On March 20th, a total of six provincial regulators announced two main proposals for new crowdfunding prospectus exemptions that would allow early stages companies such as startups and SMEs to raise up to $1.5 million of capital online through the issuance of securities.
This kind of situation now represents a significant leap forward and positive progress for crowdfunding advocates, including the National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA Canada). Since 2012, the NCFA Canada has been working diligently with key industry stakeholders, government, regulators, media eco-system partners and academia. The organization also provides education, research and valuable input into the development of viable “made in Canada” framework.
To foster crowdfunding awareness and education along with encouraging participation in provincial regulators request for proposed equity exemptions, portal registration framework and general comments, the NCFA has announced a series of “must attend” events in key cities leading the way for Canada to become a world class crowdfunding center.
The most recent event took place on April 16th. The NCFA kicked off a cross-Canada tour to ignite venture capital and entrepreneurship in Toronto to a sellout crowd held at the Ontario Investment and Trade Center. The event was co-hosted with the City of Toronto, and provided an engaged audience with four curated perspectives including a regulatory briefing of the proposed new equity crowdfunding exemption in Ontario and portal registration framework, legal issues, investment opportunities, and portal perspective.
This successful event brought a diverse range of expert speakers to discuss key topics, who delivered substantive content that fueled open forum questions and extended the event well into networking time.
The next event will take place on May 21st called “Igniting Venture Capital in BC: Expert Panel on Equity Crowdfunding Opportunities.” It is co-hosted by the NCFA Canada and the Vancouver Economic Commission. It is sponsored by Canada’s leading crowdfunding portal FundRazr and Canada’s longest running equity crowdfunding portal Optimized Capital Markets.
