK Alternative Finance Industry Report (Nov 2014)
- The World Bank report on crowdfunding predicts that crowdfunding could blossom into $96 billion industry per year
Need Hotel Accommodation (Preferred Rates)?
Kind thanks to venue and social innovation partner, MaRS Discovery District, for allowing attendees of the 2015 Canadian Crowdfunding Conference to benefit from preferred hotel rates for summit attendees (click):
- Holiday Inn Toronto Downtown Centre (from $122/night)
- The Marriott Courtyard (from $139/night)
- Eaton Chelsea Hotel (from $149/night)
- InterContinental Hotel Toronto (from $199/night)
- Four Seasons Hotel Toronto (from $375/night)
Get preferred hotel rates now
Get Involved! Summit Participation & Sponsorship Opportunities
Chair, Speakers, Mentors/Experts, Media
(Please contact Craig Asano: casano@ncfacanada.org)
Sponsors, Exhibitors, Summit Partners
(Lauren Linton: lauren@ncfacanada.org)
Marketing, Communications, Summit Registration
(Sunny Shao: sunny@ncfacanada.org)
Showcasing Pitchers Application Form (Deadline Jan 31 @5PM EST)
(Summit Pitchers Application Form & Info)
(Carlos Pinto Lobos: cpintolobo@marsdd.com)
Seeking Experienced Volunteers (Application Form)
#CCS2015
Please share with your colleagues and networks thanks.
See you @7:30am sharp for registration and breakfast!
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Private Equity Crowdfunding Marketplace for Retail Investors InvestX Announces Beta Launch
Crowdfund Insider | | Dec 16, 2014
Initial USD $5.2 Million Seed Round Secured From Prominent Investors
InvestX Capital announced on Tuesday (December 16th) the beta launch of its cross-border private equity crowdfunding marketplace for U.S. and Canadian investors, opening up an asset class previously only accessible through larger (USD $1 million or higher) investments. For the first time, InvestX will provide accredited retail investors with direct access to high-quality private equity opportunities at low minimum investments (starting at USD $2,500), sourced and thoroughly vetted by a select group of partnering private equity firms.
The initial offering on the InvestX beta site allows accredited investors the opportunity to invest in Cleveland HeartLab’s Series C financing. Cleveland HeartLab (CHL) is a well-established, five-year old health sciences company known as one of the leading providers of comprehensive cardiovascular disease prevention, diagnosis and management services. CHL has already secured over USD $32 million in funding from institutional investors such as Excel Medical Ventures, Healthcare Venture Partners, Mutual Capital Partners, Cleveland Clinic, and one of the world’s largest healthcare companies. Through its private equity partner, Mutual Capital Partners, InvestX has secured a USD $1,000,000 allocation for InvestX members with an expected closing on January 15, 2015.
Related: Why Financial Firms are Joining the Crowd
Founder and CEO of InvestX Marcus New stated,“Private equity has long been used by institutions and ultra-high net worth individuals to add assets to their portfolios with traditionally higher returns than the public equity markets. Our goal is to democratize private equity investing – to provide every accredited investor with access to the same opportunities as the professional investor – and through InvestX, our private equity crowdfunding marketplace, there is an unprecedented opportunity to access established, high growth private companies that are already generating revenue.“
Earlier this year, InvestX closed a USD $5.2 million seed investment round from investors who support Mr. New’s vision. This included U.S. Global Funds, Meridian Funds, Pathfinder Asset Management, Mercury Capital, Mutual Capital Alliance and Stockhouse Publishing, along with a group of prominent angel investors. The private equity crowdfunding marketplace will use the funds to continue to build the InvestX platform and bring a wide variety of quality private equity opportunities to its members. Two additional deals are already sourced and will be available in early 2015.
An initial investor and U.S. Global Funds CEO Frank Holmes shared, “The passage of the JOBS Act has created a multitude of new investment opportunities, but high invested capital requirements can still be an issue for some ground floor opportunities. I was impressed with the structure of the InvestX marketplace and thought that the streamlined process offered on the platform would be appealing to accredited investors looking to diversify their portfolio.”
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