A petition (‘Petition for Rulemaking: Exempt securities offerings up to 100,000 with 100 maximum per investor from registration‘) submitted last July by the Sustainable Economies Law Center to the SEC, aims to exempt securities offerings of up to 100,000 US$ with a limit of 100 US$ per investor. If a new rule granting exemption would be issued by the SEC, this could substantially lower the hurdles for peer-to-peer equity platforms in the US.
With the introduction of p2p lending some lenders wrote that the concept enabled everyone to feel as banker.
Now, newly launched Crowdcube.com enables any UK resident to feel as venture capitalist for a financial commitment as low as 10 GBP. Investors can browse pitches which usually include business plans and financial projections and sometimes even video pitches.
In return for the investment, investors get shares of the company. For example entrepreneur Daniel Vinson wants to raise 50,000 GBP. He is offering 49% equity in return, meaning investors roughly get 1% shares in return for 1,000 GBP investment. So far 11 investors have pledged 1,200 GBP.
There are 6 entrepreneurs pitching for funding at the moment. Interested investors can answer questions and for some businesses a lively discussion has started.
Crowdcube, founded by Darren Westlake and Luke Lang, launched 2 weeks ago. Crowdcube’s business model is to offer a platform to match entrepreneurs with peer investors and business angels. Costs for entrepreneurs are a success fee of 5% of the funding amount plus legal fees of 1750 GBP for completion of each company investment. For a limited period they are waiving the 250 GBP listing fee to register as an entrepreneur and add a pitch.
Investors are charged a processing fee by Crowdcube for each transaction equal to the sum of 0.20 GBP plus 4% of the value of the transaction.Continue reading →
Kickstarter.com is a new crowdfunding platform where anybody can pledge money to support projects of artists, designers, filmmakers, inventors etc.
The artist describes his project and offers rewards based on the amount that is to be pledged. E.g. one example is the ‘Kicey to Iceland‘ project. Photographer Laura Kicey wants to make a 5 day trip to Iceland in June to take photographs in the northwestern fjords. She seeks sponsors for the amount of 350 US$. 15 backers have pledged money so far. They will be rewarded for their support by prints of the taken photographs.
Payment processing is handled by Amazon Payments. Other current projects include:
German startup Valuna.de wants to help companies to raise capital through loans from private investors without a bank. The first offer is by printing service QuickPrinter which offers 15 percent interest for a 7 year 100,000 Euro loan. Minimum amount for investors is 100 Euro. The platform Valuna offers marketing, but does not handle the financial transactions which are conducted directly between the lenders and the company. More information in an detailed article on the Valuna launch(German language).
Spanish startup Partizipa.com does p2c lending instead of p2p lending. Individual investors can lend money together to fund a company. Currently a solar power plant in Andalucia is listed for funding. The amount to be raised is 285,000 Euro. Minimum individual investment is 5,000 Euro. The project advertises 13.85% ROI.
Earlier investors bought land in Bulgaria through Partizipa.
I did a short interview with Agustín Cárdenas, one of the founders of Partizipa:
P2P-Banking.com: Can you please describe Partizipa?
Agustín Cárdenas: Currently, we are offering P2C (person to company) lending, making it possible to invest small sums of money in big businesses. At the moment we are still developing the frame-work for P2P lending, and we hope we will be able to offer it sometime later this year. As of now, we cannot provide any further details. Our main aim is to build a community in which any given member presents a new idea for a business to the others for it to be enriched, completed and financed. If the business is successful, then every investor will share the profits according to his/her investment.
P2P-Banking.com: Who can invest? Only residents of Spain, or anybody?
Agustín Cárdenas: The only prerequisite to become a member of the community is to have a bank account in Spain under his/her name.
P2P-Banking.com: Does Partizipa administer and transfer the funds, or does it just make contact between investor and business opportunity and both handle the contract and the payment themselves?
Agustín Cárdenas: If the business is created by us, then it is us who manage the entire process up until the moment of completion and the sharing of profits. In any other case, even though we supervise all the process, we only put in contact the business originator and the investors.
P2P-Banking.com: When did you start the company?
Agustín Cárdenas: We are an extraordinarily young company. We have been operating only since September 2007. So far, our registered users have financed projects valued at 2.3 million Euro.
