The 2017 State of Regulation Crowdfunding –
U.S. Securities-based Crowdfunding Under
Title III of the JOBS Act[1]
Regulation Crowdfunding allows startups and SMEs to raise up to $1,070,000 per year from both retail and accredited investors by utilizing registered funding portals (or broker-dealers) to conduct exempt offerings online. This exemption requires issuers to file in a Form C and post online disclosures about a company’s operations, team, financials and other material information for investors to review. Regulation Crowdfunding started in the United States on May 16, 2016. The second calendar year for the industry ended on December 31, 2017. Because data about issuers, their financial wellbeing, and the capital that is committed is public information we can analyze the data and bring transparency to a segment of the markets (exempt private offerings) that has been fairly opaque until the JOBS Act went into effect.
Show me the CCLEAR Regulation Crowdfunding Dashboard
Key findings:
- The number of unique offerings increased 267%[2] from 178 in 2016 to 481 in 2017
- Proceeds increased 178% from $27.6 million in 2016 to $49.2 million in 2017. Total proceeds by the end of 2017 was $76.8 million
- The number of successful offerings increased 202% from 99 in 2016 to 200 in 2017
- The average success rate of offerings to date is 66.7%
- The total number of investors in Regulation Crowdfunding increased 158% from 28,180 in 2016 to 44,433 in 2017
- Issuers that filed annual reports and reported creating jobs created on average 13.9 jobs.
- Revenues for Issuers that filed annual reports increased on average 131% between the year in which they leveraged Regulation Crowdfunding and the Prior Fiscal Year.
Analysis:
- The results of this data show that the market, while still in its infancy, is growing at a rapid pace.
- The velocity of capital into funded offerings appears to be steady without showing signs of abnormal activity or irrational investor behavior.
- The rapid increase in the number of offerings and investors proves that there is appetite for Regulation Crowdfunding from both issuers seeking capital as well as investors looking to diversify.
- Given the high success rate for offerings, Regulation Crowdfunding represents a very structured yet viable alternative for access to capital for startups and SMEs.
Given the ability for firms to leverage capital raised to scale operations and create jobs, Regulation Crowdfunding should be promoted by local Chambers as well as the Small Business Administration.
Given the lack of irregularities or fraud, Regulation Crowdfunding (and the structure under which it provides for transparency), should be advocated by policy makers and government organizations.
Conclusion:
2017 represented a strong first complete calendar year for Regulation Crowdfunding. We expect the industry to exceed $100M in funded offerings during the first quarter of 2018. When considering the growth of securities-crowdfunding globally, we expect the market to reach $1B in funded offerings within the next 5 years. This can be further supported by making adjustments to the exemption that would allow for greater issuer caps.
In looking for how to consider the growth rate and size of this market over time, one can look at the UK market for data. With now 5 years of active equity crowdfunding in the UK, according to Cambridge University’s Center for Alternative Finance, in 2017, 17% of all seed stage capital in the UK came via equity crowdfunding. The CCLEAR database will continue to track these markets both domestically and globally as we begin to offer services to other regulators outside of the United States.
Download the full report here.
[1] This report is an excerpt of a report we wrote for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that summarizes the year end cumulative results for Title III of the JOBS Act (aka Regulation Crowdfunding)
Show me the CCLEAR Regulation Crowdfunding Dashboard
[2] Given Regulation Crowdfunding started on May 16, 2016, the first calendar year of Regulation Crowdfunding only encompasses 7 ½ months. Had it been a full calendar year, this growth percent would have likely been lower.