Business

Aussie Investors Prove Equity Crowdfunding Works For Start-Ups

VentureCrowd, Australia’s original equity-based crowd funding platform, today announced it had closed its first deal, raising $1.2 million for ingogo through its exclusive online platform for sophisticated investors, powered by Artesian Venture Partners.

crowd_funding_webVentureCrowd, Australia’s original equity-based crowd funding platform, today announced it had closed its first deal, raising $1.2 million for ingogo through its exclusive online platform for sophisticated investors, powered by Artesian Venture Partners.

Ingogo, a fully mobile payments provider, raised $9 million total investment in a pre-IPO funding round, with VentureCrowd investors contributing $1.2 million.

The round provides one of the first major Australian examples of how equity crowdfunding can work to provide technology start-ups with much–needed capital.

“Historically, individual investors have only received access to these types of deals by being on a favourite clients list with investment banks, and investing amounts of $250,000 and above,” said Tim Heasley, COO of Artesian Venture Partners.

“VentureCrowd provided exclusive access for smaller investment amounts in this deal to our sophisticated investors, with close to 50 individuals taking up the offer.

“The response was amazing, with applications significantly oversubscribed, demonstrating that VentureCrowd is a robust, viable investment platform for startups and investors.”

Ingogo was founded in 2011 by Hamish Petrie, who sold his previous business Moshtix to News Limited in 2007. While ingogo began as a taxi booking and in-app payments model, it evolved in 2013 to become a full mobile payments business.

Ingogo has already made in–roads into the taxi booking and payments market, expecting to process in excess of $150 million in the next year. It is targeting an initial public offering in 2015.

“Being the first cab off the rank for VentureCrowd is a huge endorsement for what ingogo is trying to achieve,” said Petrie, founder and managing director of ingogo.

“We greatly appreciate the support of VentureCrowd in helping us to reach a broader investor group for this pre-IPO funding round.

“Ingogo is a disruptive business, so it is fitting to be working with an innovative and disruptive crowd funding platform. Alternative funding mechanisms are an important piece of the puzzle for our start-up ecosystem, and we hope ingogo is the first of many Australian innovations to reach its funding goals thanks to VentureCrowd.”

One of the 50 individual investors in ingogo through VentureCrowd was Jonathan Herrman, chairman of Shoeboxed Australia and co-founder of StartNest.

“It was great to be able to get access to this deal,” Herrman said. “It was the first time that I’ve been able to get access to a pre-IPO opportunity of the quality of ingogo. I would encourage investors to have a look at VentureCrowd to make sure they are aware of opportunities ranging from early stage to later stage investments.”

Sophisticated investors keen for unrivalled access to the most exciting start-up businesses in Australia can register online to become involved in other deals offered on VentureCrowd.

Investors can invest as little as $1000, with no maximum, on the VentureCrowd platform. VentureCrowd recommends and helps sophisticated investors to build a diversified portfolio of start-up investments over time.

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