Crowdfunder.Com Raises $3.5m Series A Round To Further Its Leadership As The Platform Where Notable Technology + Digital Media Companies Raise Equity From Experienced Investors And The Crowd
Crowdfunder raises $3.5M round on the heels of groundbreaking equity crowdfunding campaigns for top tech and digital media startups like GoCoin, Neil Young’s PonoMusic, Social Rewards and more.
LOS ANGELES, CA — (October 7, 2014) — Leading equity crowdfunding platform Crowdfunder.com has raised a Series A round of financing from a combination of VC funds, notable investors like Tim Draper, along with a crowd of individual accredited investors. Crowdfunder aimed to raise $2,500,000 in the round, but due to significant investor demand the round was opened up to additional investors and oversubscribed at $3,500,000.
Crowdfunder will use the funds from the Series A to continue its market-leading growth and expansion in funding leading companies in the growing cross-over area between technology, digital media, and entertainment.
This round comes on the heels of a series of successful and highly visible equity crowdfunding campaigns on Crowdfunder that cross technology and media. Crowdfunder has a growing community of thousands of notable investors and celebrities investing in deals, or bringing deals to Crowdfunder for funding, including Barbara Corcoran of Shark Tank, Neil Young, Danny Zappin former CEO of Maker Studios, Mark Cuban, TechStars, Tim Draper, Sequoia Capital, Tech Coast Angels, David Weild former Vice Chairman of NASDAQ, Jerry West, and many others.
One of the investors in Crowdfunder’s Series A, William Quigley – former Managing Director at Idealab, current Managing Director of Clearstone Venture Partners- said, “Crowdfunder is a terrific resource for time strapped entrepreneurs. In a matter of weeks, a start-up can fill its coffers with the capital it needs to build and launch a new product or service.”
Quigley also said, “After more than 20 years of funding startups, I am excited that a resource like Crowdfunder has arrived. In a matter of minutes, I am able to identify the best new business concepts and most talented entrepreneurs who fit my investment profile.”
With the rapid growth of equity crowdfunding for accredited investors since Title II of the JOBS Act was implemented in September of 2013, Crowdfunder is playing a central part in a growing trend in crowdfunding where companies are first validating and pre-selling their product or idea on sites like Kickstarter or Indiegogo (rewards-based crowdfunding), and then translating that momentum into successful equity crowdfunding campaigns on the Crowdfunder platform.
One example is Atlas Wearables who successfully closed their equity round on Crowdfunder following a $600K rewards crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. Also, Neil Young’s PonoMusic recently raised an equity round on Crowdfunder, as a follow up to pre-selling 15,000 units via a $6.2M Kickstarter campaign (see: TechCrunch, RollingStone, TheWrap).
Chance Barnett, CEO of Crowdfunder said: “We are uniquely positioned in the heart of the growing tech + media renaissance in Los Angeles, and with a growing number of successful financings under our belt, to connect new and exciting media and technology startups with the crowd of millions of accredited investors who can now invest in online. We’ve built a successful track record by helping fund 32 companies over the last three quarters, at an average deal size of $1.6 million. This momentum is now attracting top tech and entertainment talent and projects, as we empower the crowd to invest in these companies for as little as $1,000 at the same terms as, and alongside, notable angels, VC firms, and experienced financiers.”
Investors in the Series A Round
Bridge 37 Ventures
Ideas & Capital Venture Capital
Tim Draper: VC at DFJ (personal investment)
William Quigley: VC at Clearstone Partners, Crypto Currency Partners (personal investment)
Maura O’Neill: Former Chief Innovation Officer at USAID, founder and angel investor
Capital Nuts (early stage Chinese venture fund)
Marcus Segal, former COO Business Operations at Zynga
Mark Rampolla: Founder of ZICO Coconut Water
David Wilner: Founder of Windriver Systems
Existing Investors also in Crowdfunder
500 Startups
Rob Nail: CEO of Singularity University, former biotech founder with a big exit
Kiki Tidwell: Active startup + impact investor, Kauffman Fellow, LP in TrueBridge Capital
Ben Goldhirsh: CEO of GOOD Magazine / GOOD.is / Goldhirsh Foundation
Sharon Chang: CEO of Yoxi, NYU Board of Trustees, impact investor
Recent Notable Equity Crowdfunding Rounds:
Leading Bitcoin merchant processing startup, GoCoin, opened up its latest financing round on Crowdfunder and subsequently announced a partnership with PayPal for enabling merchant payments with Bitcoin by use of GoCoin’s processing. The round is now oversubscribed. Existing investors in GoCoin include 500 Startups, Crypto Currency Partners, Bitcoin Shop, Inc, Owen Van Natta former Facebook COO.
Barbara Corcoran from Shark Tank was an investor in Social Rewards, which came to Crowdfunder for and raised follow-on investment into it’s $1M round.
Bitvore recently raised their Series A round via equity crowdfunding. They raised $435,000 via Crowdfunder and $220,000 via AngelList. See the Bitvore founders tell the story in this video.
Rapid Growth
The Crowdfunder community has rapidly grown to nearly 15,000 startups and small businesses, where 32 rounds have been closed with the help of Crowdfunder in the last 3 quarters, at an average size of $1.6M. Crowdfunder is also seeing 6%+ week-over-week growth of it’s online investor base of accredited individuals & institutions.
ABOUT CROWDFUNDER
Crowdfunder is where the power of crowdfunding meets investing for startups and small businesses. Entrepreneurs use the company’s platform to tell the story of their business and raise investment from a community of institutional and individual accredited investors. The company played a significant role in JOBS Act legislation, creating the new market for equity crowdfunding that brings private investing online.
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