As crowdfunding becomes more mainstream, more entrepreneurs see it as an alternative to bank loans. Banks are none too pleased. In 2012, crowdfunding portals helped small business owners and individuals raise about $2.7 billion. By the end of this year, that figure could nearly double, according to Massolution, which tracks...
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A couple of weeks ago, Google made headlines with the $1bn (£662m) acquisition of Waze, a crowd-sourced traffic app which uses data from its users to transmit real-time information about roads and traffic. Google paid $1bn (£662m) for Waze, a crowd-sourced traffic app. Photo: AFP Waze has around...
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Jason Graf co-founded crowdfunding platform CrowdIt with Paul Freeman and Markus Pope. Crowdfunding platforms are great places to collect capital for startups or small businesses or projects, but what else could they do? That’s the question a Springfield, Missouri-based platform called CrowdIt is asking. The company, which...
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Latin America, a rapidly-developing region with a (mostly) common language and an affinity for social media, presents a great opportunity for crowdsourcing and crowdfunding. Recently, we learned of an equity crowdfunding campaign that took place in Chile; it is, to our knowledge, the first successful equity raise in...
Continue ReadingAndrew Levin owes the bank $26,000 in student loans, and he'd like you to help him pay it off. Should you be inclined to reduce his bill, Levin, an Oakland musician and graduate of the University of Southern California, would be pleased to teach you to...
Continue ReadingWhen the president signed the JOBS Act into law a year and a half ago, believers like me rejoiced. This legislation includes an exciting crowdfunding exemption that will fundamentally disrupt how start-ups and small businesses raise capital in the United States. What will change exactly? It will no...
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A startup in the Philippines called Medifund has come up with an answer to an unsolved issue in the medical field: understaffed hospitals. The shortage of doctors and nurses in Asia has largely to do with the high cost of medical education. To tackle this problem, Medifund’s founder...
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Has technology sparked a modern Renaissance? Over 5 centuries ago, in Northern Italy, the Renaissance brought in a bold new chapter of thinking, an expression of culture, scientific and intellectual discovery. In modern vernacular, we would call it ‘disruptive.’ It really meant, ‘rebirth.’ We are now...
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“Crowdfunding is the democratization of [funding] for startups.” 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...
Continue ReadingThe way entrepreneurs raise money is about to change. The Securities and Exchange Commission is drafting regulations for equity crowdfunding – a not yet legal practice allowing companies to sell stakes to large numbers of small investors, potentially online. Startups looking to pursue those dollars will need to think...
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