Australian equity-based crowdfunding platform, VentureCrowd recently raised $363,000 in a pre-IPO funding round for the popular crowdsourcing question–and–answer micro job network, Crowd Mobile.
Has the crowd ever flexed its muscles this much?
VentureCrowd’s exclusive online platform, powered by Artesian Venture Partners, enabled a ‘crowd’ of sophisticated investors to tip in $363,000 as part of a $3.8 million secondary funding round over just four days, ahead of Crowd Mobile’s listing on the Australian Securities Exchange on 23 January, 2015.
The crowd has arrived and is here to stay
“We believe in the power of the crowd to get things done, so it was only logical that we used the VentureCrowd platform to raise required funds before our public listing,” Crowd Mobile CEO, Domenic Carosa remarked.
“It was quick and easy to get set up and gave us access to investors we otherwise may not have met, while retaining the simplicity of a single shareholder structure,” he added.
“Crowdfunding and crowdsourcing of all types isn’t the future; it’s happening now.”
Founded in 2009, Crowd Mobile now operates in 13 countries around the world with its popular services Passion for Fashion, Bongo Thinks and What Would Jesus Do.
Millions of customers all over the globe are able to crowdsource much-needed answers to their questions, paying a small fee for each answer received.
In FY2014, Crowd Mobile charged for more than 3.4 million questions, generated more than $9.8 million in revenue and made circa $2.2 million in EBITDA.
Another notch on VentureCrowd’s bow
The funding for Crowd Mobile is the latest success for VentureCrowd, which gives sophisticated investors the opportunity to invest in Australian early stage, high growth potential start-ups that they do not have the chance to invest in alone – one can invest as little as $1,000, with no maximum, on the platform.
In 2014 alone, VentureCrowd raised $1.2 million for mobile payments company ingogo, and $50,000 as part of a larger angel funding round for fashion tech start-up Fame & Partners.
Tim Heasley, COO of Artesian Venture Partners, pointed out that the investors that participated in this funding round for Crowd Mobile through VentureCrowd would not have been able to without this equity crowdfunding platform.
He also remarked that this was yet another example of the fervour with which sophisticated investors have adopted equity crowdfunding since VentureCrowd launched last year.
“We’re beginning to see many more sophisticated investors take an interest in this type of crowdfunding, which we believe is vital to ensuring the future success and continued growth of Australia’s technology ecosystem,” he remarked.
