crowdfunding

Investing in the Next “Big Thing” Just Got Easier – SEC Promulgates New Crowdfunding Rules

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On October 30, 2015, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) moved forward in implementing Title III of the JOBS Act and adopted new rules permitting companies to offer and sell securities to all potential investors through crowdfunding.  Crowdfunding is the use of small amounts of capital from a large number of investors to finance new business ventures.  This method of investment, typically conducted over the internet, is aimed at assisting smaller companies with capital formation by accessing a greater pool of potential investors.  The SEC had previously opened crowdfunding investment to “accredited investors” (investors meeting certain net worth and/or investment experience criteria) but these rules permit non-accredited investors, i.e., everyone else, to participate while providing them with additional protection under the federal securities laws.  Title III and these rules come in response to the enormous growth of equity crowdfunding through financing platforms such as GoFundMe, Kickstarter or Indiegogo.

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Friend of the Court and Friend of the Little Guy? State Securities Regulators Tell D.C. Circuit in Amicus Brief that SEC’s Regulation A+ Is Too Expansive in Defining “Qualified Purchasers”

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Wall Street

On September 2, 2015, the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) filed an amicus brief siding with Montana and Massachusetts in a bid to overturn the SEC’s new capital-raising rule, titled Regulation A but commonly referred to as Regulation A+.  The NASAA, a non-profit association of state, provincial, and territorial securities regulators in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, includes securities regulators from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.  The organization’s purpose is to “protect investors from fraud and abuse in connection with the offer and sale of securities.”

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JOBS Act Eases Restrictions on Startup and Emerging Companies

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Earlier this month, President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (the “JOBS Act”) into law.  The JOBS Act, which had strong bipartisan and business support, is aimed at stimulating economic growth by allowing U.S. and foreign startup and emerging companies to more easily raise capital and transition to public companies.

The JOBS Act works by reducing a number of regulatory burdens that were imposed by the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act.  It directs the Securities and Exchange Commission to revise Rule 506 under the 1933 Securities Act to allow general advertising and solicitation for private placements, with no limit on the number of securities that are bought and sold, so long as they are sold only to accredited investors.  It also amends Rule 144A(d)(1) of the Securities Act, which allows private resales of securities to qualified institutional buyers (“QIBs”), to permit such securities to be generally advertised to persons other than QIBs—as long as they are only later sold to QIBs.  These changes have the effect of allowing firms to market themselves to a greatly expanded base of potential investors. READ MORE →