Grow VC BroadcastAsia 2013

How Can Crowd Sourcing and Funding Work in Asia?
Jouko Ahvenainen / June 19, 2013
Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
Grow VC Group ++
www.growvc.com ++
@growvc ++
Innovating Investing ++
Copyrights © Grow VC Group 2013

Jouko Ahvenainen ++
•  Serial-entrepreneur and startup
investments
•  Mobile, media, advertising and
data analytics startups
•  Worked in Asia, Europe and the
US
•  Columnist at Telecom Asia
•  Grow VC Group Founder and
Chairman
•  uk.linkedin.com/in/joukoahvenainen/

Grow VC Group ++

•  2009 Grow VC Company was created
o  to build #1 global equity crowdfunding online platform under
www.growvc.com domain
•  2010 growvc.com service was launched
o  pioneer in equity crowdfunding
•  2011 Company expanded
o  team of 50+ people spread across the globe
o  develop the business globally within the equity crowdfunding
market segment.
o  online platform was developed extensively to meet global and
local startup ecosystem requirements and startup lifecycle
thinking
Group History ++

•  2012 Grow VC to Grow VC Group
o  Grow VC Networks model was launched as public BETA.
o  along with the JOBS Act passing in the US adding clarity to
emerging market, a bigger strategy switch was done to add
focus on all of the company activities
o  the company was restructured to Grow VC Group with several
different business units, companies and operational teams
•  2013 Acting as Grow VC Group with independent units
o  all units focus on executing their own business in their
specific business area
o  Grow VC Group reputation and synergies between units are
utilized where relevant
Group History ++

Finance and Services Infrastructure Portfolio
Entities ++

Grow VC Group
Strategic partnerships and group
investment portfolio management
www.growvcgroup.com
Grow Advisors
Consulting and investment bank type
services for crowdfunding ecosystem
www.growadvisors.com
Mutual Seed Fund
Crowdfunding co-investment fund,
works with many crowdfunding
services www.mutualseedfund.com
Crowd Valley
Turn key solution to start
crowdfunding for any assets, equity or
lending www.crowdvalley.com
growvc.com
Startup ecosystem platform and
leading global marketplace to invest
money or work in early phase startups
www.growvc.com
ChangeLab23
Design & build digital product, where
customer experience is at the heart
www.changelab23.com
Core Businesses 2013 ++

Full solution: investment community, tools, payments,
backoffice and reporting – set up in a minute
3rd Parties can start crowd funding p2p investment
market place on our platform ++

§  The team has invested three years into the crowdfunding industry
globally, and positioned itself in the ecosystem globally "
§  The team has been part of the US Delegation in Transatlantic Economic
Forum, had cooperation with Singapore Government Investment
Company, "
§  UK Trade and Investment, and is a founding member of Crowdfunding
Regulatory Intermediary Association (CFIRA), Crowdfunding
Professional Association (CFPA), National Crowdfunding Association
(NLCFA), European Crowdfunding Network, cooperation with Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Financial Industry Regulatory
Authority (FINRA) "
§  We have a jumpstart on any direct competition with 400+ existing
business customers, ranging from small communities to large networks
of communities like the World Bank "
Building Crowd Funding Globally ++

Portfolio samples: Lost in Translations Inc. ++
•  Easy to use tool to make and
maintain language versions
of web services and mobile
apps
•  Different services levels for
translations, including
crowd sourcing
•  Silicon Valley based
company, with strong
customer demand globally,
including Asia
•  Enable any company to
offer their services easily
in any language
•  www.lostintranslations.com

Portfolio sample: Project Papillon ++
•  Fashion and design brand
with a social purpose
•  A part of design and
manufacturing in prisons
•  Social aspect: organizes
art therapy and meaningful
work for prisoners, and
money to support inmates
to integrate back to the
society after a prison
•  A brand with a real story
and meaning
•  Clothes and accessories
for men and women

Engage Crowd ++

Read & write, participatory, conversational:
markets are conversations, marketing is a
conversation, business is a social science!
A new language:

Co-creation + networked
economics + communities of
interest can be and are,
proven & powerful platforms
and processes to stimulate
innovation and commerce

Crowdsourcing is, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary,
the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by
soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and
especially from an online community, rather than from traditional
employees or suppliers.
Crowd funding or crowdfunding (alternately crowd financing, equity
crowdfunding, or hyper funding) explains the collective effort of
individuals who network and pool their money, usually via the
Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations.
Crowdfunding is used in support of a wide variety of activities,
including disaster relief, citizen journalism, support of artists by
fans, political campaigns, startup company funding, motion
picture promotion, free software development, inventions
development, scientific research, and civic projects.
Source: Wikipedia

New finance regulation ++

Peer-to-peer
Less fat middle-men

A
cultural
challenge
…for corporates
…for governments
…for human beings

To resist will
lead to
ﬁnancial and
organizational
exhaustion

global
transparent
open
collaborative
efficient
scalable

Crowd & Traditional Models ++

Crowd sourcing with other sourcing ++
Self-service
Make your own
translations, but
tools to make it easy
Machine
Translation
Use 3rd party
machine translation
Crowd sourcing
Crowd translates
texts and tools to
manage the process
Professional
translators
Tools to send to pro
translators and let
them to maintain
Crowd sourcing can work with other models to make sourcing, it can
be one option, or it can e.g. work together with professional sources
to optimize value for money
Sourcing from 3rd parties

Companies make sourcing and get investments all the time: the
question is how to get crowd involved to this and develop models to
make the sourcing and investing market more effective
Nothing new but totally new ++
Crowd
funding 1
Market
Place
P2P
Lending
Companies /
Assets
Market Places Investors / resources

Co-investment and co-lending ++
1. Funding
round or loan
application
•  A company opens a funding round or
apply a loan
2. Crowd
funding or
p2p lending
•  Crowd, i.e. ordinary people, can
offer an investment or loan, and
if enough money available, the
company gets money
3. Co-
investment or
co-lending
• A bank or investment
company can join to a deal,
i.e. make co-investment or
participate the loan

Grow VC Models ++

1. Direct investments
o  An investor invest directly in a company, become a shareholder,
company can have hundreds of small shareholders
2. Investments through an instrument
o  An investor can select a company he/she invest in, but the actual
investment is done by an investment company that aggregate all
investments together, the investment company is the shareholder
3. Crowd funding of investment instruments
o  Crowd funding model is used to raise capital in a fund and the fund
makes investments
4. Co-investment models
o  Different models to make co-investments with crowdfunding
Investment models and crowd funding ++

•  Crowd funding, crowd sourcing and peer-to-peer
investing is here to stay
•  P2P is not to replace all other models or solution for
needs
•  It is crucial to build an ecosystem where different
investment and sourcing models work better together,
including p2p – new solutions are needed
•  P2P is not only for startup, it will have influence on all
kind of companies and also in the whole finance sector
Future ++

“You don’t have to be
Steve Jobs, to be
an entrepreneur”

”You don’t have to be
Bill Gates to be
an investor”

”Everyone must start
somewhere”

Jouko Ahvenainen
jouko@growvc.com
+44 7889 833 165 (UK)
+1 646 363 6664 (US)
+852 8120 7854 (HK)
Grow VC Group ++
www.growvc.com ++
@growvc ++
Slideshare: Grow VC
Innovating
Investing

Grow VC BroadcastAsia 2013

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