Trends, facts & figures — howard.libby — Gmail. Why crowdfunding appeals to the Middle East. The New York Times thinks only the rich should profit from crowdfunding. When Facebook purchased Oculus VR for $2 billion last month, many people got rich — just not the funders that helped get them to that purchase price.

The company, a mere 18 months old, got its market validation from a Kickstarter campaign. 9,500 contributors ponied up $2.4 million to preorder its virtual reality gizmo — another shining example of the power of the crowd to back initiatives they believe in. Yet none of these backers received a penny from the acquisition, because their support was in the form of donations and not investment. Above: Aaron Davies, head of developer relations at Oculus. Image Credit: Dean Takahashi Even though President Obama signed equity crowdfunding into law two years ago, which would have allowed these backers to own equity in Oculus and potentially profit handsomely, the law has yet to “go live” and permit average Americans from participating. Conserve Equity with Royalty-Based Crowdfunding. Although many of our posts focus on rewards and equity crowdfunding, much of the information applies to the industry as a whole.

With this in mind, let’s introduce another form of crowdfunding, one currently tied-up in JOBS act regulations but is expected to have a huge impact on the startup climate. As a branch of equity crowdfunding, royalty-based crowdfunding offers investors the chance to earn a percentage of a project’s future revenues (royalties). How many royalties an investor receives depends on a variety of factors — primarily the investment size — but the main idea is that startups mustn’t part with equity or acquire debt in order to raise capital. Isolation: a problem for current and future African entrepreneurs. Talking with African entrepreneurs, one of the recurring topics is the difficulty of sufficient funding in seed- or early-stage with internationally acknowledged and well-connected investors.

The recently born African digital ecosystem has only a few established venture capital funds, and even these funds usually have limited available capital with a minimal international network. Understandably, this limited available capital results in a serious constraint in the later stages of funding (Series A and Series B) for any aspiring start-up. The lack of the investors’ international network also means that the knowledge transfer between Africa and the developed tech communities (US, Europe and Asia) is minimal.

The Dynamics of Crowdfunding: An Exploratory Study by Ethan R. Mollick. University of Pennsylvania — Wharton School June 26, 2013 Journal of Business Venturing, Volume 29, Issue 1, January 2014, Pages 1–16 Abstract: Crowdfunding allows founders of for-profit, artistic, and cultural ventures to fund their efforts by drawing on relatively small contributions from a relatively large number of individuals using the internet, without standard financial intermediaries. Drawing on a dataset of over 48,500 projects with combined funding over $237M, this paper offers a description of the underlying dynamics of success and failure among crowdfunded ventures.

It suggests that personal networks and underlying project quality are associated with the success of crowdfunding efforts, and that geography is related to both the type of projects proposed and successful fundraising. Uncovering hidden investment opportunities in Africa. Private equity is set to grow rapidly across Africa.

Continent-wide demand for capital should increase by 8 percent a year between now and 2018. Annual growth could reach 20 percent in resource-rich Angola and nine other countries, and $50 billion in total investment is possible over the next decade. But there will be wide variations by country and industry, and the supply of capital doesn’t seem to match the growing demand. Large international investors often prefer proven investment managers, sizable investments, and diversification across Africa. Meet the Team — ThinCats.com. ThinCats is currently operated by a relatively small team.

For a multi-million pound turnover business this may seem odd, especially when compared with some of the other P2P platforms. It must be remembered, however, that we subcontract all the client account management and loan collections to the team at Street UK, software development work to Rolonews and the vetting of loan applications to our growing network of ‘sponsors’. In practice this more than trebles the number of people actually working on ThinCats and provides us with resilient systems, support staff and wide geographic coverage. Coleman Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership. Thursday, October 17th [Blum Hall, PLaza Level, UC BERkeley] 12:00pm-1:00pm Registration & Welcome Luncheon 1:00PM-2:15PM International Perspectives on CrowdFunding ➢ Dr.

Tarik Yousef, CEO, Silatech ➢ Dr. Shehab Marzban, Shekra.com ➢ Dr. New Equity Crowdfunding Rules Could Change Startup Game. Crowdfunding donors may soon be getting a perk with a bit more upside in exchange for their cash.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday put forward rules that would help guide a new investment strategy known as equity crowdfunding. Regular investors, meaning most Americans over the age of 18, may soon be able to invest in startups via crowdfunding in exchange for company equity. Previously, only wealthy investors (known as accredited investors) were able to invest in startups in exchange for equity. The new rules would allow startups to raise up to $1 million in a 12-month period from donors online. The Traditional Esusu potential has been unlocked for Nigerians. The Esusu potential has been locked away for many decades, says Peter Ojo CEO VTNETWORK LIMITED VCASH, a licensed mobile payment service in Nigeria announced today it has automated the Esusu program known as Contribution Club in the English language.

The cooperatives who have evaluated it believe this is a dream come true as it will help them manage all the complexities of their contribution scheme. The system can be licensed by any cooperative, VCASH customers and Agents to manage their contribution scheme and it’s totally FREE. The Esusu, Esisi or Adashi as known among the Yorubas, Igbos and Hausas respectively, is an age old informal traditional way of meeting financial needs by people who are unable to get loans from traditional banks. Esusu and savings. I tried for several months to get a loan from a bank.

The Road to Crowdfunding Hell — Daniel Isenberg. Crowdfunding of equity capital for startups is one of a handful of jewels in the crown of the JOBS Act that swept through the House and Senate in a rare and refreshing show of bipartisanship, and was signed into law by President Obama April 5, 2012.

But the crowdfunding jewel is fool’s gold, and is inherently incapable of harnessing “people-to-people power” and the “wisdom of crowds” to “democratize access to capital for entrepreneurs” in order to “create wealth and make things happen,” as crowdfunding sites publicly proclaim. As a savvy tech entrepreneur told me the other day, “I love crowdfunding: it is cheap money for me. I know it is not good for the investors.” That is the problem: crowdfunding will at best be good only for the entrepreneurs and middlemen, paid for by unwitting consumers who simply cannot know enough about the highly risky ventures or the highly complex venture investing process to make informed investment decisions. Crowdnetic Builds a Mission Control for Crowdfunding — BizSpark Group Blog. The current crowdfinancing environment got a huge kick of momentum earlier this Monday when the general solicitation rules for startups changed to allow them to ask publicly for money. The problem in this swarm of crowdfinancing options?

Africa’s crowdfunding context: starting up startups the African way. “Crowdfunding is the democratization of [funding] for startups,” says founder of Thundafund Patrick Schofield. People get the opportunity to directly vote with their wallets for the services or products they want. Though massively popular and hyped-up by the media in the US and Western Europe, where does it leave Africa? How has the continent adopted its philosophy to its own advantage, and is it successful?

Starting up startups the African way. Business Exit Strategy. Got One? When you start a new business, or as you develop strategies and plans to grow your existing business, you need to think about your business exit strategy. Are you trying to establish a lifestyle business that generates income without plans to sell it in the future, or are you building equity in a business that you may want to transform into cash?

Depending on your goals, the type of business you choose and the way you grow it should be aligned with your end-game objectives. If, one day, you plan to exit your business and transform your equity into cash through a sale, merger or IPO, you need to prepare for that every step along the way. Crowdfunding- Why Angels, Venture Capitalists And Private Equity Investors All May Benefit. SEC Changes Rules Governing the Marketing of Sales of Securities. Italy enacts regulations for equity crowdfunding. Crowdfunding Market Grows 81% in 2012: Crowdfunding Platforms Raise $2.7 Billion and.

LOS ANGELES, April 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Crowdfunding is accelerating at an unprecedented rate and impacting government policy, informing enterprise innovation, and changing the role of financial institutions around the world. African crowdfunding site seeks funding… on crowdfunding site. SMS Micropayments. Www.gogoafrika.com. Is Governance the Leading Issue for Crowdsourcing Sites? M-Pesa Now Available For Online Payments in Kenya, Tanzania: PayGate. An Empirical Examination of the Antecedents and Consequences of Contribution Patterns in Crowd-Funded Markets by Gordon Burtch, Anindya Ghose, Sunil Wattal.

Google. Crowdfunding. Markets of Magical Thinking by Esther Dyson. Exit from comment view mode. Click to hide this space. [Dossier] Panorama du crowdfunding en France. Inspiré en partie par le succès outre-atlantique de Kickstarter, le crowdfunding est un terrain fertile pour les startups en France. Au point qu’entre celles qui vous proposent d’investir, de soutenir ou de prêter, qui financent des mégaproductions ou de modestes projets, il y a de quoi se perdre. Essayons-donc de mettre de l’ordre dans cette jungle. Fleur Pellerin veut développer le crowdfunding en France. Si vous ne connaissez pas encore le financement participatif (crowdfunding), il va falloir vous y mettre.

La ministre déléguée chargée des PME, de l’innovation et de l’économie numérique Fleur Pellerin, souhaite développer ce mode de financement en France. Le gouvernement réfléchit aux verrous réglementaires à faire sauter pour faciliter ce type de financements, a expliqué la ministre, à l’occasion des Assises de l’entrepreneuriat. Né dans les années 2000, le crowdfunding permet à des particuliers de financer leurs projets grâce à la générosité des internautes. Il s’est vite développé aux Etats-Unis avec des plateformes comme Kickstarter ou IndieGoGo. Les chiffres de l’année 2012 de Kickstarter laissent rêveur: près de 320 millions de dollars investis par plus de 2,2 millions de personnes, dans 18.109 projets. J-pal europe. The Disruptive Power of Equity Crowdfunding. Crowdfunding Predictions for 2013.

Why Steve Rattner is Wrong on Crowdfunding. Crowd Management, Crowd Modelling, Crowd Behaviour. Startup Café — Accueil. Why Word-of-Mouth is Loudest in Africa. 79 lessons learned along my journey. Preparing for the Crowdfunding Revolution. More Crowdfunding Worldwide, and Crowdsourcing For the World’s Biggest Companies — The Crowded Room #19. Crowdfund operations. Why Africa May Never Produce a Facebook, Groupon, Zynga or Google. Good News For African Tech: Silicon Valley Veterans Launch $10 Million Seed Fund. African Diaspora in Europe. Think-tank sur l’Afrique.

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