Crowdfunding has become a popular way for startups to raise money, with over £200M raised in the UK in 2012. The roundtable discussion analyzed the current state and future of crowdfunding. Attendees predicted crowdfunding will continue growing and possibly raise £15BN annually in the future. Crowdfunding offers businesses greater independence than venture capital and helps startups boost their visibility and profile. While still early, crowdfunding is seen as democratizing investment by allowing more individuals to invest smaller amounts and spread risk. The "wisdom of the crowd" provides public scrutiny that can strengthen businesses.
The steps and strategy for startup companies to follow to raise funds for the new business. The full article is available at https://www.evus.com/blog/successful-crowdfunding-tips/
Crowd funding ICF will be an excellent way to raise the capital you need for your business or project. It will be a great way to introduce your project to the crowd.
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What's the recipe for success investing in the retail and consumer sectors? Join us for a live discussion and Q&A session with Andrew Heyer, whose investment portfolio includes brands like Jamba Juice, Celestial Seasonings and XpresSpa. He will join OurCrowd's Principal David Stark and Head of Investment Community Zack Miller for a lively discussion and Q&A session.
Presentation by Steve Carkner, Head of Innovation at Revision Military as part of the Business of IoT Workshop at IoT613 on Thursday, September 29, 2016.
Ventacy.com is a business platform that facilitates connections between entrepreneurs and investors. It aims to create a global business context where the exchange between business and financial assets can decrease transaction costs.
Scaling Social Entrepreneurship MIT Sloan January 2015Robert H. Hacker
These slides present the major themes in an IAP course at MIT Sloan, Scaling Social Entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurship is first defined, then the future direction of capitalism and social entrepreneurship is discussed. The SCALER Model is presented
Universal Crowd Funding provide you the platform in India to make your projects into any domain with creative ideas and Build a solo Moto for better tomorrow!!
Crowdfunding - A disruptive financial innovation - Implication for the Caribbean. A look at crowdfunding for the Caribbean and the implication for securities law
RocketHub Congressional Testimony - Regulation of CrowdfundingRocketHub
On June 26, 2012, The Congressional Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing on job creation and the Securities and Exchange Commission's efforts to implement the JOBS Act. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) chaired the hearing. RocketHub's CFO, Alon Hillel-Tuch, was invited to testify on the potential the "crowdfunding for equity" model holds for start-ups, job growth, and the US economy.
The steps and strategy for startup companies to follow to raise funds for the new business. The full article is available at https://www.evus.com/blog/successful-crowdfunding-tips/
Crowd funding ICF will be an excellent way to raise the capital you need for your business or project. It will be a great way to introduce your project to the crowd.
Recipe for Retail Sector Success: Q&A with Andrew Heyer, Jamba Juice Investor...OurCrowd
What's the recipe for success investing in the retail and consumer sectors? Join us for a live discussion and Q&A session with Andrew Heyer, whose investment portfolio includes brands like Jamba Juice, Celestial Seasonings and XpresSpa. He will join OurCrowd's Principal David Stark and Head of Investment Community Zack Miller for a lively discussion and Q&A session.
Presentation by Steve Carkner, Head of Innovation at Revision Military as part of the Business of IoT Workshop at IoT613 on Thursday, September 29, 2016.
Ventacy.com is a business platform that facilitates connections between entrepreneurs and investors. It aims to create a global business context where the exchange between business and financial assets can decrease transaction costs.
Scaling Social Entrepreneurship MIT Sloan January 2015Robert H. Hacker
These slides present the major themes in an IAP course at MIT Sloan, Scaling Social Entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurship is first defined, then the future direction of capitalism and social entrepreneurship is discussed. The SCALER Model is presented
Universal Crowd Funding provide you the platform in India to make your projects into any domain with creative ideas and Build a solo Moto for better tomorrow!!
Crowdfunding - A disruptive financial innovation - Implication for the Caribbean. A look at crowdfunding for the Caribbean and the implication for securities law
RocketHub Congressional Testimony - Regulation of CrowdfundingRocketHub
On June 26, 2012, The Congressional Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing on job creation and the Securities and Exchange Commission's efforts to implement the JOBS Act. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) chaired the hearing. RocketHub's CFO, Alon Hillel-Tuch, was invited to testify on the potential the "crowdfunding for equity" model holds for start-ups, job growth, and the US economy.
Bloomio releases today an insightful analysis on the state of equity crowdfunding; a deep dive into the industry, investigating drivers and pain points for retailer investors tapping into the venture capital arena.
The report has been developed in collaboration with a 2018 MBA class of IMD Business School and it is composed of industry analytics, qualitative and quantitative researches.
www.bloomio.com
Crowdfunding: Financing Your Small BusinessPatch of Land
Crowdfunding: Financing Your Small Business was a presentation given by Manolis Sfinarolakis, the Founder of Reality Crowd TV Media Corporation, at the University of Hartford.
In this interactive workshop, learn practical strategies for using Crowdfunding to finance your small business. We’ll review examples of companies that have successfully implemented campaigns as well as brainstorm ways for participants to use Crowdfunding as a financing resource. This workshop will benefit small businesses selling products and/or services, as well as non-profits.
Instructor: Manolis Sfinarolakis, Reality Crowd TV Media Corporation
Presentation at the Vaughan, Ontario, Canada Business Series with Panelists: Jim Turner, VP of Ontario Securities Commission, Christopher Charlesworth and Hivewire, Adam Spence, SVX
A Quick Guide to Venture Capital by Apogee Accelerator Groupsalesbuddy
Apogee Accelerator Group tells you what you need to know before seeking Venture Capital for your startup or small business.
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When startups need funding, venture capital is one option they might consider. Getting funding from a VC firm can offer certain advantages to new businesses that may not be able to get approved for traditional loans. Thanks to the rise of crowdfunding, it’s now becoming decidedly more mainstream.
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Crowdfunding for Women: The Capital Raising Equalizer is a presentation given by Reality Crowd TV Media Corporation to the University of Hartford Entrepreneurial Center for Women on 10/30/14.
Tech Cocktail_2012 startup accelerator reportEugene Kim
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Topics discussed include: Does location matter? Which programs are more hands-on? Which ones have the biggest networks? The report also includes a list of 70 accelerators around the country.
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Zachariah George shares his insights on what investors are looking for so that you can learn how to create a business that is going to get noticed.
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Crowdfunding and Startups: Why Angels & VC's Should Love CrowdfundingPatch of Land
Crowdfunding and Startups: Why Angels & VC's Should Love Crowdfunding was a presentation given by Manolis Sfinarolakis, the Founder of Reality Crowd TV Media Corporation, at MIT in front of Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors, and Startup Companies.
For Startups: Gives specific examples of why startups should considering using crowdfunding for their business.
For Venture Capitalists / Angels: Gives specific reasons of why venture capitalists / angels should see crowdfunding as a benefit to their investment plans.
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Digital Transformation and IT Strategy Toolkit and TemplatesAurelien Domont, MBA
This Digital Transformation and IT Strategy Toolkit was created by ex-McKinsey, Deloitte and BCG Management Consultants, after more than 5,000 hours of work. It is considered the world's best & most comprehensive Digital Transformation and IT Strategy Toolkit. It includes all the Frameworks, Best Practices & Templates required to successfully undertake the Digital Transformation of your organization and define a robust IT Strategy.
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It is crucial for the taxpayers to understand about the TDS Return Filing Due Date, so that they can fulfill your TDS obligations efficiently. Taxpayers can avoid penalties by sticking to the deadlines and by accurate filing of TDS. Timely filing of TDS will make sure about the availability of tax credits. You can also seek the professional guidance of experts like Legal Pillers for timely filing of the TDS Return.
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This insightful presentation is designed to equip entrepreneurs with the essential knowledge and tools needed to accurately value their businesses. Understanding business valuation is crucial for making informed decisions, whether you're seeking investment, planning to sell, or simply want to gauge your company's worth.
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"𝑩𝑬𝑮𝑼𝑵 𝑾𝑰𝑻𝑯 𝑻𝑱 𝑰𝑺 𝑯𝑨𝑳𝑭 𝑫𝑶𝑵𝑬"
𝐓𝐉 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐬 (𝐓𝐉 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬) is a professional event agency that includes experts in the event-organizing market in Vietnam, Korea, and ASEAN countries. We provide unlimited types of events from Music concerts, Fan meetings, and Culture festivals to Corporate events, Internal company events, Golf tournaments, MICE events, and Exhibitions.
𝐓𝐉 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐬 provides unlimited package services including such as Event organizing, Event planning, Event production, Manpower, PR marketing, Design 2D/3D, VIP protocols, Interpreter agency, etc.
Sports events - Golf competitions/billiards competitions/company sports events: dynamic and challenging
⭐ 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬:
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➢ SUPER JUNIOR-L.S.S. THE SHOW : Th3ee Guys in HO CHI MINH
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➢CHILDREN ART EXHIBITION 2024: BEYOND BARRIERS
➢ WOW K-Music Festival 2023
➢ Winner [CROSS] Tour in HCM
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➢ HCMC - Gyeongsangbuk-do Culture and Tourism Festival
➢ Korean Vietnam Partnership - Fair with LG
➢ Korean President visits Samsung Electronics R&D Center
➢ Vietnam Food Expo with Lotte Wellfood
"𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲, 𝐚 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐣𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐲. 𝐖𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬."
Implicitly or explicitly all competing businesses employ a strategy to select a mix
of marketing resources. Formulating such competitive strategies fundamentally
involves recognizing relationships between elements of the marketing mix (e.g.,
price and product quality), as well as assessing competitive and market conditions
(i.e., industry structure in the language of economics).
2. CROWDFUNDING - THE FUTURE? Presented by KPMG
Welcome to the first of our roundtable reports from Tech City News.
Our monthly roundtables cover topical issues that affect London’s growing technology sector.
Taking place at the Eight Club in Moorgate, they bring together thought leaders, startup founders,
investors and service providers for an informal discussion.
Recently British-based Crowdcube became the first equity-based platform in the world to raise over
£10m. Crowdfunding continues to be one of our most important areas of coverage.
In this report we’ll outline the state of the industry, demystify some of the complexities and reveal
the attendee’s predictions for the future.
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ROUNDTABLE ATTENDEES
Tom Davies – Seedrs
Peter Behrens – RateSetter
Luke Lang – Crowdcube
Nick Moules – Rebuildingsociety.com
Emma Watkinson – Founder of Silkfred.com
John Williams, Kuber Ventures
Tim Kay – KPMG High Growth Technology
Group
Simon Dixon – Banktothefuture.com
David Penston - Assetz Capital Group
Rob Symington – Escape the City
Alex Wood - Tech City News
Sarah Davison - EveryInvestor
3. WHAT IS CROWDFUNDING?
Crowdfunding has become one of the hottest topics for startups looking to raise investment. Some
of the industry believe it could be seen as a potential savior from bank lending.
According to recent a report by Nesta, £200m was raised through crowdfunding in 2012 and they
believe it could raise as much as £15bn per year in the future.
Once, investing was the preserve of the top 1% of the country – individuals with high wealth and
security. Crowdfunding allows potential investors to spend less money and spread the risk more
widely. It means the ‘mass affluent’ – the top 20% of the country in professions including finance,
medicine or law – can start to invest in fast growing new businesses.
Many investors can also benefit from tax relief on their crowdfunding investments through the
government’s SEIS scheme.
Crowdfunding is seen as an increasingly attractive, democratic option of funding. Supporters of the
sector point to the ‘wisdom of the crowd’.
The platforms also give young startups a way to boost their profile and visibility to both potential
investors and customers. The large number of people that will see, research and invest in a
business means the startup will likely benefit from more publicity and greater scrutiny. This can be
invaluable for a fledgling business.
WHO USES CROWDFUNDING?
Many of the most visible types of companies applying for crowdfunding have come from the
consumer tech sector, making use of well known platforms including Kickstarter and IndieGoGo.
In the past 12 months, the scope of companies looking towards crowdfunding has widened. Usually
they are at an early stage, looking for very large sums of money, and crowdfunding cannot usually
provide this, nor are crowdfunding investors as interested in the businesses.
The two sectors that dominate and tend to succeed on Crowdcube, one crowdfunding platform, are
tech-online companies and food and drink businesses. This may well be a result of the ‘pleasure’
factor that comes from investing in something you like and something that’s easy to understand.
Attendees at the roundtable agreed it’s currently unusual to see businesses in Fintech apply for
crowdfunding – although this may be a result of the type of investment many Fintech startups
need.
The table said the ‘personal’ and ‘community’ elements of crowdfunding will often lead businesses
that interest investors on a more basic level to be more successful.
Luke Lang from Crowdcube told us that in terms of funding, around 20% of the businesses on the
platform are ‘startup’ – at the pre-revenue stage.
Around 50% are early stage – with some momentum already behind the business and the
remainder are established businesses looking for finance to grow.
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4. WHY CHOOSE CROWDFUNDING?
The table agreed the attitude that crowdfunding is a ‘last resort’ for investment is true in the
current climate, but that this will change. As the sector grows and gains greater traction, it will
become the new investment model business turn to.
It was felt there are not enough angel investors in the UK ‘to go around’, and so crowdfunding will
become an increasingly necessary part of finding investment for businesses.
Two of the greatest perceptions of crowdfunding are that it’s a last resort, or that it’s easy to secure.
This needs to change – and isn’t true. Anecdotal experiences from around the table shed light on an
attitude from startups that they will secure angel funding easily and that money is readily available.
In time, these businesses find this isn’t the case, and turn to crowdfunding - realising the benefits
of the sector.
One of the greatest benefits comes from the public nature of the investment process. It means the
application alone gets the product known and gets people talking about the business.
Crowdfunding can act as a PR exercise as well as an investment platform.
Emma Watkinson is the founder of Silkfred.com, a fashion retailing platform. Speaking as a startup
now pitching for crowdfunding, she confirmed she didn’t feel it was a last resort. Silkfred was
offered finance from a mainstream bank, but turned it down. Emma believes that the ethos of
Silkfred – helping people sell their products, coupled with its community values – lends itself to
crowdfunding.
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5. There is a ‘human angle’ that fits with the general consensus that crowdfunding is more personal
than traditional investment.
“[Crowdfunding is] that emotional connection of ‘well I really like what you’re doing, it’s a great
enterprise and I want to get behind you and support you because I think you’re onto something’”.
Emma Watkinson
Escape the City is another startup that turned down conventional funding. Choosing crowdfunding
over venture capital was a matter of control and independence Rob Symington of Escape the City
told us.
The aims and goals needed to satisfy a venture capitalist were perhaps too ambitious and a
business may find itself promising too much. Crowdfunding offers independence and setting a
more realistic level of growth.
EARLY DAYS
Crowdfunding’s relative youth means that we are still in unchartered waters.
It’s too early to point to any instances of disputes between investors and businesses or similar
concerns, but the table agreed that anything that happens in the ‘normal’ financial world will likely
happen in the crowdfunding sector too.
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6. WISDOM OF THE CROWD
One of the great advantages of crowdfunding is that it makes a startup ‘raise its game’ according to
the group.
The table agreed that a business that goes through the crowdfunding process comes out stronger
because of the questions asked of it and the scrutiny it is put under. As opposed to one solitary
angel investor, a business seeking crowdfunding will likely be put under the spotlight by finance,
technology and marketing experts in the course of the application.
By taking investment into the public realm, the table felt the examination is more diverse and more
probing.
Such an example can be found when a company didn’t realise that its brand name was already
registered to another business. The research by potential investors brought this to light and led the
company to rectify the oversight.
The table also agreed that just because a startup doesn’t succeed in gaining crowdfunding, that is
not to say the business isn’t viable. The investors may not be on platform, or it simply wasn’t the
right time.
The notion of the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ to scrutinize was tempered by a discussion of whose
responsibility it is to check the facts and confirm the claims of a startup looking for crowdfunding.
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7. Seedrs told us they check every part of a businesses proposal line by line, making sure everything is
accurate. Others argued that it is the responsibility of the investor to take their own due diligence.
There was no agreement on whether the platform itself should have to investigate and confirm the
business’s claims.
KEEPING IN TOUCH
For businesses, one of the biggest problems can be communicating and engaging with investors
after successful funding. It may be the case that investors are interested in the big updates, but less
bothered by the smaller, day-to-day running.
The platforms themselves are split on whether to remain in contact following successful funding.
Many are in touch with businesses afterwards– often just to see how they’re getting on and
improving – sometimes just for press purposes.
Luke Lang from Crowdcube said there was no obligation to stay in contact, because shareholders
want direct and personal relationships with their businesses. For Crowdcube, the relationship with
the platform ends at funding, though Luke did explain they intend to launch a portal to help
investors keeps updated on businesses they’ve funded.
Seedrs have a tighter framework with startups that have successfully secured funding. Each
business is expected to give quarterly updates the platform can then communicate onwards. Tom
Davies said this was important for a startup – as by looking after early stage investors and keeping
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8. them engaged, they will be more likely to reinvest. There is also the advantage of investors acting as
ongoing ‘mentors’ to the businesses in which they’ve invested.
THE FUTURE
The table agreed that crowdfunding will only become more popular, and see far more money
invested within the next 12 months. They believed there is a real opportunity for crowdfunding to
expand and ‘democratise’ the investment market.
A warning was made. Banks had thrown away a lot of credibility during the financial crash and the
same mistakes need to be avoided by the crowdfunding sector. As long as the crowdfunding sector
can ‘keep its nose clean’ it will succeed. The sector needs to ‘act in a transparent, fair and
trustworthy manner’ in the future.
While the table may not be able to agree wholeheartedly on the ‘wisdom of the crowd’, they all
believe crowdfunding will continue to grow in the near future.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT CROWDFUNDING
Tech City News regularly covers the latest developments in crowdfunding and investments. Click
here to access a dedicated section.
INTERESTED IN ATTENDING OR HOSTING A FUTURE ROUNDTABLE?
We hold roundtables every month on topics including immigration law, cloud computing,
recruitment and connectivity. We’re always interested in hosting new debates, to find out more
contact Becky Golland: becky@techcitynews.com or call 0208 133 5391.
KPMG IN TECH CITY
KPMG is one of the largest professional services firms in the world with offices in 152 countries.
The latest of their UK offices opened in Shoreditch to support early stage and high growth
technology firms across the UK. From tax guidance, international structuring, employee rewards
to cracking the corporate market, the dedicated team, with its ability to draw on the experience and
expertise of the global KPMG network aims to support from concept to world-class company.
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