investing

In 2017, 122 companies filed Regulation A+ (Reg A+) offerings and raised over $236.5 million collectively, building upon the early promise shown when the rules went into effect two years ago. Reg A+ is a less complicated and shorter process for a company going public than the traditional initial public offering (IPO) process. The 2017 Reg A+ offerings averaged $18.2 million each, according to a recent report by Amit Singh from the Stradling law firm, and include both Reg A+ Tier 1 and Tier 2 offerings. However, as the SSTI Digest recently reported about  equity crowdfunding, startups and other small businesses have been slow to adopt this new source of capital. Touted as a “game changer” by its proponents because it allowed companies to more easily raise money from non-accredited investors and market their mini-IPO over the internet, Singh contends he was surprised that there have been so few offerings.

In reviewing data regarding the hundreds of TBED-related investment funds, SSTI found that 24 of them have invested in at least one dozen startups each over the past year.  The funds are characterized as economic development, university-centric, regionally focused, or impact oriented investment funds, incubators and accelerator programs located in the U.S. or Canada. Data the various funds provide to  Pitchbook is the source of the list below, ranked in order by activity level. Each organization may have used their public or university funding to support operations, due diligence or mentoring of portfolio companies and/or to support direct invest into startups.  University-centered activities in the list are denoted by an asterisk at the end of the entry.  Two of the most active 24 funds are nonprofit, impact accelerators supported in part by foundations and corporation philanthropy.