Investment crowdfunding platform Birchal has surpassed $100 million in financing (as of March 17, 2022), according to an email from the company.
As the largest crowdfunding provider in Australia, Birchal is the first to top this amount.
As of March 2022, Birchal claims to be the platform behind 75% of Australia’s equity crowd-sourced funding (CSF) activity.
Simultaneously, Birchal announced that it will list a securities offering for itself on its own platform, another first for a CSF platform in Australia. This will be the first time retail investors can buy shares in the company.
Matt Vitale, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Birchal, commented on the news:
“The timing for Birchal to achieve $100m in raised revenue on behalf of its clients couldn’t happen at a more perfect time than announcing our plans to establish an equity crowdfunding ecosystem. There is currently no organised marketplace available for retail investors to trade securities in startups and SMEs – so we’ve decided to focus on providing a range of solutions to solve this. Effective secondary trading solutions will reduce binary ‘win/lose’ outcomes for founders (and employees) of startups and SMEs; and also provide more opportunities for investors to realise returns on their investments. The first step is Birchal Trade, a technology solution for companies to manage the operation of a ‘Low Volume Market’ in Australia, which can facilitate up to 100 transactions and $1.5 million within a 12 month period, available to retail investors, without the need for a market licence. This service has been built, with plans to offer the first pilot in 2022.”
Birchal also provided some data points on its performance:
- Australian csf industry is growing at 70% CAGR (2018-21), estimated to be circa $500m by 2024.
- Birchal achieved $2.2 million in revenue for six months ended 31 December 2021, with a 42% operating margin.
- Birchal reports on average 28 inbound company prospects per week.
- In 2021, Birchal achieved a 160% increase in funds compared to 2020.
- In 2021, Birchal enabled 59 successful deals (66% market share), raised $53.5 million funds (75% market share), and worked with 31,800 investors (85% market share).
Vitale added that Birchal’s market-leading position has given the company a unique opportunity to leverage what it has built to add more value to its stakeholders:
“We are very pleased to announce prolific startup investors including Dom Pym have thrown their full support behind Birchal in recent times, further underpinning the confidence the market has in the future of the business.”
Active platform investor Dom Pym, co-founder of Australian neobank Up, acquired by Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, shared a comment on Birchal’s performance:
“Although equity crowdfunding has only just started in Australia, it’s been around for a while overseas, and I’ve been following it globally. I am an investor in Seedrs and Crowdcube (two major platforms in the UK) and I’m also a participant in AngelList in the US, so I have seen how impactful businesses like these have been to startup communities over there. Using equity crowdfunding platforms, I’ve invested in heaps of fintech and environmentally focused businesses globally, so was thrilled when I could do this in Australia as well. I believe equity crowdfunding can be a core piece of financial infrastructure in Australia, helping Aussie founders get the capital they need to fund their ambitions.”