Paul Niederer CEO of ASSOB, Australia’s longest running and most successful Crowdsourcing platform shares the best in class results from the last sixteen capital raisings on the ASSOB platform.

Success leaves clues

I wondered, what is “Best in Class” in raising funds from predominantly retail or unaccredited investors.

Best way to find out was to look at 16 of the most successful, recent Startup equity raises on the ASSOB Equity funding Capital Raising platform. These 16 raised over 11 million dollars together on ASSOB.

Most of these companies were after their first capital, meaning there was usually some sweat equity already, maybe some family money, but most were not ready for Angels or VC’s. Thats why they came to ASSOB.

Bootstrap, then ASSOB, then Angels then VC’s.

Best in Class

Lets determine what is “Best in Class” from the sixteen recent ASSOB raises that raised on total $11.4 million.

• Raise size. $425,000 to $1,592,000 with an average of $637,666. You may seek to raise less or more than $600k but our experience has shown that an opportunity with a convincing, compelling and credible story, coupled with a balanced, passionate and likeable team generally raises from $500k upward for an equity raise.

• Average amount raised daily. $680 to $6,076 with an average of $1685. So if you are out to raise some equity funding from unaccredited investors $1685 per day is a good figure to start with to work out how long you will need to raise your money. Best in class $6,076 a day. Lets say $6000.

• Crowd size. Generally the larger your crowd the more you raise. Gathering a crowd is essential to a raise. The stats show that the crowd size is usually between 335 and 991 people. These are people that have visited your profile page and have had more than just a brief look. The average crowd size is 667 people. Of these 667 people around 40% actually download details about the offer including the offer document. On average 8% of them invest. Best in class is a crowd of 991. Lets round that off at 1000.

• Investor locality. 60% of investment comes from the same state or province so geography matters.

• Investor type. Over half of investment came from retail or unaccredited investors. While the average was 56% the number of retail investors in raises ranged from 32% to 79% Usually the first $200,000 to $300,000 came exclusively from this group. Here is the breakdown.
  • Retail / Unaccredited investors 56%
  • Existing Shareholders 17%
  • Sophisticated / Accredited investors 15%
  • Overseas investors 6%
  • Associates of he business 4%
  • Professional / Accredited investors 2%

• Raise Sectors. Not every company is headed for a Silicon Valley exit. Most are not as exciting as the SnapChats and Ubers of this world. The 16 raises included here covered a broad range of sectors. All companies were Australian with Australian innovation. Fitness, Pharmaceutical, Welding technology, Cloud technology, Designer Furniture, Robotics, Wealth Management, Risk Management, Dental Technology, Online Photos, Open Source Software and Senior Welfare.

What will it take?

So what does all this mean if you are seeking equity capital?

If you are preparing for an equity crowdfunding raise, including retail/unaccredited investors, then it is well worth playing around with these “Best in Class” stats to get a feel about where your investment could come from and in what amounts.

Say you want to raise $600,000 based on performing like the “Best in Class”.

1. If you do a good job, and work hard, the fastest you should be able towrap it up is in 100 days
2. You need to gather a crowd of just under 1000. That means you need to drive 1000 interested people to your profile page on the equity funding platform.
3. Focus at least 60% of your effort on local investors.
4. Retail investors are needed to get initial traction. By the end of the raise you will have at least 32% of your investment from this group and in some cases as high as 79%.

In a sentence ?

$600k in 100 days from a gathered crowd of 1000 with 60% local investors and over half retail/unaccredited investors.

Paul Niederer is the CEO of the Australian Small Scale Offerings Board (ASSOB), Australia’s largest and most successful business introduction and matching platform and one of the more structured methods of raising early stage investment funds with a focus on compliance, disclosure and corporate governance. To date ASSOB has raised over $135 million for Australian startups. You can read more of Paul’s thoughts on crowdfunding and early stage investing at his blog Paul Niederer.

About : http://paulniederer.com/