Regulation Crowdfunding turned five years old on May 16, 2021 and celebrated its birthday with 63 FINRA licensed portals and over $700M raised via RegCF. This is an amazing milestone for the investment crowdfunding industry and what I refer to as "The League”. The League is the 63 and counting FINRA licensed Funding Portals. Even today, there are another two dozen entities with Funding Portal applications with FINRA looking to join the league and 2022 is shaping up to be a $1B year. On behalf of the Crowdfunding Professional Association we are rooting for all of you.
As I think about the state of the Crowdfunding industry and the individual funding portals I often compare them to the National Basketball Association (NBA). That league started off small, hit an inflection point and then grew into the dynamic global presence it is now. So too with the 63 “teams” of the CfPA. To that end here is a peak of what the Crowdfunding Professional Association will be doing to help the teams within our league continue to grow and thrive:
- Industry Advocacy - For over nine years the CfPA has been the leader in advocating for Portal Owners, Issuers and crowdfunding Investors, we will continue that mission.
- Increased Technical Assistance
- Funding Portals - To meet the growing demand of individuals looking to become Funding Portals the CfPA will be providing courses and informational sessions that provide individuals interested in operating a funding portal the information they need to make a decision and take action.
- Issuer Education - One of the challenges that all funding portals face is educating potential Issuers. To help reduce the onboarding time and cost that funding portals face we will be increasing our Issuer education initiatives.
- Legislative Liaisons - The CfPA has a deep bench of SMEs who are available to provide and will continue to provide crowdfunding and financing guidance to Government and Regulatory entities. Reach out to them via the CfPAEcosystem.
- Investor Education & Outreach - Crucial to any healthy league are the fans. For crowdfunding our biggest fans are Investors and specifically Investomers. To this end the CfPA will continue to engage Broker Dealers, VCs, Sharks, and Accredited Investors helping them understand and expand their role in the ecosystem. And of course, crowdfunding could not be what it is without the legion of retail investomers that make RegCF viable. To this end, you can expect to see additional outreach and educational seminars which further introduce retail investomers to crowdfunding offerings.
The state of the league is strong and growing. We encourage everyone to join as fans, advocates and enthusiasts, as with your support we can continue to help Main Street recover from the pandemic and help the next generation of business owners and investors pursue their success.
Samson Williams,
President, CfPA
Investor into Brite.us & GoingPublic.com
About the Author
Samson Williams is a serial entrepreneur and accidental investor. When not starting business with his enemies (“Entrepreneurship is hard. I only recommend it to my enemies.”), Samson is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University in NYC and University of New Hampshire School of Law where he teaches on blockchain, cryptocurrencies and the Space Economy. Samson is also President of the Crowdfunding Professional Association and investor into two investment crowdfunding platforms Brite.us - CrowdInvesting Done Brite and GoingPublic.com. For more information on Samson visit www.SamsonWilliams.com and follow him on social @HustleFundBaby.
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