The crowdfunding platform backed by Andy Murray is launching in the US
Seedrs beta test will offer US-accredited investors the opportunity to invest in selected campaigns listed on Seedrs, with an official launch expected in early 2016. The full launch is expected to allow non-accredited investors to take part too.
Seedrs, launched in the UK in 2009, is an online crowdfunding platform that lets people buy stock in fast-growing startups from as little as £10. Startups looking for cash will sell a certain amount of shares on the platform for a set funding goal.
Backers of Seedrs include star fund manager Neil Woodford, a venture capital fund backed by Lord Rothschild, and Andy Murray, who sits on the company's advisory board.
The expansion comes after the US Securities and Exchange Committee (SEC) on Friday approved Title III of the JOBS Act, allowing non-accredited investors to buy stock in companies alongside accredited investors.
To be an accredited investor in the US you must have a net worth of at least $1 million or have had an income of $200,000 for the past 2 years. That's a high bar and means there is a much smaller pool of people available to invest on equity crowdfunding platforms in the US.
But the ruling allows ordinary people to put money into these companies over platforms like Seedrs.
Seedrs bought California-based crowdfunding platform Junction Investments in late 2014 but has been lobbying for rule changes in the US to allow its business model to work.
Seedrs' founder and CEO Jeff Lynn said in an emailed statement:
I have had the privilege of being involved in the lawmaking process for U.S. crowdfunding ever since the JOBS Act was introduced in 2011, and I am very pleased to see that the SEC has finally adopted rules implementing Title III.
We believe this heralds the emergence of equity crowdfunding as a vibrant form of finance in the United States - just as it has become in the UK and Europe - and Seedrs is perfectly positioned to take advantage of the sector's growth. The beta testing we are announcing today will be our first foray into the market, and we look forward to growing our presence there significantly in 2016.