Politics, Legal & Regulation

April 23, 2015 @ 5:12 pm By JD Alois  |  

Germany has passed its new investor safety law, one that was viewed with trepidation by the investment crowdfunding industry as it impinged on online platforms ability to raise funds, but the final rules appear to be less onerous than initially anticipated. Tamo Zwinge, CEO and… Read More

April 21, 2015 @ 11:39 pm By JD Alois  |  

April 15th was not only the dreaded federal tax deadline day, but it is also the date that Jackie Robinson played his first professional baseball game and the day Abe Lincoln died. It also happens to be the date (this year) that SEC Chair Mary Jo… Read More

April 21, 2015 @ 9:58 am By JD Alois  |  

The European IPO report recently published a report that was delivered to the European Commission as part of the discussion on the Capital Markets Union. Three associations came together as part of this IPO task force to create the document advocating change in the EU…. Read More

April 20, 2015 @ 6:16 pm By JD Alois  |  

Title IV of the JOBS Act has finally made it over to the Federal Register. According to protocol, the new exemption will become actionable 60 days after publication in the government journal.  This means Title IV, or Regulation A+ as it has become known, may… Read More

April 20, 2015 @ 2:32 pm By JD Alois  |  

The embedded video below is courtesy of the team at Engine.is, one of advocacy groups battling the issue of patent trolls.  Last week the FT highlighted one of the challenges with the debate as it contrasted the opposing perspectives of the tech industry with research… Read More

April 19, 2015 @ 10:54 pm By JD Alois  |  

FlyingV may be the largest crowdfunding platform in Asia today.  Based in Taiwan, the platform has led the space in Taiwan, and in many respects Asia general.  Crowdfund Insider interviewed Tim Cheng, CEO of FlyingV, late in 2014 to hear about his viewpoint on the crowdfunding space…. Read More

April 17, 2015 @ 8:00 am By JD Alois  |  

“Regulators should allow new firms to operate, generate data on the outcomes created by novel business models before writing new rules.” Larry Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton and Director of the National Economic Council under President Obama, delivered a rousing speech… Read More

April 16, 2015 @ 9:45 am By JD Alois  |  

In a world of growing governmental over-reach it is rare to find a regulator who wants to do less not more.  But it makes sense. Budgets are made, and funding allocated, based on predicted needs of tomorrow not the reality of last year. Legislators make rules… Read More

April 15, 2015 @ 2:07 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

With Governor John Hickenlooper recently signing the Colorado Crowdfunding Act into law, which will allow the state’s residents to be able to stock in local companies without becoming an accredited investor, Colorado’s Division of Securities Commissioner Gerald Rome shared key aspects of the new bill and what it… Read More

April 15, 2015 @ 8:28 am By Erin Hobey  |  

gamesGRABR, the social network for gaming, has successfully raised more than £450,000 in its second round of funding on the Crowdcube platform, smashing its initial £250,000 target by over 80% and attracting 221 investors, including the London Co-investment Fund. “We are so proud of this latest round of… Read More

April 15, 2015 @ 7:32 am By Richard Swart  |  

    I recently published a report with Mary Milner addressing how crowdfunding models can be used to address global challenges across multi-national networks.   What is fascinating is how rapidly the nature of conversations about crowdfunding is changing among top policy makers, corporate leaders and… Read More

April 14, 2015 @ 3:06 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Monday, Governor John Hickenlooper signed the Colorado Crowdfunding Act into law which will allow the state’s residents to be able to stock in local companies without becoming an accredited investor. Earlier this year, a drafted crowdfunding legislation for Colorado was presented that will facilitate crowdfunding by authorizing… Read More

April 12, 2015 @ 11:26 am By JD Alois  |  

The Securities Commission Malaysia has opened the application process for prospective investment crowdfunding platforms according to a statement from the regulatory entity. Malaysia has been one of the more proactive countries in the Asian region to push forward with researching the crowdfunding space and moving forward… Read More

April 11, 2015 @ 3:22 pm By JD Alois  |  

SEC Chair Mary Jo White opened up last weeks Investor Advisory Committee meeting with a brief welcome and recap of recent events. She first commented on the final rules for Reg A+ “which are intended to enhance the ability of small companies to raise capital”,… Read More

April 9, 2015 @ 4:19 pm By JD Alois  |  

According to Guan Jianzhong of Dagong Global, a company that monitors and rates peer to peer lending platforms, of the 1,587 p2p platforms it observes, 393 have been blacklisted and an additional 668 were given risk warnings – a staggering percentage of active peer lenders in… Read More

April 8, 2015 @ 1:41 pm By JD Alois  |  

As covered earlier this year, Arizona has moved forward with an intrastate crowdfunding bill that was signed into law last week.  After being voted on in both the house and senate, without a single negative vote or abstention, the bill was quickly signed by Governor Doug… Read More

April 6, 2015 @ 1:14 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Investor Advisory Committee is scheduled to meet at the offices of the SEC this week on Thursday, April 9th from 9:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.  The meeting will be webcast on the Commission’s website. The agenda, as distributed by the SEC, is published below. Agenda: April 09, 2015,… Read More

April 6, 2015 @ 11:03 am By JD Alois  |  

National Public Radio in Minneapolis has just published a brief perspective on equity crowdfunding drawing a comparison to rewards based platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, with the changing environment where individuals will be able to actually purchase equity in small firms. NPR reporters enlisted… Read More

April 6, 2015 @ 9:03 am By JD Alois  |  

  In 2014 OTC Markets claimed a record “exchange graduation year” with 83 companies “up-listing” from the OTC marketplaces to a NYSE or NASDAQ listing. OTC Markets also experienced a 92% increase in the number of US companies that qualified for their OTCQX Marketplace and now has over 660… Read More

April 5, 2015 @ 7:03 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) is sizing up the opportunity of investing in peer to peer loans following the lead of other global institutions. ISIF is a sovereign fund that was established in December of 2014 with a statutory mandate to invest on a commercial… Read More