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IPO stands for Initial public offering. We have heard the question many times before: “Why do they use the term public when it plainly isn’t?”

New laws that allow everyday Australians to become early-stage investors in business start-ups have already attracted thousands of people willing to inject their cash. Before the new equity crowd funding laws were passed, investing in startups was restricted to wealthy angel investors and venture capitalists. 

Becoming a Sophisticated or Experienced investor with OnMarket means even greater access to investment opportunities, and for sophisticated investors no limit on the amount you can invest each Equity Crowdfunding offer. 

Are you one of the OnMarket members who haven’t yet downloaded the OnMarket app?   

The OnMarket app has now been downloaded by over 11,000 of our members. Since we launched it in late 2015 it has been used for over 80+ investment opportunities that OnMarket has successfully facilitated.

OnMarket has successfully closed the world’s most popular equity crowdfunding offer. Solar energy retailer DC Power Co. has crowdfunded close to $2.2m from approximately 15,000 investors. DC Power Co. is “Australia’s first solar focused energy retailer” which optimises household solar systems to use less energy and earn more money.

Would you have preferred a slice of cash ($20,000) over a T-shirt? This case study highlights the simple but very profound distinction between equity crowdfunding and rewards-based crowdfunding.

OnMarket has successfully closed Australia’s first equity crowdfunding offer. Revvies Energy Strips Limited has become the first company in Australia to raise capital by utilising the government’s new equity crowdfunding legislation, the Crowd-Sourced Funding Act 2017. 

OnMarket was the very proud winner of the 2018 ‘Crowdfunding Innovator of the Year’ at the recent FinTech Business Awards held in Sydney. Read more here

In a new series of articles called ‘Investor Story’ we interview different OnMarket members each month. We ask them to talk about their motivation for investing, what crucial factors they look for before investing in a company, and what they think about equity crowdfunding.

Equity Crowdfunding is the new way for everyday investors, mums and dads, and the millennial generation, to invest in early-stage and growth-stage businesses. Unlike platforms like Kickstarter (which gives you rewards for crowdfunding), Equity Crowdfunding gives investors part-ownership (or equity share) in a business that they help to fund. 

Having the support of the crowd is an essential factor in determining whether a company’s raise gets funded. It’s a no-brainer that companies must know how to win the crowd for a successful raise.

With rapid advances in technology and the rise of fintechs over the past two to three years, alternative investments have become more accessible to everyday investors

A recent report by PwC, ‘Women Unbound’ (July 2017), shows that crowdfunding is challenging embedded gender bias in the entrepreneurial and finance industry. We are seeing women-led crowdfunded campaigns reaching their target more often than campaigns led by the historically favoured men.

Alternative non-VC sources of financing are growing rapidly and giving entrepreneurs many more choices than in the past. But can they co-exist? Let’s look at a couple of different options to venture capital.

Continued surge in small-cap listings powers IPOs to an impressive 61.6% average return in 2017. Smaller IPOs on average up 69.8% outperforming large IPOs.

Equity crowdfunding has been booming overseas, and very soon retail investors in Australia will be able to invest in and support startups and high growth businesses with ideas that could change the world.

Well, back to the office and a new year beckons… oh, that sounds so much more chipper than I feel today.  I’m going to wrap up this summer series in the next couple of days, but before I do, there’s a few more bits of analysis that I hope you’ll find interesting.  

Let’s say you haven’t been one of the people investing in IPOs yet?  You’re probably waiting for the right one, right?  We hear that from time to time. 

Can Bitcoin be a case study in speculative bubbles, or morph into a widely adopted alternative to government-issued fiat currency?  I really don’t know.  But, it makes for a great story while the price is flying.  So, here’s the story of how Australian investors missed out on the opportunity to invest in the greatest float that never happened.

It’s the old classic investment banking trick … when describing returns, choose a time period that makes you look good.

Its been 4 years since we launched ASX Bookbuild and 2 years since the Prime Minister placed the first bid into an OnMarket IPO (it was my money, placed on my behalf). That was the initial public offering (IPO) of the Bitcoin Group…more on that in a few days, but for now, here’s what we’ve done (thanks to all the people that have bid into deals :-).

Impact investing has been on the rise in recent times, especially amongst younger investors. Many millennials around the world believe that the number one priority of businesses should be ‘to improve society’. 

Arpi Devi Kunuturu is a 26 year old who’s excited about the new, innovative equity crowdfunding opportunity that’s just arrived in Australia. She’s an outgoing, fun individual who has a background in finance, and likes to invest. Here’s our chat with her.

Companies that have undertaken an Initial Public Offering (IPO) this year have returned an average 25.9% for the nine months to September 30, an impressive 25.6% outperformance of the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index which has returned 0.3% over the same period, according to the OnMarket 2017 Third Quarter IPO Report.