The Capital Revolution: Building a Borderless Future for Crowdfunding

How Jenny Kassan and the global crowdfunding movement are dismantling the barriers that keep innovation capital locked away from the businesses that need it most

In a recent episode of Crowdfunding Chronicles, the GECA Podcast, host Andy Field sat down with Jenny Kassan, President of the Crowdfunding Professional Association, for a wide-ranging discussion about the future of borderless crowdfunding. Their conversation revealed both the enormous progress made in democratizing capital access and the significant barriers that still constrain the industry’s transformative potential.

In the gleaming towers of Wall Street, $400 trillion circulates through global financial markets daily. Yet according to Jenny, only 15% of that staggering sum ever reaches the productive businesses that form the backbone of local economies. The rest, she argues, “is just money flying around this global financial casino, not actually doing anything productive.”

This stark reality has fueled Jenny’s two-decade crusade to democratize capital access – a mission that began in the vibrant commercial streets of Oakland, California, and now finds powerful alignment with the Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance (GECA) through the CfPA’s recent decision to become GECA supporters.

From Legal Theory to Street-Level Reality

Jenny’s journey into crowdfunding wasn’t paved with Wall Street ambitions. After earning her law degree from Yale, she found herself working with immigrant entrepreneurs in Oakland’s low-income neighborhoods – brilliant business owners with compelling stories who couldn’t access the capital needed to scale their ventures.

“There was so much money in our global financial ecosystem,” she recalls, “and yet so little of that money reaches these businesses. How much better would the world be if these businesses had access to some financial resources?”

That question sparked what would become the legal framework for modern crowdfunding. As co-founder of the Sustainable Economies Law Center, Jenny helped draft the petition that ultimately became the JOBS Act of 2012 – landmark legislation that opened private investment opportunities to everyday Americans for the first time in decades.

The Numbers Tell a Compelling Story

The impact has been substantial. Since Regulation Crowdfunding went live in 2016, over $2 billion has flowed to startups and small businesses through this single exemption alone. Combined with the expanded Regulation A+ framework, the JOBS Act has facilitated more than $10 billion in capital formation for smaller issuers – a testament to the pent-up demand for alternative financing channels.

But these figures represent just the beginning. Recent data from KingsCrowd shows that equity crowdfunding was the only segment of private capital that grew in 2022 (+16% by deal count) while venture capital declined sharply. This resilience during market turbulence suggests crowdfunding has evolved from experimental financing tool to essential infrastructure.

The European Union’s 2024 market report reveals similar momentum, with €1 billion raised across 5,782 projects in the first year under the harmonized European Crowdfunding Service Providers Regulation (ECSPR). Notably, 17% of EU crowdfunding funding now crosses borders – early evidence that regulatory harmonization can unlock international capital flows.

Breaking Down the Borders

Yet for all this progress, Jenny sees fundamental limitations in the current patchwork of national regulations. While institutional capital moves freely across borders with a click, individual investors face significant barriers when attempting to invest in businesses they care about internationally.

“If you’re a money manager who manages billions of dollars, you don’t have to worry about that stuff,” she observes. “But those of us who want to invest in smaller businesses… we’re totally left out of it.”

This asymmetry has profound implications. Consider the estimated 280 million people living outside their countries of birth – diaspora communities with deep knowledge of opportunities in their home markets, yet largely unable to deploy investment capital there due to regulatory fragmentation.

The solution, according to both Jenny and GECA’s vision, lies in creating what Andy Field, GECA’s Steering Committee lead, calls “borderless crowdfunding” – a system where passionate investors can back meaningful ventures regardless of geographic boundaries. In a recent appearance on the GECA Podcast, Jenny articulated this shared vision with compelling clarity.

The Technology Catalyst

The tools to enable this transformation are already emerging. Blockchain technology promises to standardize compliance through programmable smart contracts that can enforce investor caps and disclosure requirements across jurisdictions automatically. Recent analysis shows the real-world asset tokenization market grew 85% year-over-year in 2023, suggesting institutional appetite for digitized securities.

Artificial intelligence is streamlining the compliance burden that has historically constrained smaller offerings. DealMaker’s AI-driven compliance process reduced regulatory timelines by 65% in 2024, while achieving 99% onboarding success rates. Such innovations address one of crowdfunding’s persistent challenges: the fixed costs of compliance that can consume 5-12% of funds raised, particularly burdensome for smaller campaigns.

Local Roots, Global Reach

Perhaps counterintuitively, Jenny believes the path to global crowdfunding runs through intensely local initiatives. Her current project, Baltimore Community Commons, aims to create a place-based ecosystem where residents become comfortable investing in their own community first.

“My theory of change is that things really do change when we can be face-to-face with each other,” she explains. “It’s overwhelming when you think about global change, but I believe it has to be a global movement of local activism.”

This philosophy aligns with emerging investment patterns. During the pandemic, crowdfunding campaigns with strong community connections consistently outperformed those targeting purely financial returns. Investors, research shows, are motivated by both potential profits and personal passion for the ventures they support.

Regulatory Evolution and International Cooperation

The regulatory landscape is evolving to accommodate these realities. The EU’s ECSPR represents the most ambitious harmonization effort to date, allowing companies to raise up to €5 million across all member states under a single authorization. Early results suggest success: platforms report reduced compliance costs and increased cross-border participation.

Similar momentum is building globally. Canada unified its provincial crowdfunding rules in 2021, Australia has maintained steady growth with A$289 million raised to date, and emerging markets from Malaysia to Nigeria are implementing frameworks designed to channel both domestic and diaspora capital to local entrepreneurs.

In the United States, discussions around “JOBS Act 4.0” could raise Regulation Crowdfunding caps beyond the current $5 million limit and create limited secondary trading exemptions – changes that would enhance liquidity and attract larger check writers.

The Platform Evolution: From Scale to Ecosystem

The platform landscape is evolving rapidly, with major players like Wefunder, StartEngine, and Republic collectively accounting for roughly 80% of US Regulation Crowdfunding volume. These leading platforms have made remarkable strides, transforming from simple marketplace hosts into comprehensive service providers offering integrated legal, marketing, and compliance support. Many have pioneered innovations in secondary trading, tokenization, and investor education that benefit the entire industry.

However, their very success highlights an emerging opportunity. If crowdfunding is truly meant to serve the 99.9% of companies that don’t access venture capital, the industry may benefit from a more distributed approach that combines the strengths of established platforms with specialized local expertise.

The fundamental opportunity lies in scalability with specialization. While major platforms excel at standardized processes, regulatory compliance, and investor acquisition, the diverse needs of global entrepreneurs may be best served through complementary ecosystem models. Local and specialized platforms can provide deep domain expertise, community relationships, and cultural understanding that enhance campaign success rates.

Rather than viewing this as competition, the future likely favors collaborative networks where established platforms and emerging specialized providers work together. Major platforms could provide infrastructure, compliance frameworks, and investor pools, while local partners contribute market knowledge, due diligence capabilities, and community engagement.

This distributed model could unlock the true potential Jenny envisions: leveraging the scale and expertise of successful platforms while enabling local specialization and cross-border connectivity. The current market structure exists partly due to regulatory complexity and operational barriers – as these inefficiencies are addressed, we may see new collaborative models that benefit all participants.

The goal isn’t to replace successful platforms but to expand the ecosystem in ways that serve more entrepreneurs effectively while creating new opportunities for platform innovation and growth.

Measuring Real-World Impact

Beyond capital formation statistics, early data suggests crowdfunding is delivering on its promise of economic democratization. The SEC’s 2024 analysis found that successful Reg CF companies correlated with continued business growth and ability to secure follow-on financing. While only 0.25% have reached IPO and 2.2% have been acquired – expected given the market’s youth – survival rates match or exceed those of traditionally funded startups.

More importantly, crowdfunding appears to be reaching underserved entrepreneurs. Women and minority-owned businesses show strong representation in crowdfunding campaigns, often outperforming their participation rates in venture capital. This suggests the “crowd” may be less prone to the unconscious biases that have historically limited access to growth capital.

However, as Jenny notes, significant challenges remain. In the United States, a recent study revealed that 60% of people don’t have enough money to afford even basic necessities – highlighting the wealth concentration that limits who can participate as investors. “We are in a time of wealth being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands,” she observes, pointing to a fundamental constraint on crowdfunding’s reach.

The Road Ahead

Looking forward, industry leaders anticipate several convergent trends that could accelerate the shift toward borderless crowdfunding:

Regulatory Harmonization: Industry associations and advocacy groups are beginning to coordinate efforts across jurisdictions, potentially laying groundwork for future mutual recognition agreements that could allow qualified offerings to access international investor pools seamlessly.

Technological Integration: The convergence of traditional crowdfunding with DeFi protocols and tokenization could create programmable compliance that transcends national boundaries, while AI continues to reduce operational friction. Initiatives like Dacxi Chain are building blockchain infrastructure to connect global crowdfunding ecosystems while maintaining regulatory compliance across jurisdictions.

Demographic Shifts: Millennials and Gen Z, digital natives with strong values alignment preferences, are entering their prime investment years with expectations shaped by seamless online experiences and social impact considerations.

Institutional Participation: Early signs suggest larger investors are beginning to view crowdfunding not as competition but as complementary deal flow, potentially bringing additional validation and capital to successful campaigns.

A Vision Realized

The transformation Jenny envisions isn’t merely about regulatory reform or technological advancement – it’s about fundamentally realigning how capital flows through the global economy. Instead of money chasing money in increasingly abstract financial instruments, she sees a future where investment becomes “a joyful, values-driven act” connecting people to enterprises they believe in.

“Every human being is affected by a financial system that often doesn’t serve them,” she reflects. “This is a global issue. And it’s time we start acting like it.”

Through organizations like the Crowdfunding Professional Association, which recently became GECA supporters, and the Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance itself, that vision is becoming operational reality. By sharing best practices, coordinating advocacy efforts, and demonstrating successful models, these coalitions are building the infrastructure for a more inclusive capital ecosystem.

The goal isn’t to replace traditional finance but to create alternatives that serve the 99.9% of businesses that will never access venture capital or public markets. If successful, the movement could redirect even a small percentage of global financial flows toward productive investment – potentially unleashing unprecedented innovation and economic opportunity.

As Jenny puts it: “We’re not looking at the money side first and foremost. There’s nothing wrong with making money, but it’s not the driving force in true innovation. The thing about true innovation is there’s always money down the road.”

For the millions of entrepreneurs worldwide with compelling visions but limited access to capital, that road may soon lead everywhere.

Listen to the full podcast conversation with Jenny Kassan: Watch here

Jenny Kassan’s book “Raise Capital On Your Own Terms”: Buy here

GECA manifesto: Read here

The Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance (GECA) brings together platforms, investors, and advocates from across the globe to shape a truly borderless future for investment. Learn more about joining the movement at thegeca.org.