What is required to become a crowdfunding Funding Portal under the JOBS Act?
As someone who just finished the Finra process and launched a new Funding Portal at https://www.riseupcrowdfunding.com/, we did not spend anywhere close to 2 million dollars. And we built and designed our own funding portal.
To become a crowdfunding funding portal under the JOBS Act, an entity must register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a "funding portal" and comply with certain regulatory requirements. Here are some of the key requirements:
1: Registration: The entity must register with the SEC as a funding portal by filing Form Funding Portal and must become a member of a national securities association (currently FINRA - the only game in town). Form Funding Portal requires information from the funding portal applicant, including information about the funding portal's business, principals, control relationships, and employees. See: https://www.sec.gov/tm/divisionsmarketregtmcompliancefpregistrationguidehtm
2: Restrictions on Activities: Funding portals are limited in the types of activities they can engage in. For example, they are prohibited from offering investment advice, soliciting transactions, or handling investor funds or securities. They may provide limited communication channels for issuers to communicate with potential investors, but all communication must be conducted through the portal and must be accessible to all investors. IMHO, some restrictions may be tighter than they should be given the capabilities of harnessing the crowd with technology.
3: Investor Protection: Funding portals must take steps to protect investors, including verifying the identity of each investor and limiting the amount of money each investor can invest in a given offering. They must also provide investors with educational materials and warnings about the risks of investing in crowdfunding offerings. It's important to remind investors at every turn that investing is risky - and they can lose all of their investment. Unlike the world of crypto where FOMO is the key selling point, this is REGULATED INVESTMENT CROWDFUNDING so education, disclosures, and caution is warranted.
4: Disclosure Requirements: Funding portals must provide certain disclosures to investors, including information about the issuer, the terms of the offering, and the risks involved in investing in the offering. They must also provide ongoing updates about the issuer and the offering. When in doubt, build disclosures throughout your platform's workflow.
5: Record keeping and Reporting: Funding portals must maintain records of all transactions conducted through the portal and provide certain reports to the SEC.
Compliance with these requirements is essential for a crowdfunding funding portal to operate legally under the JOBS Act. It is important to note that these requirements may be subject to change as the SEC continues to learn from the experience of industry stakeholders and develop its regulatory framework for crowdfunding offerings.
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As someone who just finished the Finra process and launched a new Funding Portal at https://www.riseupcrowdfunding.com/, we did not spend anywhere close to 2 million dollars. And we built and designed our own funding portal.
How much does it cost?
Good question. Cost depends on how much of the work you DIY vs relying on professionals in the field.
Also, it's one step to get the license and permission to operate, it's another to build a platform that works well for issuers / investors, and it's a third to get your portal to break-even -- all with drastically different cost considerations.
According to @Samson Williams, it costs about $2 million to set-up a crowdfunding portal. You can go through his analysis here: https://www.crowdfundingecosystem.com/ask/i-on-a-budget-setting-up-my-license-crowd-funding-portal-with-the-finra-sec-i-have-completed-everything-and-just-need-to-se-3