As promised, today’s blog post looks at something different than Money for Goods Crowd Funding. Today I want to outline for you Loan to Equity (LtE) Crowd Funding (otherwise known as Hyper Funding) as a means of funding your business.
Loan to Equity (LtE) or Hyper Funding –
This form of Crowd Funding is based on equity ownership being given to contributors in exchange for their monetary investments. The JOBS Act of 2012 (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) enables small investors (up to 2,000 shareholders) to become “venture capitalists” of sorts in a more informal, low scale way.
- Loans – donors loan money to the entrepreneur, which is paid back later, generally with interest
- Equity – donors are basically given some amount of equity in the business that is raising the funds
Hyper Funding Sites –
AngelList: Where startups meet investors; where startups meet talent
Bolstr: We simplify the process of raising investment capital from your network and community with fair deal terms that work for you and your supporters.
ConfidentCrowd: ConfidentCrowd is an equity-based crowd funding portal whose sponsoring members consist exclusively of registered Broker-Dealers.
EquityShack: A crowd funding platform that allows you to invest in what you know and in what you care about; your community.
FundingLaunchPad : FundingLaunchpad.com is a product of Vim Funding, a Boulder, Colorado company dedicated to helping startups and small businesses successfully navigate the confusing world of fundraising via expert educational tools, a directory of vetted resources, and this platform.
Gambitious: Support independent game developers and publishers in attracting the funding they need to complete projects AND bring them to market.
Hedgeable: Hedgeable is changing the way Americans invest, one investor at a time. Join the revolution.
Initial Crowd Offering: Goals are to provide funds to our country’s starving small and emerging businesses, provide the opportunity for regular people to invest in emerging businesses, and provide a forum for our members to find and support their community.
Investfashion: An innovative and sustainable platform, geared towards uniting the general public and fashion lovers who want to be financially and emotionally linked to the development of a new generation of creative designers.
Lending Club: Lending Club is an online financial community that brings together creditworthy borrowers and savvy investors so that both can benefit financially. We replace the high cost and complexity of bank lending with a faster, smarter way to borrow and invest.
Microventures: MicroVentures is an investment bank for startups. We conduct due diligence on startups and then if approved we help them raise capital from angel investors.
ProjectPowerup: Focused on the idea that anyone with a new product or service would benefit from running a crowd funding presales campaign to prove that there are people interested in buying the product or service if it existed.
Return on Change: Our mission is to provide an online medium by which start-up companies and bright entrepreneurs will be able to pool capital through crowd sourcing, while creating a community of advice and collaboration.
TinyLightbulbs: The next step for crowd funded and independently funded products whether from startups or simply individuals with a vision; a marketplace for tomorrow’s biggest ideas
Wahooly At Wahooly, we’re making it possible for online influencers to invest in emerging businesses with social capital. At the same time, we’re helping to solve one of the biggest challenges that young companies face today — traction.
Zopa: Voted Moneywise’s ‘Most Trusted Personal Lender three years running, Zopa is licensed by the Office of Fair Trading and backed by the same investors that backed eBay, Betfair and Skype.
There is so much to digest and choose from. Later in the week, I’ll talk about a couple other hyper-funding sites and then also outline peer-to-peer lending…yet another option for funding your business.