Crowdfunding News – All The Latest Updates
Hi guys hope you had a great Easter! This week we return to our fortnightly crowdfunding news updates and rather than clocking up the air miles from travelling to many places to investigate the latest goings-on in crowdfunding, we time travel in our first story back to Saxon England and travel back and end up in France for our last story of the day. If you read our property blog from last week and were wondering how much the ‘fairy tale’ castle in Manchester cost – the answer was B £2.5 million!
Online Crowdfunding Helps Build Saxon House
Our first story of the day comes from
Saxon England
(ok, modern day Lincolnshire!).
Retired teachers Steve, 64, and Judith Jones, 65, have worked hard for two decades creating a Saxon house in their back garden.
They built the traditional looking Saxon house from green oak wood and used tools and construction methods from the 9th century.
The retired couple now use the Saxon house to teach youngsters from a nearby school for children with learning or behavioural problems. (Express, March, 2016)
In January, Mr and Mrs Jones noticed that the thatched roof was in need of repair – so they turned to 21st century methods and set up an online crowdfunding campaign.
Last weekend the couple from Lincolnshire reached their target meaning the roof can now be re-thatched to stop rain water flooding in to the house.
The Saxon house was finished after four years but they have continued to add to since starting the project back in the mid 90s.
The Jones family live normal 21st century lives in their home but dress up as Saxons when people are visiting them.
Mrs. Jones told the Express : “We were delighted when we reached the target because if was a type of campaign that meant you either got all of the money by a set date or you didn’t get any.”
Her husband Steve mentioned in the Express article that they have made the Saxon house as authentic as it can be and want people to walk in and look see what is in and make sense of how it would have been used and how the Saxons survived.
At The House Crowd unfortunately we can’t help you crowdfund your very own Saxon house – but if you are interested in something more “current” to invest in – why not take a sneak peak out our latest projects? Click here to view.
Image Source : Express
Crowdfunding Boosts UK Judicial Review Bids
Angered by the imposition of a new NHS contract, a group of junior doctors took their fight from the picket lines to the internet. (FT, March, 2016)
Dr Nadia Masood, an anaesthetics registrar, and three others wanted a judicial review on the NHS contract but needed money to pay for it. However, within a space of three days Masood and the three others involved raised £85,000 via crowdfunding site CrowdJustice (we blogged about their work back in January – click here to view).
Dr Masood mentioned in The FT : “This contract is a public issue and affects everyone, if we were not able to use crowdfunding we would not be able to do this. We cannot stand by without a proper review of the impact on patient safety of such action.”
As we mention in our “Justice For The Crowd” blog post – (as you can tell!) we love crowdfunding and the whole concept of the crowd coming together for the common good whether that be to invest in start-ups, property, or cases like this, the ability to use crowdfunding by joining forces with like-minded people to try and protect their particular interests is paramount.
If you are in a situation where you need a team of people to pool various resources together and help fund judicial reviews we strongly recommend visiting the Justice For The Crowd site.
Image Source : FT
SyndicateRoom Partners With London Stock Exchange
Crowdfunding investment platform SyndicateRoom has gained intermediary status with the London Stock Exchange (LSE), meaning it can offer investors access to initial public offerings (IPOs) of companies listing shares on the London stock market through its online platform. (Business Insider, March, 2016)
Co-founder and CEO Goncalo de Vasconcelos mentioned in Business Insider about IPOs that they are harder to access when there is a discount on the share price and typically only institutional investors such as the likes of asset managers, and wealth managers have access to them.
He also mentions that SyndicateRoom is breaking barriers by letting ordinary investors gain access to the kind of deals that professional investors normally only get involved in.
While the Cambridge based company is the first crowdfunding platform to get intermediary status, other platforms are trying to revamp the crowdfunding model to public markets. For those of you who have a huge interest in crowdfunding, you’ll remember when Seedrs ran what was claimed as “the first-ever crowdfunding campaign for a company’s IPO” last year, in addition, Crowdcube, the London based crowdfunding platform last year partnered with stockbroker Numis Securities to develop a crowdfunding IPO platform.
Millennial Crowdfunding : A Brief Insight
To say millennials are a social generation is an understatement to say the least. Generation Y need to be connected to everyone, all the time.
Besides the stereotype of them being hooked on the likes of Snapchat and Facebook and wanting everything in an instant, millennials are an entrepreneurial generation, and they have socialised their professional lives as well. This is where crowdfunding has come into play and millennial entrepreneurs have found success from launching new business as a result of adopting a crowdfunding mode and are using an array of platforms to kick-start their ideas.
Their love of social media goes well with crowdfunding to help them share their great business ideas as well as look at alternative ways to invest (such as property crowdfunding) to being involved in charitable campaigns and earning recognition and social credit by being “seen” doing good online.
Going back to the investing part, millennials are taking a completely different approach from that of their parents and grandparents.Today, all it takes is literally a few clicks on an app for millennials to looks at online reviews, get advice, and even make get involved in a crowdfunded campaign or investment.
While quite a few are weary of get involved in the likes of crowdfunding projects or simply investing, the availability of social media tools is making it easier and more comfortable for this age bracket to learn how these models work.
If you’re reading this and are part of Generation Y and would like to know more about how crowdfunding works, check out our page on how the process works (view here).
Minister of Economy Gives French Crowdfunding Sector a Boost
A few weeks ago we mentioned about French crowdfunding (view here) and have an update from Emmanuel Macron, the French Minister of Economy.
At a recent crowdfunding meeting, the Minister announced that he will propose several changes with regards to crowdfunding regulations in France.
He mentioned that mini bonds be managed by blockchain technology (a promise on his commitment to innovation), plus Macron proposes to raise the ceiling of equity fundraising per issuer from currently €1 million to € 2.5 million and 50% of the issuer’s value (Crowdfund Insider, March, 2016). Lenders will also have a high limit per campaign (limits will be raised to €2,000 and €5,000) currently, crowdfunders are limited to lending €1,000 for interest-bearing loans and €4,000 for interest-free loans according to Crowdfund Insider’s Therese Torris.
On the day Macron stressed that crowdfunding is part of a larger economic and cultural change and that France must seek inspiration and benchmarks from other countries that are championing crowdfunding.
What Are Your Thoughts?
Which of our chosen crowdfunding stories has interested you the most? We would love to hear from you, feel free to leave us a comment on our Facebook and Google Plus pages. If you prefer to tweet us, tweet @TheHouseCrowd.
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The post The Latest Crowdfunding News – 31/3/16 appeared first on The House Crowd.