Crowd Funding: A Paradigm Shift

Rally raised $7.9 million in Series A funding for promoting interfaith dialogue, engaging 1.5 million users for 14,000 various causes. SoMeLend raised $1.17 million in seed funding during the month of May. IndieGoGo raised $15 million in May. There is a tremendous amount of activity in the marketplace it is truly heating up, says David Drake, CEO and Founder of The Soho Loft, a holding company of LDJ Capital. We see a clear acceleration in crowd funding as an asset class. Crowd funding is a $2.8 billion market and it is explosive in the US. A gaming console company Ouya raised $3,1 million in 48 hours. They still have 28 days left to go. Pebble raised $10M in 21 days just to stop the campaign seven days early, this happened on the same day I was presenting in front of 80 of my guests in Palo Alto and used them as an example in my presentation. We expect to see crowd funding explode with weekly if not daily to as much as $1M raised regularly within 24 hours on various platforms. I estimate Ouya will do $1M daily for the next 20 days watch my word. We are experiencing a paradigm shift where consumers dictate manufacturing. It is relevant to all SMEs in Europe and US as the ultimate financing solution quick, inexpensive, instant results (within 45 days) and as soon as a campaign starts you can predict in the following 48 hours if a campaign is a $200,000 or $500,000+ success rate. This prediction vehicle can be used successfully not only for consumer products. Europe even has an ace up in their sleeve. They are not missing the train crowd funding for equity is already legal today in Holland, France and the UK. The legislative rules can be replicated in all 27 countries of the European Union; covering 500 million inhabitants. They are learning from US success stories and Europe is able to crowd fund industrial products, enterprise services, research, education and every single product and service. That is the beauty of crowd funding for equity you may now invest directly in companies. In addition, Europe does not have a set $1 million limit. We will be experiencing an explosion of SME financing from the consumer either through donation / rewards or through equity. Do not neglect Europes potential, concludes Mr. Drake.

David Drake at the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) forum

Mr. Drake was just in Brussels and Rome last week where he spoke at the EU-US Workshop on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the framework of the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC). He was the US Commerce Departments JOBS Act representative and presented on July 12-13 in Rome to 200+ guests at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Bianca Blake Director of Marketing & Events The Soho Loft Capital Creation Events a holding company of LDJ Capital One Penn Plaza, 49th Floor New York, NY 10001 Tel: 212.845.9652 Cell: 917.796.2102 Fax: 212.208.4371