The changing landscape of crowdfunding in Australia
When Aussie start-up, Nura, wanted to raise funds to help launch its hi-tech, self-adjusting headphones onto the global market, it turned to crowd-funding platform Kickstarter.
The groundbreaking Nuraphones attracted the support of over 7,000 ‘backers’ who pledged money in return for early access to the product, netting Nura over US$1.8 million and breaking records for an Australian crowd-funding campaign.
Recent decisions by the Australian Government to expand the use of crowd-funding for equity raising, initially by public companies and now potentially by SMEs and start-ups, could make a huge difference for companies seeking capital for growth and expansion.
The first round of legislation came into force last month, allowing licensed intermediaries to provide access to crowd-funding for retail investors. The second round, introduced into the Lower House on 14th September, which proposes to extend crowdsourced funding to eligible proprietary companies, will be one of our key catalysts for Australian innovators and start-ups while providing special investor protections.
Given the potential for this new bill to foster innovation by opening up funding opportunities for smaller and early stage companies that might otherwise struggle to access traditional funding sources, we encourage both sides of Government to support early passage of the legislation.
Rapid advances in technology and the growing competition our start-ups face from international players makes it imperative that we embrace measures that will enhance our competitiveness and assist Australia’s transition to a digital economy.
When Treasurer Scott Morrison addressed a sold-out ACS breakfast in Sydney late last month, he challenged our members and all ICT professionals to be change agents in harnessing new technologies.
To read more about crowdfunding in Australia, please click on the link below…
Source: The changing landscape of crowdfunding in Australia – The Australian
Image: ReadyFundGo.com
