Opinion

August 11, 2015 @ 6:37 pm By JD Alois  |  

Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard Professor, iconoclast, and creator of MayDay PAC, has entered the 2016 Presidential election. Lessig is seeking the nomination of the Democratic party joining Bernie Sanders in the quest to dethrone Hillary Clinton from her anointed position as party standard bearer.  Lessig,… Read More

August 11, 2015 @ 8:47 am By JD Alois  |  

Paul Niederer, CEO of ASSOB – one of the very first investment crowdfunding platforms ever, has shared his opinion of the recently published a regulatory framework for crowdfunding in Australia and, in brief, he thinks it is wrong. Forest for the Trees Niedierer believes the… Read More

August 10, 2015 @ 11:15 pm By JD Alois  |  

Financial industry touchstone CNBC reviewed the hot topic of Silicon Valley gunning for the banking industry.  Old school types are quick to assign Marketplace Lending (P2P Lending) and equity crowdfunding to the shadow banking never-world but the reality is that internet finance is more efficient,… Read More

August 10, 2015 @ 10:30 am By Candace Klein  |  

  As traditional lending tightened for consumers and small businesses, following the 2008 recession and the Dodd Frank regulatory environment that followed, alternative lending has now become quite the burgeoning new industry. And with alternative lenders ranging the gamut from near-bank products and terms to… Read More

August 7, 2015 @ 8:00 am By Giles Andrews  |  

This is a question I get asked a lot. And the usual line of thinking of those asking the question is that it does matter.  The common assumption is that the increased activity of “institutional” funds is crowding out the core retail investors that platforms… Read More

August 6, 2015 @ 1:59 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Interest in crowdfunding from banks and other noteworthy investors including some family offices has steadily increased in recent months, so much that Money&Co blogged, “It’s often said that crowdfunding is in danger of losing the crowd.” Could crowdfunding lose its crowd? How does the industry… Read More

August 5, 2015 @ 4:56 pm By Anthony Zeoli  |  

The awareness and popularity of real estate based equity crowdfunding (i.e. “RECfunds”) continues to grow exponentially. As do the number of real estate crowdfunding portals. RECFunds offer substantial benefits to today’s investors including access to multiple types of projects, smaller barriers to investment, and portfolio… Read More

August 5, 2015 @ 8:51 am By JD Alois  |  

In what may be his last speech as an SEC Commissioner, Daniel Gallagher addressed the US Chamber of Commerce and criticized parts of the SEC, and much of the new world order of regulatory over-sight.   Gallagher scorched Dodd-Frank as a grandiose plan that has increased the fragility of… Read More

August 4, 2015 @ 1:29 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

The Australian federal government’s proposed expansion of access to crowdfunding for businesses falls short of the hoped-for system, according to Yahoo Finance.  New draft guidelines issued by the Australian Treasury include increasing the amount companies are allowed to raise through crowdfunding to AUS $5 million,… Read More

August 3, 2015 @ 1:25 pm By JD Alois  |  

The United Kingdom has been very vocal, and aggressive, in courting financial firms and FinTech startups. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne wants the UK to be the world leader in developing innovative FinTech firms.  Osborne enjoys a partnership with his objective in Prime Minister… Read More

August 3, 2015 @ 8:37 am By JD Alois  |  

Crowdfund Insider reported last month on the US Department of Treasury’s interest in the fast growing Marketplace / Peer-to-Peer lending space. Treasury published a “Request for Information” (embedded below) seeking public comment to study the various business models and review “how the regulatory framework should… Read More

July 31, 2015 @ 4:38 pm By JD Alois  |  

Shewood (Woodie) Neiss, co-founder of Crowdfund Capital Advisors, joined the studios of CNBC today – a visit that coincided with a visit by former Congressman Eric Cantor who happened to have published an Op-Ed on crowdfunding today. Neiss spoke about Title II, accredited crowdfunding, and… Read More

July 31, 2015 @ 9:21 am By JD Alois  |  

Eric Cantor spent 13 years in the House of Representatives, the last three as House Majority Leader.  After losing a primary battle that surprised just about everyone, Cantor took a new day job as Vice Chairman of investment bank Moelis & Company. Even though Cantor is… Read More

July 30, 2015 @ 11:52 am By Erin Hobey  |  

This week Crowdfund Insider featured Chris Tyrell’s post “Crowdfunding is Impacting the Global Economy” and Rodrigo Niño’s post “Crowdfunding: From Impossible, to Improbable to Inevitable in less than 10 years,” James Tuckett, CEO of investUP adds to this exciting conversation below as he shares his insights in a release regarding… Read More

July 29, 2015 @ 8:30 am By Chris Tyrrell  |  

  Innovation means creating something that makes a process or product more efficient. The result can be a price reduction passed on to consumers in the short run, or an increase in the speed at which a business operates. Ultimately, innovation serves as the backbone… Read More

July 28, 2015 @ 9:04 am By Rodrigo Niño  |  

  It was not that long ago that the term “crowdfunding” entered into the common lexicon. Today we regularly watch, or read about, multi-million crowdfunding campaigns delivering the next big thing to supportive consumers who are willing to wait a bit longer to receive a perk,… Read More

July 27, 2015 @ 12:12 am By JD Alois  |  

  Last week Crowdfund Insider published a report on how the US Department of Treasury was investigating marketplace lending and the rising prominence of online, direct lenders. While the interest is certainly understandable, anytime the government shows up – industry gets concerned.  While Treasury stated their… Read More

July 24, 2015 @ 10:17 am By Karteek Patel  |  

Something strange is happening. It may be received wisdom that women tend to invest less than men, and that when they do they are more risk averse, but something is up. Something is changing and it’s changing in a pretty fundamental way that might mean… Read More

July 22, 2015 @ 8:08 am By JD Alois  |  

New forms of finance are poised to inalterably change the entire finance industry ecosystem we know today.  Investment crowdfunding, and the various iterations of alternative finance, are still in the early stages of its evolution.   The disruptive finance industry is measured in mere billions… Read More

July 21, 2015 @ 9:08 am By Therese Torris  |  

Alternativa.fr is an intriguing cross between an equity crowdfunding platform and an alternative exchange system which gives it something many crowdfunding platforms would like to have: a secondary market for trading SME’s private equity shares. Creating liquidity for private shares is an ongoing discussion in… Read More