Crowdfunding – Asset Classes
and Crowd Driven Models
Markus Lampinen
October 27, 2012
CrowdFuture

Background – Grow VC
 Marketplace for startup funding
 Founded 2009
 “Everyone Funding Startups”
– 2011 - $25M
– 4000+ startups
– 190+ countries
– Several raised rounds, first exits
 Big idea? To democratize startup funding

The Network Society: Networks
cause a comprehensive
restructuring of society at
large, they are breaking old
models of organization.

Crowdfunding is ..
 Small money, large crowd
 No gatekeepers, anyone can invest

WhyCrowdfunding?
 Same access to information
 Efficient and effective framework via direct participation
 New customer audiences
 Access to new asset classes
.. no one is as smart as everyone?

Securities Crowdfunding
 Equity investments
 Interest bearing loans
 Other models
 One model DOES NOT fit all cases

Who benefits?
 VC‟s and Angels get
– More liquidity
– More information
– More validation and filtering by „the crowd‟
 Ordinary people
– Get more equal opportunities and access
 Entrepreneurs
– Engaged investors and validation

Summary: Grow VC Group
 Grow VC Groups pioneers funding models for companies globally
 The Group focuses especially to offer crowd based marketplace and
community technology, and investment products that can work with
or be used by 3rdparties
 Crowd Valley offers platform and back office functions for
crowdfunding services
– Already over 400 customer platforms in the network
– #1 equity crowdfundingplatform in the world
 Mutual Seed Fund offers a crowdfunding co-investment service
 Grow Advisors, ChangeLab23 and Grow Global Program offer
services to build startups globally
8

Grow VC Group – growvcgroup.com
Finance and Services Portfolio
Infrastructure
Samples:

Over 16,500 investors
Over 4,300 startups
Users from 200 countries
Almost $35 Million investment money
10% monthly growth
Dozens of investments, millions of money
Over 400 3rd party crowdfunding
networks on the platform
The most global market place for equity
10

Equity Investments Are Just The Start
US statistics (Bureau of Economic Analysis, Feb 2010)
The “professional investor” numbers
– VC Market: $12.4B
– Angel Investor market: $23B
• 100 – 300K active angels
• Only a few hundred in Silicon Valley
The “ordinary people” market
– “Informal investor market”: $162B
– Household savings: $8000B+ and rising..

Crowdfunding is bigger than funding
the next Facebook or Google

Trust networks
challenge outmoded
models of control

Trust and Micro loans

People invest in..
 What they know and trust
 Who they know and trust
 What does it mean for crowdfunding?

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

Connected Ecosystem is Needed

Connected Local Ecosystems
• One BIG Kickstarter?
• There is a reason the financial market is de-centralized
with specialized brokers, marketplaces and exchanges
• Local operators like incubators, angel networks, brokers
add credibility and transparency
• Who do you trust?
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Crowdfunding Ecosystem
 It‟s important to build the framework for crowdfunding
together with other investment models
– Get other investors and money to participate
– Help manage investments
– Continuity for next funding rounds
 Investors can also offer other value
 There can be co-investment models, passive or active
 It is important to build co-operation with business
angels, VC‟s, incubators and others in the ecosystem
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Crowdfunding is Diverse
 Crowdfunding is not only for non-accredited investors
or for equity investments
 Crowdfunding for institutional investors, high net worth
individuals, accredited investors…
 Crowdfunding for equity, loans, real estate, specific
properties or assets...

Case: Oil & Gas
 Oil and Gas properties in the US
 Crowdfunding for institutional investors, possibility to
allow “normal people” to participate in the future
 Co-investments with mezzanine fund
 Typical deal $8M - $20M

Case: Real Estate
 Real estate is a known asset class, suffers from high
entry costs and low liquidity
 Crowdfunding for accredited investors, possibility to
allow “normal people” to participate in the future
 More efficiency and transparency in the process

Case: Grassroots Ecosystem
 Joint effort between university incubator, angel
network and early stage fund
 Direct participation via crowdfunding to allow
grassroots to reinforce itself
 Benchmarking “entrepreneurial ecosystem”

WE HAVE A DREAM:
moreequal opportunities,
wherecompanies
and investorsunite
to accelerate innovation

Future
• Crowdfunding is here to stay, equity crowdfunding is just
starting to grow
• Crowdfunding does not replace other models or solution for
needs, it needs to work with the entire ecosystem
• A working, connected ecosystem is needed: It‟s crucial to
build an ecosystem where different stakeholders and
investment models work together, including crowdfunding
• Crowdfunding is not only for startup funding, it will have an
impact on the whole finance sector and make it more
effective
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Thank You
Markus Lampinen
CEO / Crowd Valley Inc
+1 646 801 4054 (US)
markus@crowdvalley.com
845 Third Avenue, New York
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