Equity crowdfunding platform FundedByMe has launched a fund-raising campaign of its own today. It’s hoping to raise 3 million SEK (approx €315,000) through its platform — money that will be used by the Swedish startup for further expansion and product development.
In other words, this is another chance for armchair investors to invest in the picks and shovels of equity crowfunding.
As it stands, FundedByMe employs 18 people in 8 countries, mainly in Europe but also Singapore, helping to support its claim to being the world’s first “widely cross-border” equity crowdfunding platform. That one-ups a similar claim made by the UK’s Seedrs late last year when it was raising funding on its own platform — a claim FundedByMe disputed — while just a few weeks ago German equity crowdfunding platform Companisto began accepting investments from anywhere in the world and targeting startups who want to raise funding right across Europe.
Suffice to say, claims of cross-border first-ness are now a little redundant and are starting to look rather silly, if they didn’t already. Let’s put this one to bed shall we? You know who you are.
Now back to FundedByMe’s news. In addition to running its own equity crowdfunding campaign, the company, which originally launched in 2011 as a rewards-based platform before pivoting to offer equity-based crowdfunding, is adding “crowd-lending” as another option. It’s initially offering profit-participating loans in Germany and will soon add peer-to-company lending and convertible lending to Sweden followed by other markets its operates in.
The mix of different funding options is reminiscent of UK-based AngelDen’s slightly schizophrenic offering, though with these things the devil is always in the detail.
FundedByMe says it already has over 32,000 registered international investor members, and its platform has funded deals totalling €4.5 million. That’s on par with Companisto. Meanwhile, Seedrs claims over €8 million across 79 deals, if we are to count the ~€3 million it raised for itself through its platform.