August News Roundup

August News Roundup

It’s important for Equitise, as the Trans-Tasman crowdfunding platform, to keep abreast of the latest international developments in the equity crowdfunding realm. 

The industry boom of 2016 means there has been no shortage of headlines covering equity crowdfunding news, and we’ve curated the main ones from the last month for your reading pleasure. 

From government panels on crowdfunding to another crowdfunding exit, read on to discover the most important industry news.

Big Brother knows best: government panels on Fintech

From Sweden to Singapore, governments are appointing panels to analyse the status of the Fintech industry in their respective countries. The Swedish Commission for investigating the equity crowdfunding industry was announced by by Finance Minister Per Bolund as essential to finding innovative solutions to fund emerging companies. In Singapore, the Monetary Authority of Singapore has developed a panel to monitor global Fintech developments. A broad array of leaders from within the Fintech industry have combined to engage in panel discussions, under their moniker of the International Technology Advisory Panel.

Another Crowdfunded Exit

As successful exits become a recurring trend for crowdfunding companies, OurCrowd has just announced its seventh successful exit.  Cyber-security company Fireblade was acquired by Stackpath for around $20 million, in exciting news for the Tel Aviv based firm. 

To assist in the number of exits OurCrowd is witnessing, they have created the position of Chief Exit Officer, which is a first for the crowdfunding industry. This is evidence of the possibilities of liquidity for investors with skin in the crowdfunding game.

Crowdfunding Regulation update – the state of play in Taiwan

As New Zealand represents something of a model for liberal crowdfunding regulation, it’s always interesting to see how other countries model their own legislation. Taiwan, which has three operational equity crowdfunding platforms, amended its regulations in January this year. The amendments affected three key operational areas – the annual fundraising amount, the type of security and the limitation of advertisement. Their annual fundraising amount has doubled, the securities offered are no longer limited to the company’s common stock (allowing preferred stock without debt) and platforms may now advertise to promote companies conducting raises on their platforms.

Beauhurst Report – key takeaways

Industry watchdog Beauhurst has unveiled its latest report on the equity crowdfunding market, surveying the impact of the Brexit on the alternative finance industry. Although it notes that the UK’s EU split may affect its status as a beneficiary of the European Investment Fund’s £2.3 billion which is dedicated to SMEs, it noted that the deal size in the last 6 months has increased. Notably, Scotland experienced a 220% increase in growth owing to large deals, although deals in London dropped by 28%. 

VC and PE was the number one active investor type with equity crowdfunding coming in second. For H1 2016, our friends at Seedrs were ranked the number one in the UK for funded deals – the company has funded 380 deals since 2012. As ever, the report offers valuable and up-to-date insights into the industry.

That’s all for this month’s news roundup, be sure to check in every few days for the state-of-play from the equity crowdfunding industry.

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