Crowdfunding market leader Birchal has cut its costs base by 30%, along with several roles, after the first half of 2024 “significantly underperformed” the platform’s expectations. News of the job losses were first revealed by SmartCompany just 24 hours after Birchal set out to paint a positive picture for the sector in its annual review… Read more »
Corporate regulator the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has issued its first interim stop order over a crowd-sourced funding (CSF) campaign. ASIC intervened in the raise for Hirehood, an hire marketplace for holiday items such as surfboards, bikes and baby equipment, on the VentureCrowd platform. The regulator’s concern is over the structure of shares… Read more »
Insurtech startup LifeBid has launched a crowdfunding (CSF) campaign with venture-backed platform Stride Equity, having already raised $700,000 in a strategic co-investment from industry partners and the Stride Group. LifeBid is the first startup Stride Equity has backed with investment since its launch earlier this year and is the first CSF campaign on the platform.… Read more »
Australia was late to the game when it came to allowing startups to raise capital through crowd-sourced funding. But it grew quickly to become the second largest market per capita by 2021, according to the latest global research. Five years in, it’s undoubtedly a huge success, with over $240 million invested across 320 successful offers… Read more »
Investor appetite for agriculture startup Our Cow has seen the butcher subscription startup raise nearly $1.5 million from more than 750 investors in the first 24 hours of its Birchal crowdfunding campaign. Farmers Bianca Tarrant and Dave McGiveron launched Our Cow in Northern NSW in 2019 after nearly losing their farm in droughts and then the… Read more »
Equity crowd-sourced funding (CSF) increased by 82% in the 2022 financial year to $86 million, backing nearly 100 companies, according to new figures by CSF market leader Birchal. All up, more than 43,000 investments were made in 98 successful CSF offers to reach that figure, Birchal cofounder and MD Matt Vitale said. His company, which… Read more »
The platform behind 75% of Australia’s equity crowd-sourced funding (CSF) activity, Birchal, is running an equity crowdfunding campaign on its own platform, a first for any CSF platform in Australia, so retail investors can buy shares in the company. Birchal also revealed one of its main backers is Dom Pym, cofounder of next-gen digital bank,… Read more »
Investors poured more than $71 million into 89 companies via crowd-sourced funding (CSF) in 2021, new analysis of the sector reveals. Nearly a third of that figure ($21m, 30%) flowed in the final quarter of the year thanks to a series of record raises. In 2021, the number of CSF offers completed rose by 82%… Read more »
Byron Bay eco-startup, Zero Co, rewrote the history of Australian crowd-sourced funding (CSF) on Tuesday after raising $5 million in just 6 hours and 27 minutes. It’s the largest CSF campaign in Australian history – $5 million is the maximum under law – and beats the previous record by $2 million. It also broke several… Read more »
Mum and dad investors eager to invest in plastics waste reduction startup Zero Co have flooded the website of crowd-sourced funding (CSF) platform Birchal ahead of the company’s $5 million raise. More than 2500 people pre-registered for the Birchal campaign during the expressions of interest phase. With the offer due to open to investors at… Read more »
Equity crowd-sourced funding (CSF) platform VentureCrowd and digital venture studio Josephmark have launched a joint-venture to help early-stage Australian startups accelerate their scaling plans. The new project will offer growth services to early-stage startup founders from Josephmark’s brand, product, growth, and venture strategy and rollout services through to investment support and fundraising via the VentureCrowd… Read more »
More than $1.5 billion poured into startups from VCs and investors last month in the biggest month of capital raising Australia has seen, but that wasn’t the only record broken, with equity crowd- sourced funding (CSF) also booming. New figures from CSF market leader Birchal reveal the September quarter was the industry’s biggest yet, up… Read more »
Thrive, a Melbourne-based fintech using artificial intelligence to automate banking, accounting, tax and lending for small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), has closed its crowdfunding campaign after just 3 days, having raised a record $3 million. Thrive’s campaign launched on Birchal on broke multiple records when it went live last week, hitting $1 million towards the $3m target… Read more »
The Federal Government has today revealed a new legislative package that will allow private companies to access equity crowdfunding.
ASIC has announced it will be opening applications for CSF licences, allowing eligible public companies to sell shares through a licensed intermediary.
The Queensland government has startup grants worth up to $200,000 up for grabs 
Square Peg-backed cleaning products startup Zero Co is shutting down 
Eye Thy with my AI: Australian Radio Network digitises diversity with an artificially generated Asian female presenter 
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