MicroVentures
website
MicroVentures is an equity crowdfunding website that offers investments in early stage companies. It connects accredited investors with startups, businesses and services looking to raise funds or participate in select secondary market opportunities.
MicroVentures is the only major equity crowdfunding site that is a broker-dealer registered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the first to take a portfolio company to a successful exit. As of October 2013, MicroVentures had raised $20 million, spread among 45 companies including Twitter, Facebook, and Yelp (before they reached the public markets).
History
Founding
MicroVentures was founded by Bill Clark in Austin, Texas, in 2009. Prior to starting MicroVentures, Clark worked as a credit-risk manager with GMAC Inc., PayPal, and Dell Financial Services (DFS). Clark decided to found the company after witnessing the contraction in small-business credit opportunities following the 2008 financial crisis. MicroVentures completed FINRA's application process in 2010.
Growth
In August 2012, Tim Sullivan, then president of SharesPost, an online marketplace for trading shares of private companies, joined MicroVentures as its CEO to help scale the company. Under Sullivan, deal volume rose to over $1 million per month by January 2013, and by September 2013 MicroVentures had doubled in size and completed a successful round of fundraising on its own platform.
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