BY Casey hall
Looking to impact invest in public companies is limited because these companies are giant, their motivations tend to be mostly financial, and there isn’t a great standard system capturing impact metrics yet. So I’ve turned to private equity options. Title III of the JOBS Act was put into place in 2016 easing securities regulations on small businesses..
by opening up equity crowdfunding to non-accredited investors. This was a huge win for those with savings interested in private offerings that don’t quite rake in the kind of dough that it takes to become an accredited investor ($200k annual income or $1M net worth). I chose (https://wefunder.com) based on looking through which private companies were currently raising on their platform. Wefunder was involved in getting the laws around crowdfunding into place years ago and they have been in business since. Your fill out a profile which sets limits on how much you can invest annually in Regulation Crowdfunding Offerings. Assuming you are non-accredited, on an annual basis: -Everyone can invest at least USD $2,200, but a max of $107K -If your net worth or income is lower than $107k, than up to 5% of the lessor -If your net worth or income is greater than $107k, than up to 10% of the lessor Signing up was very intuitive and they have several mission-driven companies such as Quadrant Biosciences Inc (saliva test for Autism), Sunstate Laboratories (non-concessionary impact company making cleaning products), . Wefunder manages and stores all of the Legal paperwork involved in applying and acquiring your equity, payment and Custodian, and other Legal information. The platform is very tech-savvy and gives you tons of access to specific info on the companies you’re interested in and let’s you communicate with the Founders and other investors on the platform! I decided to invest in Sunjoined; their mission is to help family farmers make a living by growing hemp. My dashboard on Wefunder organizes the investment, paperwork, etc there and provides me updates on important dates or when the founder has communicated. I also really have my eye on World Tree (eco-timber & sustainability), I love their mission and payout term structure. But unfortunately since regulations are so tedious, the company hasn’t quite finished some of the legal processed in a couple states – NJ happens to be one of them! The founder told me that they are hoping that changes soon…
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