End of the year (or should we say the end of a decade) with FundedByMe
As we head into 2020 we want to take this opportunity to look back at some of our accomplishments for 2019. We’ve had a very eventful year, where we’ve been both challenged and celebrated successes. But while many would claim that we’ve been faced with a few hurdles these past months we would like to urge to disagree and claim that 2019 has been pretty great.
Below we’ve listed five of our top happenings during 2019 — starting with our listing on NGM Nordic MTF on March 8th. While the share price hasn’t performed as anyone had hoped, it still marks as a significant event for us. We’ve learned a lot about what it means to be a listed company and the road to get there, and we believe that these lessons and experience will prove valuable for our clients onwards. We look forward to being able to help others as they prepare for a similar journey in the future. Taking an idea to the stock market is not something that all companies can do. But those who do will surely benefit from our platforms, networks, experience and fighting spirit.
Top events for FundedByMe in 2019:
- FundedByMe is now a publicly-traded company on the stock market
- We’ve seen the value in Investor Relations and joined forces with Laika Consulting
- We’re closer to a unified set of rules for equity crowdfunding in the EU
- FundedByMe MENA becomes the first regulated crowdfunding platform in the UAE
- Successfully closing 34 crowdfunding campaigns
In June, the FundedByMe team moved to our subsidiary, Laika Consulting, and their offices. And during these past months, while being two different companies, with two different cultures, we’ve come together and are today able to use our differences in terms of knowledge and experience to work together and offer our clients a full experience regarding the procurement of capital and marketing and investor relations.
This year it’s not only FundedByMe who has gone through changes but the entire crowdfunding market. In January, FundedByMe MENA received approval and a full regulatory license from the DFSA — making FundedByMe MENA the only regulated equity crowdfunding platform in the region. In November we also received an update from the EU about the current legislation for businesses working within the crowdfunding segment. FundedByMe has always worked closely with the Financial Supervisory Authority, for all of our operational countries, but there has yet to be a unified EU policy to uphold, which is why we were excited to hear about the proposed changes for 2020 — where coherent legislation will be enforced for the entire EU. And with the recent election and developments in the UK, we also expect Brexit to be implemented early 2020 — making FundedByMe the largest equity crowdfunding platform in the EU.
But what about our campaigns? During 2019 we’ve managed to close 34 successful cases. Some big some small but all awesome and celebrated by their new shareholders. While this number is slightly less compared to last year’s record we’re still very pleased. We’ve managed to help 34 companies to continue their hard work towards becoming the next unicorn. In May we also implemented Stripe as a payment solution for our campaigns — making it possible to pay for your investment using card for the first time in FundedByMe history.
To conclude, everything that we set out to do at the beginning of 2019 we’ve accomplished, which is fantastic. Yes, we’ve had some ups and a few downs along the way but to be able to say that we accomplished our goals is still amazing. 9 years ago FundedByMe started as just an idea. Since then, we’ve had over 64 million € invested in the 600 companies we’ve helped crowdfund. Having empowered tens of thousands of shareholders, we truly believe that we have improved and changed the world of finance, and surely made it far more transparent, effective and democratic.
At the beginning of 2019 we were still a young fintech — a startup in many ways — wanting to show the world that a company such as FundedByMe could go from being just an idea, to crowdfund and eventually to get listed. And we accomplished just that. Now the core focus is chasing profitability!
Thank you 2019 and welcome 2020!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
/ The FundedByMe Team
