#8 ?? Invest Like A Venture Capitalist

by Joey Bose and Gaetano Scuderi, MD

?? Equity crowdfunding is the democratization of investing, giving you access to early-stage opportunities normally reserved for the “big boys”.

Alright, time to get to the nuts and bolts of Cytonics capital raise. You’ve learned enough about the company and our groundbreaking research in regenerative medicine to understand why this is a good investment opportunity, but you probably have some questions about how to become a shareholder and what equity crowdfunding even is.?

?? What is Equity Crowdfunding?

Simply put, Equity Crowdfunding (also known as “Regulation CF”) is the democratization of investing. Previously the provenance of Venture Capital, investing in private companies has historically been inaccessible to “everyday” investors. The SEC will tell you that they are trying to protect “unaccredited” investors from bad investments, but in reality keeping early-stage technology companies in the hands of certain institutional firms keeps the VC industry highly profitable.? Equity Crowdfunding has emerged as a bona fide asset class over the last few years, and it is a serious capital raising mechanism used by serious companies.?

Here are a few stats from CrowdCrux (2022):

• A total of $494 million were raised through Reg CF over 33 active platforms in 2022.
• WeFunder, StartEngine, and Republic were the most popular equity crowdfunding portals.
• The average investor check size was $1,256.
• There were a total of 394,354 total Reg CF investments.

The natural question is “how do companies funded via Equity Crowdfunding pan out?” Well, turns out quite a bit better than traditionally capitalized operations.?

“Businesses funded through Regulation Crowdfunding exhibit a higher survival rate than the general business population.”

Sherwood Neiss, Principal at Crowdfund Capital Advisors continues:?

“The Bureau of Labor and Statistics reports that approximately 50% of all new businesses fail within five years. Yet, our analysis of over 6,800 companies engaged in Regulation Crowdfunding tells a different story. Here, only 17.76% of funded companies have gone out of business, a stark contrast to the national average.”

?? Why is Cytonics using Equity Crowdfunding?

We are developing a therapy for the people. So why not fund it by the people? We fully believe that a democratized approach to capitalizing biotechnology research and development is the future, and we are on the forefront of this evolution. Moral pontification aside, Equity Crowdfunding keeps Cytonics out of the hands of predatory VCs who take massive equity stakes and control of our company. Since 2018, we have raised over $10M via Regulation CF across three different platforms (SeedInvest, DealMaker, and most recently, StartEngine), with over 60% of investments coming from returning shareholders. This loyalty was not merely given; it was earned. We earned it by consistently achieving the milestones promised to our investors and communicating with them in an honest, transparent, and consistent way. We value all of our shareholders, large and small, and will continue to raise capital via Reg CF until it is time for a shareholder exit (e.g., IPO or private acquisition).?

?? Why is this good for you?

Now, you have the opportunity to invest in a soon-to-be clinical stage biotechnology R&D company, joining over 4,000 other crowdfunding shareholders in pursuit of The Holy Grail of Regenerative Medicine. If approved by the FDA, our novel biologic therapy for osteoarthritis will likely be the first and only disease-modifying treatment. We are on the cusp of our first-in-human Phase 1 clinical study (scheduled in Q1 2024). Now is your opportunity to invest ahead of this major milestone and play an instrumental role in making this dream a reality.

?? Interested in becoming a shareholder?

Stake your claim here.

Coming up… our President & CEO waxes poetic on the state of biotech, and provides you with a glimpse into Cytonics’ upcoming milestones and why we should be optimistic about biotech in 2024.

Interested in becoming a Cytonics shareholder? Visit invest.cytonics.com to learn more about the offering.

This communication?may contain forward-looking statements and information relating to, among other things, the company, its business plan and strategy, and its industry. These statements reflect management’s current views with respect to future events based information currently available and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the company’s actual results to differ materially. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements as they contain hypothetical illustrations of mathematical principles, are meant for illustrative purposes, and they do not represent guarantees of future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements, all of which cannot be made. Moreover, no person nor any other person or entity assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of forward-looking statements, and is under no duty to update any such statements to conform them to actual results.