General News

August 16, 2014 @ 8:41 pm By JD Alois  |  

Just saw the coolest Kickstarter project.. Mind. Officially. Blown. SmartThings will let you run your world by Smartphone. The above are some of the accolades piled upon SmartThings, a young company seeking capital and market approval just 2 years ago.  Crowdfunding out of Minneapolis, Minnesota,… Read More

August 16, 2014 @ 2:56 pm By JD Alois  |  

The organizers of the successful and fast growing One Spark crowdfunding festival, held each year in Jacksonville, Florida, have taken their event and message on the road.  First stop is Berlin, Germany where One Spark Start: Berlin will take place this coming September. One Spark… Read More

August 16, 2014 @ 2:24 pm By JD Alois  |  

Law firm Goodwin Procter has announced the launch of its Crowdfunding Practice.  With crowdfunding booming around the world, the firm seeks to bring together an interdisciplinary team with specialized expertise in tech companies, venture finance, real estate capital markets, investment management, general corporate practice and… Read More

August 16, 2014 @ 9:35 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Offering up some words of wisdom when it comes to equity crowdfunding, Crowdcube shared strategic insight in a post titled 7 Points Investors Should Consider. The platform provided advice for a wide range of equity topics including how to handle risk and skeptical investors. Investing… Read More

August 15, 2014 @ 9:14 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Kickstarter’s first synthetic biology project, the Glowing Plant, which was launched April 2013 by Antony Evans, Fulbright Stanford post-doc fellow Omri Amirav-Drory, PhD and Kyle Taylor, PhD (from Stanford) has made the news again for its syncing with Y Combinator.  The Silicon Valley venture capital firm… Read More

August 14, 2014 @ 11:53 pm By JD Alois  |  

Fitch Ratings has acknowledged the growing importance of peer to peer lending  companies in statement that P2P lending success is dependent on borrower credit. This past July, S&P and DBRS assigned a landmark rating on the senior portion of a $270 million P2P deal from SoFi…. Read More

August 14, 2014 @ 4:38 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Last month, Columbus, Ohio resident Zach “Danger” Brown launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to make potato salad. Originally setting out with an initial goal of $10, the project immediately hit the spotlight and raised over $55,000 from 6,911 backers. Now Brown is… Read More

August 14, 2014 @ 4:11 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Crowdfunding giant, Kickstarter, announced earlier this week details about its upcoming Film Fest in Los Angeles, California. The event will take place on September 12th from 6-11pm and features the platform’s favorite films, shorts, web series, animations, documentaries and more – all funded on the site…. Read More

August 14, 2014 @ 3:20 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Assistant Professor of Management at New York University, Jason Greenberg and Assistant Professor at the Wharton Business School at University of Pennsylvania, Ethan Mollick recently released research titled, “Leaning In or Leaning On? Gender, Homophily, and Activism in Crowdfunding,” that revealed evidence that women are turning… Read More

August 14, 2014 @ 10:02 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Australian Film, Television, and Radio School grad student, Jessica Milne, announced a new research study is currently underway to measure the effectiveness of crowdfunding pitch videos and the impact they have on the online funding industry. The project will use an online survey to collect… Read More

August 14, 2014 @ 9:15 am By Richard Swart  |  

Emerging issues in Crowdfunding Research Are Topic of Discussion as Crowdfunding is Dissected at Leading Academic Conference. How far we have come! Two years ago crowdfunding was seen as little more than an interesting phenomenon, not particularly worthy of study. At this year’s Academy of Management… Read More

August 14, 2014 @ 8:56 am By JD Alois  |  

According to research commissioned by CohnReznick, an accounting and advisory firm targeting middle market companies, only one-third of executives at smaller middle-market companies claimed to be familiar with the key elements of the JOBS Act legislation that could benefit their organization. CohnReznick states; “The JOBS Act… Read More

August 13, 2014 @ 3:30 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Just a few months after Governor of Alabama, Robert J. Bentley, signed a crowdfunding exemption bill, which allows businesses that are located in the state to raise up to $1 million, the state’s securities commission held a few seminars this week to discuss what the… Read More

August 12, 2014 @ 5:00 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

During the 2014 San Diego Comic Con last month, creator of the hit series Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski announced new plans for a feature film of the former sci-fi series. Although it’s not sure whether or not the show’s studio, Warner Bros will jump on… Read More

August 12, 2014 @ 4:23 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Regulators in Washington D.C. are proposing a new set of rules for crowdfunding that will allow the district’s businesses to raise up to $2 million a year.  A new twist in the intrastate crowdfunding movement as this would be “intra-district”. Washington Business Journal reports Department… Read More

August 12, 2014 @ 11:12 am By JD Alois  |  

In the ongoing debate about various aspects of the JOBS Act that legalizes equity crowdfunding, nine US Senators have submitted a comment letter to the SEC opposing the move to preempt state “Blue Sky” review.  The pre-emption of state review under Title IV of the… Read More

August 11, 2014 @ 5:19 pm By JD Alois  |  

The story about Joseph Pulitzer, the famous New York newspaper publisher, raising funds to secure the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty is quite well known in crowdfunding circles.  Many industry leaders and pundits like to use the Statue of Liberty as an acute example… Read More

August 11, 2014 @ 2:42 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

The American Heart Association announced today (August 11th) the launch of its first Chicago Open Innovation Challenge, a crowdsourced, crowdfunded and judged competition to uncover new innovative tools to prevent or manage heart disease and stroke. The top three finalists will receive grants from the… Read More

August 11, 2014 @ 9:47 am By JD Alois  |  

Announced just this past week, Innovate Finance is a new industry body for the fast grow tin UK FinTech industry. The representative group was backed by over 50 financial industry participants including big names in the crowdfunding industry such as Crowdcube & SyndicateRoom.  Peer to… Read More

August 11, 2014 @ 9:22 am By JD Alois  |  

CrowdfundSuite is a new funding hub that has been launched to enable both existing crowdfunding channel players and interested private capital industry stakeholders to successfully navigate and profit from the exploding Alternative Funding sector. CrowdfundSuite seeks to provide platform access, services and education across the… Read More