Regulation A+, promulgated by Title IV of the JOBS Act, appears to be off to a good start. The several offers that are “testing the waters” have generated pretty solid interest. SeedInvest, one of the first equity crowdfunding platforms to offer a potential Reg A+ issuer in Waybetter, rocketed off the launchpad generating around $5 million in investor interest in just a few days. Today the listing page shows about $11.4 million in potential investor interest. This includes both accredited and non-accredite investors as Reg A+ does not exclude the masses from deciding whether or not they should invest.
SeedInvest has recently listed its 2nd possible Reg A+ issuer in Snapwire. Today over $7.6 million in potential investment has been registered on the funding portal. $5 million of that came in just 2 days. According to SeedInvest about a thousand possible investors committed $1000. Several hundred investors expressed interest of up to $100,000 each. A nice validation of big investors sharing the offer with smaller, retail types.
Snapwire is a company that was launched to improve the experience of the millions of photo buyers who use canned photos. Snapwire, noting that around 70 million photos are uploaded to Instagram everyday, realized there was a lot of untapped photographer talent out there. These creative types would probably not be averse to earning a buck or two for their photos. Snapwire has created a marketplace where buyers post a description of the image they are searching for and then they are pitched with potential images. No more hunt for the perfect image as it comes directly to you. Snapwire claims a community of 150,000 photographers in 200 countries. About this time last year Snapwire had just 10,000 users so you can say they have garnered some user interest in the past 12 months.
Snapwire founder and CEO Chad Newell said this type of funding was perfect for his “highly engaged user community”. Newell said, “Any CEO will tell you that fundraising is a necessary evil for growth. For early stage startups like Snapwire, it can be an enormous distraction and expense at a time when absent leadership can have damaging consequences to the business. Considering that our entire ethos is based on collaborating with creatives, what better way to fundraise than directly collaborating with our users?” Newell views equity crowdfunding as cementing the collaboration with the users that know them best.
“Regulation A enables companies to offer shares to all of their loyal customers for the first time.” explained Ryan Feit, SeedInvest CEO. “Snapwire is another great example of the potential for mini IPOs.”
Snapwire expects to use any new capital to improve their product and expand their platform reach.
One note about SeedInvest. This is a platform that incorporates a solid degree of due diligence for any listing company. While no investment is risk free, it is always reassuring to know the team at SeedInvest has spent their time digging into the details before you get the chance to buy in.
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