Crowdfunding platform Wefunder announced on Thursday it is set to host a 12-city tour of live, in-person funding events for small businesses. The funding portal noted that the events are much like demo days that are hosted by accelerators.
According to Wefunder, the 12-city events’ objective is to help small businesses connect with potential investors in their cities and within the platform’s community, which is currently consisted of 90,000 individual investors around the world. It was revealed:
“A panel of judges are choosing top companies to showcase in each city. Each city has a different theme – from resturants to health. The top 3 companies will present on stage live in front of local investors. In real-time, each presentation will also be broadcast on Wefunder to thousands of investors across the country. Companies can raise up to $1 million using Regulation Crowdfunding. All up-front costs are covered – flights, lodging, accounting, & legal.”
The companies chosen to present give a 2.5-minute pitch followed by a 15-minute grilling from judges and the audience at the event and online invest in real-time on their phones.. Nick Tommarello, co-founder and CEO of Wefunder, added:
“We’re finding that many of our portfolio companies are drawing most of their investment dollars locally — often, from people who are already customers or fans of the company. So we decided to launch a series of in-person events designed to draw in local investors and expose them to startup investment opportunities right in their area.”
Wefunder noted that that first event is taking place Oakland, Calif. on May 4th and will focus on startups founded by women. The deadline for startups to apply for the Oakland event is April 14th. The deadline to apply for the other events in events is May 5th. Other events/themes in the series will include in the coming weeks:
- New York City, NY: Immigrants
- Los Angeles, CA: Food
- New Orleans, LA: Nightlife
- Napa, CA: Wine
- New York City, NY: Fashion
- Portland, OR: Breweries
- Denver, CO: B Corps
- Washington, DC: Veteran founders
- Detroit, MI: Makers (manufacturing)
- Austin, TX: Music
- Boston, MA: Health tech
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