Fayetteville,
AR – EquityNet (www.equitynet.com)
announced today that its entrepreneur users have raised more than $104 million
in funding, making the 7-year old company the leading equity crowdfunding
platform.
Access
to private equity investments (i.e., crowdfunding) for non-accredited investors became law in March of 2012 when Congress
passed the U.S. JOBS Act. Prior to this
financial deregulation, EquityNet pioneered and patented equity crowdfunding in
2005 and launched in 2007 an equity funding platform for accredited investors that now provides access to over 12,000
individual investors.
Judd
Hollas, founder and CEO of EquityNet, stated, “EquityNet offers more than just
large numbers of entrepreneurs and investors. Our crowdfunding platform is
specifically designed to make the funding process more efficient for
entrepreneurs and the investment decision process more effective for investors.
EquityNet combines patented analytics, business benchmarking, and
standardization to achieve a superior experience for investors and a higher
funding success rate for entrepreneurs.”
Crowdfunding
will improve the most limiting factor in modern capitalism – the capitalization
of young businesses – and could unleash innovation and job creation as never
before. Crowdfunding is expected to increase
the number of potential investors from 2 million to over 50 million and raise
the amount of potentially available capital from $1 trillion to over $5 trillion
while adding 1.5 million jobs in the next 5 years. Crowdfunding platforms like EquityNet will be
among the most significant financial innovations in decades.
The
JOBS Act requires the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to write rules
for equity crowdfunding that both facilitate capital formation and promote
investor protection. The SEC is mid-way
through the 270 days allocated by the JOBS Act to set rules, with completion
expected around January 2013.
While
the SEC is completing its rule making,
EquityNet is quickly adding additional capabilities needed to fully enable
equity crowdfunding for non-accredited
investors. With its advanced capabilities for business analytics,
benchmarking, and standardization, EquityNet is widely expected to continue its
lead in the equity crowdfunding market.
About EquityNet
EquityNet was launched in 2005 and is the original and
only patented equity crowdfunding platform. It is used by thousands of
entrepreneurs, investors, government entities, business incubators, and other
members of the entrepreneurial community to plan, analyze, and capitalize
privately-held businesses. EquityNet features over 12,000 individual investors
who have already provided $104 million in capital to entrepreneurs across North
America.