Seed money, sometimes known as seed funding or seed capital, is a form of securities offering in which an investor invests capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company. The term seed suggests that this is a very early investment, meant to support the business until it can generate cash of its own, or until it is ready for further investments. Seed money options include friends and family funding, seed venture capital funds, angel funding, and crowdfunding.
Seedrs is an equity crowdfunding platform, headquartered in East London's Tech City, founded by Jeff Lynn and Carlos Silva in 2012.
CircleUp is a financial technology company based in San Francisco that focuses on consumer goods startups. Since its official launch in April 2012, CircleUp has helped several consumer companies raise equity including Back to the Roots, Halo Top Creamery, Little Duck Organics, Rhythm Superfoods and others. General Mills has an investment fund that is partnered with CircleUp to invest in companies listed on the platform.
Crowdcube is a British investment crowdfunding platform, established by Darren Westlake and Luke Lang in 2011.
Mosaic is a clean energy fin-tech company based in Oakland, California. Founded in 2010, Mosaic created its initial business model using crowdfunding principals to offer loans for commercial solar development projects. After shifting its model in 2014, Mosaic Inc. is now focused on financing residential solar projects by leveraging third party capital partners. Through this model, the company aims to democratize the social and environmental benefits of clean energy.
Return on Change (RoC) is an equity crowdfunding platform that connects investors with innovative and socially conscious startups. Return on Change works with startups that operate in five sectors, each of which touches on sustainability in some way: cleantech, edtech, life sciences, social enterprises, and technology. An online equity crowdsourcing platform, RoC helps socially conscious ventures raise capital.
OurCrowd is an investment platform built for accredited investors and institutions to invest in startups, early stage companies and venture funds. Based in Jerusalem, the company launched in February 2013, with overseas branches in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Spain and Singapore.
Invivo Wines is a New Zealand wine company, currently based in the historic Te Kauwhata winery south of Auckland. It produces wine in partnership with TV celebrities Graham Norton and Sarah Jessica Parker, and aims to appeal to casual wine drinkers by avoiding the sort of marketing its founders perceive is too pompous or flowery. Invivo wines have won several awards and trophies in various international wine competitions, and its unorthodox approach to fund-raising and marketing won it the 2009 New Zealand Innovation in Wine Marketing Trophy, as well as two trophies for their Invivo X, SJP global launch at the 2020 New Zealand Marketing Awards.
Harmoney is an online direct personal lender that operates across Australia and New Zealand. The company was established in 2014 to introduce peer-to-peer lending to New Zealand. Harmoney has since become the largest online personal lending platform in Australia and New Zealand, with a goal of providing people a quick and simple way to borrow online. Harmoney provides risk-priced, unsecured personal loans up to $70,000 and has helped customers borrow more than NZD $2 billion as of March 2021.
SeedInvest is an equity crowdfunding platform that connects startups with investors online. The company was founded in 2012 and launched in 2013. SeedInvest has focused on building liquidity in the platform by attracting high-net-worth individuals, family offices and venture capital firms. SeedInvest screens and vets deals before allowing them to take advantage of the JOBS Act exemption permitting General Solicitation. In September 2014 the company launched a partnership with Angel Investing website Gust. In October 2018, SeedInvest was acquired by peer-to-peer payment company Circle Internet Financial Ltd.
SyndicateRoom is a UK venture capital fund, headquartered in Cambridge, founded by Gonçalo de Vasconcelos and Tom Britton in September 2013. The company is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Equity crowdfunding is the online offering of private company securities to a group of people for investment and therefore it is a part of the capital markets. Because equity crowdfunding involves investment into a commercial enterprise, it is often subject to securities and financial regulation. Equity crowdfunding is also referred to as crowdinvesting, investment crowdfunding, or crowd equity.
VentureCrowd is an Australian multi asset class crowdfunding platform, headquartered in Sydney, including equity crowdfunding, property crowdfunding and debt-based crowdfunding. VentureCrowd completed the largest Australian equity crowdfunding raise, $4.2 million, for taxi-booking and payment software company Ingogo in May 2015. This deal is ranked 8th on the List of highest funded equity crowdfunding projects. This deal is ranked 8th on the List of highest funded equity crowdfunding projects. In June 2016, VentureCrowd raised more than $900,000 for a Western Sydney residential project - a 35-lot development in Riverstone East, in partnership with the property developer ClearState. In August 2016, a second project raised $1,700,000 for a 44-lot development project in Austral.
PledgeMe is a Wellington, New Zealand-based crowdfunding platform which offers project and equity crowdfunding.
In the United States under the Securities Act of 1933, any offer to sell securities must either be registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or meet certain qualifications to exempt it from such registration. Regulation A contains rules providing exemptions from the registration requirements, allowing some companies to use equity crowdfunding to offer and sell their securities without having to register the securities with the SEC. Regulation A offerings are intended to make access to capital possible for small and medium-sized companies that could not otherwise bear the costs of a normal SEC registration and to allow nonaccredited investors to participate in the offering. The regulation is found under Title 17 of the Code of Federal Regulations, chapter 2, part 230. The legal citation is 17 C.F.R. §230.251 et seq.
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, in modern times typically via the Internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over US$34 billion were raised worldwide by crowdfunding.
Whakamana, or The New Zealand Institute for Cannabis Education, Research and Development is New Zealand's first museum dedicated to the history of cannabis use and culture. It was first opened in October 2013 in Dunedin as part of a project spearheaded by Abe Gray, former deputy leader of the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party (ALCP), and Julian Crawford, former ALCP regional spokesperson.
AlphaCrowd is a New Zealand equity crowdfunding platform for digital and technology companies and investors, that was licensed by the Financial Markets Authority in October 2015. In November 2016, the company raised equity capital from a Chinese angel investor at a valuation of around $2.7 million; of the $800,000 raised a part was conditional on the investor being granted a travel visa to New Zealand.
CapBridge is an online investment platform, headquartered in Singapore. It was founded in 2015 and backed by Singapore Exchange. CapBridge was approved by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Government of Singapore to operate both a primary capital raising platform utilizing a Capital Markets Securities License, and a private securities exchange - 1exchange with a Recognized Market Operator license.
Birchal is an Australian equity crowdfunding platform which is the market leader for retail investors, capturing A$94 million of the A$146.6 million raised in the Australian retail equity crowdfunding market over 2018 to 2021.
