Crowd funding websites given licences to help businesses raise money

THE FIRST seven licences have been issued for crowd-sourced funding (CSF) intermediaries to allow them to provide their services to help unlisted small to medium businesses raise money from investors.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) issued the licences under the new CSF regime and it means eligible public companies will now be able to use it to raise capital by making offers of ordinary shares to investors via the online platform of one of these companies.

The CSF regime is designed to provide start-ups and small to medium sized companies with a new means to access capital to develop and grow. CSF offers are subject to fewer regulatory requirements than other forms of public fundraising.

"ASIC has been assessing applications as a matter of priority, as suitable intermediaries needed to be licensed before fundraising under the new regime could commence," says ASIC Commissioner John Price.

"Intermediaries have an important gatekeeper role which will be key to building and maintaining investor trust in crowd-sourced fundraising, so we are pleased to have now issued the first tranche of authorisations," he says. Read more

Ben Hall - Business News Australia - 11 Jan 2018