Oxford Valuation Partners, Crowd Valley and KPMG featured experts, Kim Wales, founder of Wales Capital, Douglas Ellenoff, senior attorney with the firm Ellenoff, Grossman & Schole, Nicolas Hodge, Partner at K&L Gates, Alejandro Cremades, founder of RockThePost, Vamsi Sistla, CTO of CrowdValley and an Angel Investor with the ARC Angel Fund and Daniel Miller, Co-Founder of Fundrise, who are at the cutting edge of this new field, Crowdfund investments. Together they discussed and debated the landscape of funding options and how quickly it changing. Driven by new SEC no-action letters and changes stemming from the JOBS Act that is permitting a broader scope of activity in the space outside of the traditional networks.  The current focus seems to be on platforms that link Accredited Investors and investment opportunities, while more retail options are being developed since the final rulemaking process for Title III remains underway.

http://crowdfunding-university-baruch-newyork-57.eventbrite.com/

White, who became SEC chairman on April 10, 2013, has suggested the commission pass the existing plan without major changes and add additional protections later, said the people, who declined to be identified because the deliberations are private. The approach would placate congressional Republicans who have complained the SEC has slow-walked the rule, which was required to be completed by July 2012.

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-26/sec-s-white-said-to-push-to-lift-ban-on-hedge-fund-advertising.html

Google led a $125 million deal to buy a stake in the Lending Club from existing investors valuing Lending Club at $1.55 billion – nearly triple the valuation of the last fund-raising round that closed last summer. This is a defining moment for the crowdfund investing industry; if you are not aware, it is this new alternative asset class that is positioned to democratize the capital markets under the Jumpstart Our Business Startup Act.

Click here to read the full WSJ article:  http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/05/02/google-makes-strategic-investment-in-lending-club/

April 18, 2013 – Crowdfund investment pioneers speak at the NYC Angel and Crowdfund Investing Conference.

On December 14, 2012, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) published the OSC Staff Consultation Paper 45-710 Considerations for New Capital Raising Prospectus Exemptions. The Consultation Paper sets out four concept ideas for new prospectus exemptions in Ontario, together with a number of specific consultation questions. The concept ideas are: a concept for an exemption to allow crowdfunding subject to limits for issuers and retail investors, a concept for an offering memorandum exemption, a concept for an exemption based on an investor’s investment knowledge, and a concept for an exemption based on an investor receiving advice from a registrant.

Wales Capital participated in a forum along with other industry thought leaders such as Crowdfund Capital Advisors, SomoLend, Arctic Island, GATE Technologies, Nehemiah Investments, and Ellenoff Grossman & Schole, LLP.

Subsequently, Wales Capital provided comment letters to the OSC for consideration as related to a). Investment Size; b). Oversubscription; c). Two Business Day “cooling period”; d). Revenue Models; e). Rescission Period (Withdrawal Rights).

Read Comment Letters Here

Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) — On today’s “Money Moves,” Bloomberg Television focuses on alternative assets and places where investors are investing their money outside of the traditional stock and bond markets. Live with Kim Wales, the founder of Wales Capital, a strategic business advisory firm and Candace Klein, founder of SomoLend, a debt based crowdfunding platform.

Kim is the Chair of the Crowdfunding Professional Association (www.cfpa.org).  Candace Klein is the Co-Chair of the Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates (www.cfira.org)

(Source: Bloomberg)

Watch live:

Washington, D.C. (PRWEB) January 31, 2013

FINRA’s information request brings optimism to the crowdfunding industry’s leading trade organizations CFIRA and CfPA.

At the World Economic Forum 2013 in Davos, Switzerland, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R., N.C.) talks with Neil Lipschultz at Davos about “Crowdfunding” and the future of the JOBS Act, aimed to help small and emerging businesses attract financing.

Rep. Patrick McHenry on Crowdfunding and the JOBS Act in WEF Davos, Switzerland

Kim Wales writes about the regulatory decisions looming for the JOBS Act and how instead of imposing heavy regulations that are likely to confuse the U.S. states and EU nations states; government should look at criteria for Intermediaries such as operational and financial transparency, security of information and payments, platform functionality and customer protection.

Read the article in the Cayman Financial Review Magazine