Investment Platforms and Marketplaces

February 20, 2014 @ 11:17 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Crowdtilt has announced the rebranding of Crowdhoster as CrowdtiltOpen today, and it packs what the platform is calling the “most robust feature set of any crowdfunding tool in the world.” A statement from Crowdtilt CEO James Bashara makes it clear both why the platform was… Read More

February 20, 2014 @ 10:53 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Fast Company editorial director Jill Bernstein will be holding a live Q&A today discussing how to “harness the power of the crowd to make something positive happen.” The session starts at noon EST. The session features Charles Best, Founder and CEO of DonorsChoose.org (pictured, right). DonorsChoose… Read More

February 19, 2014 @ 10:18 pm By JD Alois  |  

Australia based equity crowdfunding platform VentureCrowd has officially opened for business today.  The platform, which allows wholesale investors to take equity positions in innovative high growth-potential startups, opened this morning with over 200 registered investors and 36 startups which have been pre-screened by the best… Read More

February 19, 2014 @ 10:56 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Yesterday YouTube-centric crowdfunding platform TubeStart held a Google Hangout discussing crowdfunding in a YouTube context. The Hangout lasted just under an hour and provided answers to a handful of relevant questions. TubeStart’s Claude Shires and Kirsten Zastrow ran the session. They provide some sobering, pragmatic… Read More

February 19, 2014 @ 10:13 am By Charles Luzar  |  

UCLA has launched UCLA Spark, an online crowdfunding platform aimed at providing critical fundraising support for innovative projects by UCLA faculty and official student organizations. The platform launches today with five active projects covering topics like females in software engineering, landmark preservation and caring for cancer… Read More

February 19, 2014 @ 9:58 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Lobbyists. Love them or hate them, they have a strong voice in the political narrative here in the United States, and sometimes the goals of a lobby do not align with the goals of the American people. According to the polls, that is precisely what… Read More

February 19, 2014 @ 9:21 am By Charles Luzar  |  

DonorsChoose is quickly gaining steam in the crowdfunding space. FastCompany just named DonorsChoose to their list of the most innovative companies in 2014, and it wasn’t buried toward the bottom either. It made the top ten alongside the likes of Google and Nike. Now Huffington… Read More

February 19, 2014 @ 8:43 am By JD Alois  |  

Crowdfunding has been the catalyst for many incredibly unique and innovative creations. It has also spawned more than a few new and fascinating methods of financing a growing number of niche verticals. Blancfleet is one of those new unique verticals as they look to make… Read More

February 19, 2014 @ 7:30 am By JD Alois  |  

RebuildingSociety.com wants UK businesses of their peer-to-peear crowdlending platform and  they are offering a special incentive through next month. During March, businesses that successfully complete a loan application for up to £50,000 through their P2P lending platform, applicants will be eligible to win their loan… Read More

February 18, 2014 @ 8:03 pm By JD Alois  |  

Headquartered in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, PennStarter, part of privately owned broker-dealer Pennaluna & Company, has announced they are using their equity funding portal to represent advertised investment opportunities under the JOBS Act.  The PennStarter portal is focused on early-stage public and private companies. While some broker-dealers… Read More

February 18, 2014 @ 11:30 am By JD Alois  |  

Taiwan based HWTrek has extended their commitment to hardware inventors announcing partnerships with more than 130 (starting with Taiwan’s top-tier) manufacturers, including global Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs) including Pegatron, Wistron, Qisda, and WPG Holdings in Asia. The company continues to… Read More

February 18, 2014 @ 6:30 am By JD Alois  |  

  Tobin Arthur, CEO of angelMD, will be participating on a crowdfunding panel as part of the Texas Life Science Venture Forum.  The event is hosted by BioHouston, Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, and the Texas Healthcare and Bioscience Institute. angelMD is a crowdfunding  platform… Read More

February 17, 2014 @ 3:40 pm By JD Alois  |  

Israel based equity crowdfunding company OurCrowd has announced they are moving into the Australian market to extend their investment platform.  OurCrowd, led by founder Jon Medved, has hired a local team to develop the new market.  David Shein, Nathan Cher and Geoff Levy will be… Read More

February 17, 2014 @ 11:58 am By Charles Luzar  |  

@konklone @xor @knowtheory it’s a complex situation that is fortunately new for us. We are working hard to respond, with hopefully more soon — Fred Benenson (@fredbenenson) February 17, 2014 Kickstarter engineer Fred Benenson was vocal on this Hacker News thread about revelations that Kickstarter… Read More

February 17, 2014 @ 10:28 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Tomorrow YouTube content creator crowdfunding platform TubeStart will begin a new weekly tradition by holding a Google Hangout. It’s called the “Weekly Crowdfunding Crash Course for YouTube Creators,” which tells you just about all you need to know. If you’re on YouTube and you’re interested… Read More

February 17, 2014 @ 10:11 am By JD Alois  |  

The Guardian has put together a very practical list of all the major P2P lenders in the United Kingdom.  The UK has been at the forefront of the P2P crowdfunding industry and the companies participating in this new sector have experienced dramatic growth. The major… Read More

February 17, 2014 @ 9:38 am By JD Alois  |  

Below is the presentation that Jeff Lynn, CEO and co-founder of equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs, presented at Stanford this past week. The presentation was delivered at the Stanford Engineering School, European Entrepreneurship & Innovation series now in it’s 5th year.  A video of the presentation… Read More

February 17, 2014 @ 8:22 am By JD Alois  |  

As part of a regular program held at Stanford University, the European Entrepreneurship and Innovation Thought Leaders series invited Seedrs CEO Jeff Lynn to speak about his equity crowdfunding platform and share his thoughts on crowdfunding in general on the European continent.  The session also… Read More

February 16, 2014 @ 7:37 pm By JD Alois  |  

Kickstarter, a leading global rewards based crowdfunding platform, announced yesterday their platform had been attacked and user account information had been accessed.  Reportedly the information accessed did not include credit card information but did include users personal information. In a new post, Kickstarter has added… Read More

February 16, 2014 @ 7:22 pm By JD Alois  |  

Equity crowdfunding site Crowdcube has released the beta version of their “Investor Relations Portal”.  This new feature has been developed to provide a central location where shareholders and crowdfunded companies may communicate both during a campaign and following the closing of the funding round. Communication… Read More