Controversy has surrounded various aspects of this upcoming legislation<\/a>, including plans to force startups to go public and to introduce caps for these \u201cunsophisticated investors\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Only for the wealthy, for the time being<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Once crowdfunding is opened up to everyday Australians, the opportunities are limitless if it\u2019s done safely, Medved says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want Australians to be able to invest in the next Facebook or WhatsApp or in Israel\u2019s dynamic tech scene,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cHow else do you do that as an individual apart from getting on a plane and holding a sign at the airport saying \u2018seeking startup?\u2019<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIf people do it right then it should be exciting. It\u2019s inevitable, it\u2019s going to happen and there\u2019s no stopping it. But you\u2019ve got to be careful.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
OurCrowd is currently restricted to accredited investors around the world, and Medved says this will remain the startup\u2019s primary focus for the time being.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re choosing to start with democratising among the wealthy first,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThat may seem harsh but these are people that can afford to take the risk and write big checks.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cEventually when the smart people are finished with the process then it will trickle down to everyone.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doing the hard work to make this available to the mass public and at the same time protecting them so we don\u2019t have frauds and we don\u2019t have people investing willy-nilly.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when laws are changed to broaden this so everyone can do it, we\u2019ll be there.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
The Goldman Sachs of equity crowdfunding<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
OurCrowd conducts its own due diligence on the startups that want to list on its platform to ensure everything is above board, and Medved says only about 2% of those they screen make it on to the website.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cSome models allow companies to list themselves on these platforms, take investor money and ride off into the sunset,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThey rely on the wisdom of the crowd or the regulator to prevent fraud from happening. We don\u2019t believe in that model at all, we think that\u2019s brain-dead.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s simply too risky for the individual investor, they\u2019re probably better off going to a gambling site.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As opposed to many equity crowdfunding platforms in the UK, US and New Zealand, OurCrowd also acts as a VC fund of sorts, contributing its own cash to the startups that list on the site.<\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cWe put our money where our mouth is so we have skin in the game,\u201d Medved says .<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re more like a VC fund than a do-it-yourself crowdfunding business where fraudsters can hide.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The crowdfunding total is then aggregated into one partnership so a company doesn\u2019t have to deal with hundreds of individual checks and shareholders.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to be the Goldman Sachs of this business, and we\u2019re focused on building an exclusive platform that invests lots of money and does it well,\u201d Medved says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Do you know more on this story or have a tip of your own? Raising capital or launching a startup? Let us know. Follow StartupSmart on<\/i> Facebook<\/i>,<\/i> Twitter<\/i>, and<\/i> LinkedIn<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The equity crowdfunding revolution is \u201cunstoppable\u201d and will give anyone the chance to invest in the next Facebook or Google,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41532"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}