Welcome to my New World!

I invite you to join my newsletter today, where I will share some of my observations from the world of capital raising - with experiences from my 20+ years of activity in the markets (public and private, Europe and US), but more importantly, my current exciting business building opportunity with the wonderful team at Crowdfund Capital Advisors (CCA) and CClear??.

It's important to know that when one thinks (investment) crowdfunding (which is distinct from what is commonly known as donation or rewards based crowdfunding), the CCA founders literally wrote the book and were at the forefront and basis of what ultimately became the JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act), signed by President Obama in April 2012.

In 2010, Crowdfund Capital Advisors’ founders were actively lobbying political leaders and drafting the crowdfunding bill, which later became The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (the “JOBS Act”). CCA’s Founders Sherwood Neiss, Jason Best, and Zac Cassady-Dorion conceptualized a comprehensive regulatory framework (the “Crowdfunding Exemption Framework”) that was later utilized and adapted by lawmakers to craft legislation (“Regulation Crowdfunding”) to permit crowdfund investing in the U.S. Through their lobbying efforts with the White House and Congress, this framework became the basis of Title III of the JOBS Act. Essentially, the Crowdfunding Exemption Framework merged the principles of internet based collective finance with early-stage business funding. This has resulted in decentralizing the world of early stage finance.

So why am I excited, why now, and why me? First, why me.

I arrived in the US now more than 20 years ago, working on Wall Street for the first 11 years, running a broker/dealer for a Benelux based banking group - selling European equities to US institutional investors. During that time, I was involved in numerous IPO's, SPO's, private placements, mostly concentrated in small, early stage businesses in all kinds of industries. My highlight, in hindsight, was ringing the closing bell at the NYSE on 11/17/2009, in the presence of the Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Belgium at the time (now European Commissioner) and a selection of CEO's of major listed Belgian companies. (I'm the guy all the way to the right ...)

In that period I was also regularly active as a startup mentor and coach at the Belgian-American Chamber of Commerce (Belcham), and later with Atelier, their in-house accelerator for startups and scaleups.

After that, over the last 10 years, I was involved in starting, working with and for 2 early stage startups in fintech with subsequent exits, and most recently, worked for Curinos, focusing on data analytics for consumer lending. I'm also an angel investor, and currently a mentor with imec.istart, ranked the #1 university-linked business accelerator worldwide. All this to say - I ?? small businesses and startups.

Needless to say, the opportunity to work with the CCA team and help scale the business of CClear?? (and indirectly Guardd and D3VC) is a match made in heaven - combining my passion for (proprietary) data analytics with small business and startups, AI/ML, venture capital, economic growth, and all the related fun stuff.

Three main themes are driving the future of Investment Crowdfunding:

1. The data around the industry, which does much more than highlight deal flow. It is a proxy for investor sentiment, economic development, innovation centers, and job creation. CClear?? is the prime data source, capturing every single offering since day 1.
2. Liquidity, which isn't just about ROI but capital IN. The more investors experience liquidity, the more capital will return. This doesn't necessarily mean exits but secondary trading of securities for which there is a market. This is where compliance tools like GUARDD come in.
3. And finally, venture/institutional capital. There need to be more opportunities like D3VC.ai for investors to invest in a venture fund investing in a broad selection of Investment Crowdfunding offerings. This will diversify risk and may lead to greater returns without investors having to select individual companies among thousands of offerings. It will also create a pathway for institutional capital to enter the ecosystem systematically. This will allow the industry to grow dramatically.

So if you're interested in connecting with me on the subject to find out more, feel free to reach out and set up some time to talk. Thanks for reading and subscribing, and I'm looking forward to sharing more information on a regular basis. And remember, with thanks to my colleague Sherwood (Woodie) Neiss :

The future of Investment Crowdfunding is not just about raising capital; it's about creating an ecosystem where data, liquidity and venture capital coalesce to offer unparalleled opportunities for both investors and startups.

Yvan De Munck, Director Business Development, CClear??, Inc.