August 19th, 2014 Todd Crosland announced the official launch of his new U.S. Registered Broker-dealer, Seed Equity Ventures. Seed Equity uses an equity-based crowdfunding platform to connect startup companies with venture capital from all over the globe.
Venture capital is fairly limited on a global scale. The majority of venture capital is located in the United States. There are only a couple thousand venture capital firms that control the fate of millions of startups each year. Young entrepreneurs from countries other than the United States are almost forced to move to the US so that they can gain the appropriate funding for their company. Todd Crosland’s vision is to create a global platform so that entrepreneurs and investors from all over the world could easily find each other without having to travel long distances.
On Seed Equity’s platform, startup entrepreneurs are able to share information about their company, run due diligence, apply for funding, and close investment agreements with investors from around the world.
Crowdfunding and global venture capital are surging in today’s startup industry, so Seed Equities launch seems to be coming at a good time. Last year, US investment on equity-based crowdfunding platforms reached $200 million. Analysts say that this number should double this year.
Todd Crosland stresses that Seed Equity Ventures is one of the first equity-based crowdfunding platforms that is focusing globally rather than domestically in the United States. The company currently holds two offices in Salt Lake City and San Francisco, and there are plans in motion to open up a third office in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The platform is backed by a team lead by Clifton Crosland, a Stanford graduate with a degree in computer science. This team helped Todd Crosland gain the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for his efforts in developing Interbank FX, a Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer.
