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Ask HN: How come there is no Kickstarter for investing?

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Re: Ask HN: How come there is no Kickstarter for investing?

#21
post #10

There sort of is: Profounder. More info here: http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/30/profounder-launches-to-help... and interesting thread of whether this is actually legal here: http://www.quora.com/Is-ProFounder-in-violation-of-any-secur...

looks more like a microfinance operation like prosper or lendingclub than actual investment. profits above and beyond repayment go to a nonprofit.

There are two ways business can raise money on ProFounder, either through a Private Raise or a Public Raise. Private Raises do involve entrepreneurs offering securities (based around sharing a % of revenues), while Public Raises involve sharing revenues as well, but with the actual financial gain (above and beyond the original investment amount) going to a nonprofit. So, yes, investors can make "actual investments" on the site! More here: http://www.profounder.com/about/how_it_works

Re: Ask HN: How come there is no Kickstarter for investing?

#22
We're working on a solution for this. However, the initial phase will only work in Europe as there is no need (except in the UK) for the investors to be "accredited". This venturebonsai.com service is aimed for companies looking for less than 1M€, with a share issue where individual persons can invest starting at 5000€ each. So in order to get 500K€ each investor investing 5000€, you need 100 investors. We actually have implemented the "EU regulation model" in order to take care of all the regulation related issues (like not offering the shares for more than 99 investors per country) and alike. Our blog is currently at venturebonsai.info. We call this (equity) crowdfunding, even though there are many intrepretations for what "crowdfunding" should and should not be...
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