In an interview with BusinessDay, New Zealand Venture Investment Fund CEO Franceska Banga expressed optimism when asked about the impact equity crowdfunding’s implementation could have on New Zealand startups and the investment community as a whole.
The early-stage investment community, and particularly angel networks and investors, need to consider how crowd-funding can be integrated with existing investment platforms in order to increase the capital available to young start-up companies.
She specifically gave a nod to AngelList in the US as being a prime example of what equity crowdfunding could promise to provide entrepreneurs. “The benefit of this sort of structure is that it opens up angel-backed companies to a much broader pool of investors,” she said. “People keen to invest through a crowd-funding platform might be more attracted to an investment proposition which has already attracted angel investors and due diligence has been done.”
New Zealand is gearing up for equity crowdfunding to become available soon. FundaKiwi just announced a content coinciding with the launch of their platform. Read more about that initiative here.