FundingHope is passionately focused on helping to create “the Rise of the Rest” so that entrepreneurs and small business owners can build successful, sustainable businesses and grow prosperous communities. The premise of FundingHope is to help create focus and action in economically disadvantaged cities and towns of all sizes. Connecting the growing number of investors interested in a more sustainable world (currently estimated at over 80% of retail investors) to business driven to make a positive impact in their community will form entrepreneurial ecosystems that ignite innovation, create jobs, grow economies, and restore hope. This is how FundingHope reaches the world.
Prior to the passage of the JOBS Act which includes Regulation CF in the United States, the restrictive financial regulations and a lack of mobile/web infrastructure entrepreneurs faced in developing or challenged communities blocked them from connecting with the technologies and investors to build their companies. For most, attracting outside investment was cost prohibitive and logistically impossible. In short, potential investors were scarce, creating a culture of despair which left talented innovators and entrepreneurs without hope.
While Regulation CF currently states that entrepreneurs and businesses raising funds on US-based crowdfunding platforms, like FundingHope, be organized under the laws of a state or territory of the U.S. or the District of Columbia, the eligibility requirements do not require that they have a principal place of business inside the United States. This allows foreign companies to utilize crowdfunding platforms operating under Regulation CF to raise up to $5 million in capital annually “from the crowd”.
Foreign companies wishing to raise funds under Regulation CF can establish an entity organized under the laws of a state or territory of the United States or the District of Columbia such as a Kentucky, Arizona, Wyoming, Illinois, or Nevada limited liability company (LLC). The company can maintain most operations outside of the United States. This approach has been confirmed with the Office of Small Business Policy at the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).
Regulations are evolving on the international front. The rapid growth of equity crowdfunding in the US as a result of the JOBS Act is causing other countries to take note and follow America’s lead. The European Union is, with over two dozen countries creating a more inclusive blanket of regulations. Africa is following that lead, as is Southeast Asia. It is widely expected that within the next few years, the SEC will relax regulations and US crowdfunding will go global.
Already, foreign investors may invest in US companies as long as the investor follows the securities laws governing the country they are from. This allows FundingHope to attract investors from around the world, bring the global marketplace to US communities most in need, and increase the amount of capital flowing to the companies’ raising funds on FundingHope.