CrowdWatch aims to make the crowdfund investing landscape a lot more digestible.
Rather than scouring individual crowdfunding portals for investment opportunities, you can visit CrowdWatch to see them all in one place (if you’re willing to cough up the $129 monthly subscription fee). It aggregates thousands of deals from equity and debt-based crowdfunding platforms like AngelList, Crowdfunder, and EquityNet.
These aren’t Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaigns, which typically offer rewards in exchange for financial contributions. Every deal on CrowdWatch is a real investment opportunity made possible by the JOBS Act, which removed the ban on general solicitation for companies raising money. Subscribers can search through offerings based on industry, location, security type, equity offered, minimum investment, and more.
The CrowdWatch market data platform is operated by New York-based startup Crowdnetic, which today announced that it has raised $1.6 million in seed funding.
AI Weekly
The must-read newsletter for AI and Big Data industry written by Khari Johnson, Kyle Wiggers, and Seth Colaner.
Included with VentureBeat Insider and VentureBeat VIP memberships.
“The reason why this deal is so significant is that it illustrates the strong interest from the investment community in funding the infrastructure to support rising crowdfinance asset classes such as peer-to-peer lending and securities-based crowdfunding,” Crowdnetic CEO Luan Cox told VentureBeat in an email.
“Crowdnetic has built the quotation framework to provide transparency to thousands of private offerings, much like NASDAQ did in 1971 for 2,500 [over-the-counter] securities.”
Crowdnetic investors include the Seraph Group, a seed stage venture investment fund, as well as several private investors.
As soon as the SEC implements its proposed crowdfunding rules, unaccredited investors will be able to invest in crowdfunded businesses alongside their accredited brethren. That expanded reach could be a huge boon for businesses seeking to raise investment online, but some industry observers say the proposed rules are onerous and inefficient.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Learn More