The Crowd Has Spoken: In Reg CF, Impact Isn’t a “Tax”—It’s a Competitive Advantage
Why the Biggest Regulation Crowdfunding Raises of 2025 Prove Impact Is a Capital-Raising Advantage
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Kingscrowd just released its annual report and, as part of it, published a list of the biggest Regulation Crowdfunding raises of 2025. The headline statistic alone is impressive: 101 raises hit $1 million or more, and 9 raises effectively maxed out the $5 million limit (within $50k).
But what really grabbed my attention wasn’t just the size of the raises.
It was the pattern.
When you look at the biggest raises of the year, social impact shows up again and again—not as a concession founders make to “do good,” but as a value that the crowd clearly rewards. That matters, because in traditional venture capital circles, impact is too often treated like a tradeoff: the feel-good thing you do instead of optimizing returns.
The Kingscrowd list suggests something very different: the crowd often sees impact as a virtue—something that increases confidence, loyalty, and willingness to invest.
Six of the Biggest Raises Carry Real, Demonstrable Social Impact
From Kingscrowd’s top raises list, at least six of the “very top” offerings have clear social impact:
RISE Robotics (clean industrial innovation)
TerraCycle (circular economy and waste reduction)
Mivium (cleaner, more efficient semiconductors)
Pirouette Medical / Pharma (healthcare innovation)
Conexeu Sciences (biotech with human health implications)
Timeplast (plastic pollution solution)
That’s six out of ten in the top tier where impact is not vague branding—it’s core to the product, the mission, and the story.
And if you’ve been around Superpowers for Good for any length of time, you already know why this doesn’t surprise me: impact stories travel. They recruit believers. They create community. They help everyday investors feel proud of what they own.
In other words, impact doesn’t have to be a cost center. In Reg CF, it can be a growth engine.
Three of the Top Four Raises Had Meaningful Superpowers for Good Ties
Here’s the other pattern that’s hard to ignore—especially from where I sit.
Three of the top four raises engaged meaningfully with Superpowers for Good and the SuperCrowd:
RISE Robotics — Kingscrowd ranked RISE Robotics as the #1 raise. RISE won the Superpowers for Good Live Pitch Judges’ Award in June 2025, and the CEO later appeared on the Superpowers for Good show.
TerraCycle — Kingscrowd ranked TerraCycle #2. CEO Tom Szaky appeared as a guest on Superpowers for Good and spoke at SuperGreen Live. TerraCycle has built a global business around eliminating waste and scaling reuse and recycling solutions—and proved that this mission can attract serious investor demand.
Mivium — Kingscrowd ranked Mivium #4. CEO Eric Tsai appeared on Superpowers for Good, sharing how Mivium’s work with gallium nitride can reduce energy consumption and avoid toxic production inputs common in traditional semiconductor manufacturing.
A quick note is important here: I’m not claiming that appearing on Superpowers for Good caused these raises to succeed. Capital formation is complex, and these founders earned their results through execution, momentum, and relentless work.
But I am comfortable saying this:
When mission-driven founders put their stories in front of the SuperCrowd—through an episode, an event, or a live pitch—they gain something valuable: visibility with investors who actively value impact.
And that’s not a small thing.
Why the Crowd Values Impact (Even When VCs Don’t)
Venture capital often optimizes for one thing: scale at all costs.
Reg CF investors are different. They’re not a monolith, but they share a few tendencies I’ve seen repeatedly:
They want to understand what the company stands for.
They want to feel like their investment aligns with their identity and values.
They want to back founders who are solving real problems, not just chasing valuation.
That doesn’t mean the crowd doesn’t care about returns. They do.
It means the crowd is often willing to believe that solving meaningful problems can be part of the return story, not separate from it.
TerraCycle is a great example. It’s built around the economic reality that much of what we throw away isn’t recycled because it doesn’t “pay” to recycle it—so TerraCycle engineered business models to close that gap and scale solutions anyway. The company even completed a Reg CF raise of $5 million in under 60 days—a data point worth sitting with for a moment.
That’s not charity.
That’s market demand.
Impact Shows Up in Different Forms—And the Top Raises Reflect That
One of the most interesting things about the biggest raises is how varied the impact is:
Clean industrial innovation:
RISE Robotics is tackling one of the least glamorous but most important problems in the world: industrial inefficiency. Their “Beltdraulics” approach aims to replace traditional hydraulics—systems known for leaks and inefficiency—with a cleaner alternative. The potential is big: reduced emissions, better efficiency, and improved productivity across heavy industries.
Waste elimination and circular economy:
TerraCycle’s mission is direct: rethink waste, build practical solutions for complex waste streams, and scale reuse systems like Loop.
Cleaner, more efficient computing:
Mivium’s work in gallium nitride matters because efficiency gains in power electronics aren’t just nice—they compound across devices, grids, and data centers. Mivium’s CEO emphasized improved efficiency, reduced energy consumption, and cleaner production methods that avoid toxic materials.
Revolutionizing Tech with Galli…
Plastic pollution solutions:
Timeplast has been developing a water-soluble material that can dissolve within roughly 60 hours after being discarded—positioning it as a potential replacement for many plastic applications and a tool to reduce microplastic pollution.
And that’s before we even get to the healthcare-focused companies on the list, where the potential human impact is obvious.
So when people say, “Impact is nice, but it’s a tax,” I find myself asking: If it’s a tax, why does it show up so consistently among the biggest raises?
DealMaker’s Quiet Role in the Biggest Raises (And Our 2025 Live Pitch Sponsorship)
One other thread worth noting: DealMaker was the platform behind three of these top raises—including TerraCycle and Timeplast (and another of the largest raises on the list).
That’s relevant for our community for a simple reason: DealMaker sponsored the Superpowers for Good Live Pitch events in 2025.
I care about sponsors, of course. But I care even more about alignment. When the same ecosystem players show up again and again—successful issuers, strong platforms, engaged investors—you begin to see something that looks like a flywheel:
credible platform support
strong storytelling and visibility
community engagement
investor trust
momentum
That flywheel doesn’t guarantee success, but it can absolutely help a great company break through.
What This Means for Founders Who Want to Raise with Impact
If you’re building a company with real social or environmental impact, the Kingscrowd list contains a message I hope you’ll take seriously:
Impact is not a handicap in Reg CF. It can be an asset—if you tell the story clearly and put it in front of the right investors.
And if you’re raising (or planning to raise) from the crowd, I’ll say this plainly:
Get your story tight.
Make the impact concrete.
Show the traction and the plan.
And then put it in front of the SuperCrowd.
That can look like an episode of Superpowers for Good.
It can look like pitching at a live event.
It can look like showing up in the community consistently so investors recognize your name long before they see your Form C.
I’m not promising outcomes. No one can.
But when three of the top four raises of the year intersected meaningfully with our ecosystem, it reinforces what I’ve believed for a long time: capital follows clarity—and the crowd rewards purpose when it’s paired with credibility.
If you want help getting that visibility, you already know where to find me.
And if you’re an investor who cares about both impact and returns, the Kingscrowd list offers a hopeful signal: you don’t have to choose. The crowd is proving—again—that doing good and doing well can belong in the same sentence.
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