GECA Appoints Jill Storey: Big 4 Partner Turned Crowdfunding Pioneer
GECA Strengthens Asia-Pacific Leadership with Appointment of Renowned Finance and Crowdfunding Expert
Former Big 4 Partner, Early UK Crowdfunding Pioneer, and Ocean Climate Finance Leader Brings Institutional Rigor and Entrepreneurial Insight to Global Harmonization Mission
The Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance (GECA) today announced the appointment of Jill Storey as Strategic Advisor for Australia to its Steering Committee, marking a significant expansion of the organization's Asia-Pacific expertise and regulatory insight.
Jill brings over 25 years of global financial expertise spanning four continents, pioneering crowdfunding experience from the sector's earliest days, and proven impact investing leadership at the intersection of finance, innovation, and climate solutions.
From Big 4 Partnership to Crowdfunding Pioneer
Jill's career foundation was built through partnerships at three of the world's most prestigious professional services firms - Andersen, KPMG, and Deloitte - across the UK, Europe, Hong Kong, and Australia. In these roles, she advised global financial institutions and multinationals in energy and resources sectors on complex cross-border tax strategy, risk management, and governance issues for global workforces.
"The expertise required to navigate multi-jurisdictional regulatory frameworks, manage cross-border compliance, and advise institutions on strategic risk is exactly what GECA needs as we work toward harmonized global crowdfunding standards," said Andy Field, GECA Steering Committee Executive Lead. "Jill doesn't just understand regulatory complexity theoretically - she's lived it at the highest institutional level across four continents and multiple regulatory regimes."
But what sets Jill apart is her rare combination of institutional rigor and entrepreneurial agility. In 2012, following the London Olympics, she recognized crowdfunding's potential to democratize access to finance and founded a donation-based crowdfunding platform in the UK called Inspire a Star, designed to help children and young people realize their sporting dreams.
This wasn't a side project - it was a fundamental shift from advising institutions to building infrastructure that served underrepresented communities directly.
Building Australia's Equity Crowdfunding Framework
After relocating to Australia, Jill acquired and developed ReadyFundGo, an Australian reward-based crowdfunding platform focused on social entrepreneurs, innovators, and startups. Her hands-on platform experience provided invaluable insight into what makes crowdfunding work in practice - not just in regulatory theory.
Building on this experience, Jill worked closely with several Australian crowdfunding platforms during a critical period: the early implementation of Australia's regulated equity crowdfunding framework. She supported two Australian platforms in obtaining their ASIC crowd-sourced equity funding licenses - navigating one of the world's most progressive regulatory environments for retail equity investment.
Her work across donation, reward, and equity-based crowdfunding models provides a comprehensive perspective on alternative finance evolution that few practitioners can match.
Governance, Policy Leadership, and Industry Development
Since 2017, Jill has served as Non-Executive Board Member of the Crowdfunding Institute of Australia, contributing to industry development and dialogue around crowdfunding and emerging forms of digital finance. Her governance experience spans corporate organizations, not-for-profits, and early-stage ventures - bringing practical insight into building sustainable, well-governed crowdfunding platforms and markets.
"GECA isn't just about platforms - it's about building trustworthy, well-governed ecosystems that regulators, investors, and issuers can rely on," Field emphasized. "Jill's board-level governance experience across multiple organizational types gives her the systems-level perspective we need to help platforms professionalize while maintaining the entrepreneurial spirit that makes crowdfunding powerful."
Impact Investing and Climate Finance Leadership
Currently serving as Ocean CO2 Removal Advisor to the World Ocean Council, Jill exemplifies the intersection of finance, innovation, and impact investing. She works across the global marine carbon dioxide removal (CDR) ecosystem on commercialization, policy alignment, and measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) integrity - advancing high-integrity, ocean-based carbon removal solutions while maintaining rigorous standards for commercialization and governance.
Her focus on ocean-based climate solutions addresses one of the most critical challenges facing global climate strategy. As equity crowdfunding increasingly channels capital toward sustainable innovation, climate tech, and impact ventures, Jill's expertise in structuring high-integrity impact markets becomes directly relevant.
Jill's credentials reflect her commitment to combining theoretical rigor with practical application. She holds an MBA, a Master's in Environmental Science, and is both a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Taxation Specialist.
Why This Appointment Matters for GECA
Jill's unique combination positions her perfectly to advance GECA's mission of creating transparent, credible, borderless equity crowdfunding markets. Her institutional finance expertise - twenty-five years advising global institutions across four continents - provides deep understanding of how institutions evaluate regulatory complexity. Her hands-on experience supporting platforms through ASIC licensing offers practical insight into operationalizing progressive regulation. Her multi-model crowdfunding experience and climate finance leadership demonstrate ability to structure high-integrity markets that balance innovation with credibility.
"I'm honored to join GECA's Steering Committee at such a pivotal moment for global crowdfunding," Jill said. "Throughout my career - from advising multinational institutions on cross-border governance to founding platforms that help entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life - I've seen firsthand how fragmentation creates friction and how coordination unlocks potential. Equity crowdfunding has proven it can democratize access to capital, support underrepresented founders, and channel investment toward innovation that matters. But for it to reach its full potential globally, we need the kind of regulatory clarity, platform interoperability, and trust infrastructure that GECA is building."
Australia's equity crowdfunding framework, regulated by ASIC, represents one of the more progressive approaches globally. The crowd-sourced equity funding (CSEF) regime allows eligible companies to raise up to AUD 5 million per year from retail and wholesale investors through licensed intermediaries. Jill's direct experience helping platforms navigate ASIC licensing during this framework's early implementation provides GECA with valuable insights into what works when translating regulatory intent into operational reality.
"Jill's appointment represents exactly the kind of expertise GECA needs as we move from dialogue to infrastructure-building," Field noted. "She brings the rare combination of Big 4 institutional rigor and hands-on crowdfunding platform experience. Her work supporting Australian platforms through ASIC equity crowdfunding licensing is particularly valuable -Australia's framework is one of the most progressive globally, and Jill's direct experience gives her insight into what works, what doesn't, and how to translate regulatory intent into platform practice."
Looking Ahead
Jill's appointment comes at a pivotal time for GECA and the global equity crowdfunding ecosystem. As regulatory frameworks mature, technology enablers like tokenization and AI emerge, and cross-border activity increases, the need for coordinated standards, interoperable infrastructure, and trust architecture becomes more urgent.
GECA's work focuses on creating practical pathways for cross-border collaboration by addressing regulatory fragmentation, advancing interoperable platforms and data standards, and building the evidence base that helps regulators, platforms, and policymakers make informed decisions.
Jill's appointment strengthens GECA's ability to deliver on this mission by bringing direct regulatory licensing experience, multi-stakeholder governance expertise, impact investing rigor, entrepreneurial insight, and climate finance leadership that connects crowdfunding to broader sustainable finance trends.
Australia's representation on GECA's Steering Committee strengthens the organization's Asia-Pacific presence at a critical time, enabling cross-jurisdictional learning from one of the world's most advanced equity crowdfunding regulatory frameworks.
About Jill Storey
Jill Storey is a finance and crowdfunding expert with over 25 years of global experience spanning institutional finance, entrepreneurship, governance, and impact investing. A former Partner with Andersen, KPMG, and Deloitte across the UK, Europe, Hong Kong, and Australia, she advised global financial institutions and multinationals on complex cross-border strategy, risk management, and governance.
An early crowdfunding pioneer, Jill founded a donation-based platform in the UK in 2012 and later owned and developed an Australian reward-based platform. She has worked closely with crowdfunding platforms across donation, reward, and equity models, including supporting two Australian platforms in obtaining ASIC crowd-sourced equity funding licenses.
Since 2017, Jill has served as Non-Executive Board Member of the Crowdfunding Institute of Australia. Currently Ocean CO2 Removal Advisor to the World Ocean Council, she advances high-integrity ocean-based carbon removal and climate markets. Jill holds an MBA, Master's in Environmental Science, and is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Taxation Specialist.
About GECA
The Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance (GECA) is a neutral, industry-led network bringing together equity crowdfunding platforms, national associations, regulators, policymakers, and technology providers to build transparent, credible, borderless equity crowdfunding markets.
GECA's mission is to foster dialogue, alignment, and practical pathways for cross-border collaboration - addressing regulatory fragmentation, advancing interoperable infrastructure, and creating the standards and trust architecture that enable equity crowdfunding to fulfill its global potential.
Learn more: https://thegeca.org
Join GECA: https://thegeca.org/join
The Crowd Goes Global: Inside the Push to Fix Equity Crowdfunding's Fragmentation Problem
Equity crowdfunding is already crossing borders. The rules aren't keeping up - and a new alliance of industry veterans thinks that has to change.
From 49 countries on Zoom to one shared problem
When the Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance (GECA) convened a joint webinar with Crowdfund Insider and the European Digital Finance Association (EDFA), 49 countries dialed in to talk about a single, stubborn challenge: how to turn today’s patchwork of national rules into a genuinely connected global ecosystem for crowdfunding.
As GECA steering committee lead Andy Field put it, crowdfunding is already global in practice - investors and platforms are operating across borders every day - but still fragmented in regulation, infrastructure and coordination.
The consequences are concrete:
- Founders who want to raise across borders face multiple regulatory systems, overlapping compliance regimes and incompatible technology standards.
- Investors struggle to access deals outside their home market.
- Platforms duplicate costs, and offers that should be global remain stubbornly local - just when capital is urgently needed for SMEs, climate projects, infrastructure and innovation.
GECA’s answer is deliberately modest and ambitious at the same time: not a lobbying machine for one preferred regime, but a neutral, industry‑led network that brings together platforms, investors, founders, industry associations, regulators, policymakers and tech providers to create practical pathways for cross‑border collaboration.
This webinar -anchored by moderator Andrew Dix of Crowdfund Insider with contributions from US securities lawyer Robin Sosnow, German policy veteran Karsten Wenzlaff, UK pioneer Bruce Davis, and a second‑half line‑up featuring Konstantin Boyko, Neera Patel, Sherwood “Woodie” Neiss and Benoit Collas - was a high‑level tour of where those pathways might emerge.
The US: Jobs Act 2.0 and a market “almost there”
To understand where online capital formation is going, the panelists began by looking back. In the United States, Robin Sosnow traced the evolution from the 2012 JOBS Act to today’s mix of exemptions that underpin investment crowdfunding.
Regulation D was first to change, allowing general solicitation in 2013 and effectively legitimizing online private placements to accredited investors. Regulation A followed in 2015, re‑emerging as “Reg A+” with the ability to raise from retail investors under a two‑tier system that now allows up to 75 million dollars under Tier 2 - a structure increasingly attractive to later‑stage private companies eyeing alternatives to a traditional IPO.
Then came Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF) in 2016, which legalized retail investment crowdfunding but initially capped offerings at 1 million dollars per 12‑month period. The cost of legal, portal and accounting work made that cap hard to justify, and early adoption was modest.
The real inflection point arrived with 2021 rule changes:
- The Reg CF limit rose to 5 million dollars.
- “Testing the waters” became permissible.
- Crowdfunding vehicles (SPVs) were allowed, solving the “messy cap table” concern by pooling investors into a single LLC on the issuer’s cap table.
Since then, the various JOBS Act exemptions have started to function as a coherent capital stack for private companies, rather than disconnected experiments.
The SEC continues to refine the rules at a more granular level. Recent compliance and disclosure interpretations clarified, for example, that Reg CF investor limits for retail investors are calculated on a calendar‑year basis, even though issuer offering caps are measured on a rolling 12‑month period. On the Reg A side, the Commission has confirmed that issuers can file draft offering statements confidentially, shielding their initial disclosures and SEC comment correspondence from competitors until they choose to go public.
Legislatively, the Invest Act currently before the US Senate would raise the threshold at which very small Reg CF issuers must provide reviewed financial statements - moving it from around 100,000 dollars to 250,000 dollars, with scope to increase that to 400,000 dollars over time. That change, Robin argued, will matter for true micro‑offers, even if a deeper fix would also relax the requirement for GAAP‑based financials at the very bottom of the market.
The more controversial frontier is the accredited investor definition. The policy conversation is shifting from purely wealth‑based criteria toward some form of knowledge‑based certification - potentially unlocking a broader pool of sophisticated investors without lowering standards.
Through all of this, Dix framed a simple success condition: three stakeholders must win, or the system fails. Platforms must be profitable; issuers must raise the capital they need; investors must see a reasonable path to returns. Technology, he argued, is finally bringing that goal into view - if regulation can keep up.
Europe: ECSPR’s promise - and a 5 vs 12 million problem
On the other side of the Atlantic, Europe has spent the past decade wrestling with its own fragmentation. When early drafts of the European Crowdfunding Service Providers Regulation (ECSPR) were written ten years ago, some EU member states did not even permit online securities offerings. Others had bespoke frameworks, but cross‑border operations remained painfully complex.
ECSPR was designed to change that by harmonizing how platforms are licensed, what they may offer, and how they must report. Under the framework:
- Platforms can intermediate transferable securities (mainly shares) and loans.
- Issuers can raise up to 5 million euros per year across all platforms, EU‑wide.
- Instead of hard investor caps, platforms must segment investors as “sophisticated” or “non‑sophisticated” and apply knowledge and appropriateness tests for the latter - an approach borrowed in spirit from the UK.
- Issuers must provide a six‑page Key Investment Information Sheet (KIIS), the EU’s surprisingly user‑friendly “KIIS” document, which serves as a standardized disclosure across member states.
In theory, ECSPR created a unified passport for platforms and issuers. In practice, Karsten Wenzlaff noted, fragmentation lingers in subtler ways:
- National regulators interpret and apply the rules differently.
- Investors still display a strong “home bias” -Spanish investors prefer Spanish platforms and SMEs, even though they could easily back Slovak or German deals.
The most striking anomaly is the fundraising cap. Under separate prospectus rules, a company can raise up to 12 million euros from the public on its own site without a full prospectus, as long as it stays within the EU Listing Act thresholds and structures the offer correctly. The moment it uses a regulated crowdfunding platform, however, it is constrained to 5 million euros in aggregate across all platforms.
That inversion - platforms being more constrained than direct offerings - cuts against the original policy intent of using regulated platforms to channel capital to SMEs and scale‑ups. It also feels increasingly out of step with the capital requirements of modern sectors, from AI to deep tech.
An ECSPR working group led by platforms and associations has already published an 80‑page evaluation report, and the European Commission is formally required under Article 45 of ECSPR to review the regime this year. Wenzlaff and his peers are pushing to align the crowdfunding cap with the 12‑million‑euro threshold used elsewhere in EU capital markets legislation, with an expectation that inflation and market development may eventually push that number higher.
Secondary markets are another fault line. Today, ECSPR platforms can host bulletin boards, but cannot operate true order‑matching marketplaces. That leaves issuers and investors with limited liquidity and constrains the ability of crowdfunding to feed into a broader private‑markets stack.
Tokenization could, in theory, help. Wenzlaff sees three immediate use cases:
- Dynamically splitting and routing fees when multiple platforms syndicate a deal, recognizing the additional work done by the “originating” platform.
- Enabling compliance checks and investment limits to be enforced on‑chain, without platforms having to share raw investor data with competitors.
- Providing a decentralized, tamper‑resistant channel for post‑investment reporting, ensuring that all investors receive the same information at the same time, regardless of which platform they used.
But as Benoit Collas of impact‑focused EU platform Enerfip emphasized, none of this is painless. Even within ECSPR, he recounted, a recent cross‑border “deal sharing” arrangement between his platform and a neighbor depended on quirks in the other platform’s national license that allowed them to invest via a specific vehicle; when they tried to replicate that structure elsewhere, regulators simply said no.
Compliance, in other words, is both bridge and wall: essential for trust and investor protection, but frequently the reason why a promising model works once and then stops.
The UK: from crowdfunding pioneer to private‑markets testbed
If the US is iterating through Congress and SEC guidance, and the EU is rationalizing 27 national regimes, the UK sits in an interesting third position: a mature crowdfunding market now being wired into a broader private‑capital strategy.
Bruce Davis - co‑founder of Abundance Investment and long‑time head of the UK Crowdfunding Association - reminded the audience that the UK’s regulatory framework has always existed on top of its own securities and markets legislation, and that differences at that base layer now translate into divergent crowdfunding models.
On the equity and bond side, platforms are regulated to “arrange deals” and promote them to the public, with explicit responsibilities for segmenting customers and assessing whether an investment is appropriate. Peer‑to‑peer loans sit under a separate regime, where it is the activity rather than the instrument that is regulated, reflecting the fact that P2P emerged before regulation caught up.
Over the last seven years, Davis argued, the UK has shifted away from principles‑based regulation toward product regulation. That shift means supervisors now spend much of their time debating business models with platforms - defining the shape of the product, not just the standards it must meet.
The upside is that crowdfunding is now seen as part of a broader push to “mobilize private capital,” not an oddity on the fringe. New rules for Public Offer Platforms (POPs) and Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange Systems (Pisces) effectively create a continuum:
- Traditional crowdfunding rules apply up to 5 million pounds.
- Above that, POPs enable unlimited offers to the public in the private markets, blurring the line between private and public issuance.
- Pisces provides a framework for intermittent secondary transactions in private company shares - initially conceived as a solution for VC portfolio liquidity, but now opening cautiously to retail.
This architecture makes it easier to imagine a company raising growth capital from the crowd and then offering episodic liquidity events without a full listing, all within one coherent regulatory perimeter.
Secondary markets remain constrained, however. Like their EU counterparts, UK platforms typically operate bulletin boards rather than fully regulated multilateral trading facilities (MTFs). The concern, Davis said, is that importing the full machinery of listed‑market regulation into the crowdfunding context would be prohibitively expensive and inappropriate for smaller tickets.
A more immediate brake on growth is marketing friction. After successive rounds of rule‑tightening, UK platforms now face complex appropriateness assessments and near‑perfect pass‑rate expectations for retail investors, driving up acquisition costs and pushing many players to cut back on marketing. The FCA has launched a discussion paper to review whether those frictions have overshot, opening the door to potential recalibration.
On tokenization, the UK has taken a conservative line: if you tokenize an investment asset, you are still carrying on regulated activity; tokenization does not grant you a different regime. That makes tokenization a technology upgrade rather than a regulatory arbitrage - its value must come from efficiency and better user experience, not lighter rules.
Where the UK really stands out is in tax. The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Seed EIS (SEIS) provide generous income‑tax relief on investments into qualifying high‑risk companies (around 30 percent for EIS and 50 percent for SEIS), plus loss relief in certain cases. The Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) allows investors to hold peer‑to‑peer loans and other qualifying instruments in a tax‑advantaged wrapper, with up to 20,000 pounds in new contributions each year and no tax on income or gains within the envelope.
Davis called these schemes “the one thing we got right” and vowed that the industry would “defend IFISA till we die,” arguing that they have been a key driver of capital into early‑stage and growth companies and a necessary leveler against the attractions of listed markets and pensions.
Karsten Wenzlaff, for his part, sees EIS/SEIS as a model Europe should take seriously - not just as a way to boost crowdfunding volumes, but as a bridge that turns retail investors into tomorrow’s angel investors. The political challenge is that taxation remains a national competence within the EU, and Brussels has historically preferred EU‑wide guarantee schemes over pan‑European tax incentives. That may be shifting as member states hunt for ways to mobilize private capital for energy transition, defense and health, but any UK‑style regime would require both technical and political alignment.
Tokenization, AI and shared infrastructure: tools, not silver bullets
If the first half of the webinar mapped the regulatory terrain, the second half turned to tools: tokenization, AI and shared infrastructure.
Andrew Dix and Sherwood “Woodie” Neiss - author of Investomers and policy expert, were clear that tokenization is no longer hypothetical. US platforms like Republic have already used tokenized securities; firms like Securitize began as enablers and have evolved into marketplaces, and institutions such as Figure have built tokenization stacks from the institutional side. The New York Stock Exchange has announced a tokenized securities exchange, signaling that mainstream market infrastructure is moving in this direction as well.
For Dix, the promise is straightforward: remove intrinsic frictions, reduce costs, improve security, portability and compliance, and enable new categories of assets to reach investors. In today’s analog private markets, humans push paper through fragmented systems. Tokenization and digital market infrastructure could automate large parts of that process, especially when combined with AI.
Yet, as platform builder Konstantin Boyko stressed, technology is the easy part. The harder problems begin when you connect code to real‑world money flows, KYC, payment providers, and multiple jurisdictions. Picking a single payment provider is hard enough in one country; building a stack that gracefully spans regions is far harder.
AI, he argued, could dramatically reduce the burden of drafting and standardizing disclosure documents such as ECSPR’s Key Investment Information Sheet, where lawyers today reinvent the wheel in their own style. That view was echoed across the panel: AI can sit in the background, generating structured, regulator‑aligned templates and freeing human experts to focus on judgment rather than formatting.
Neiss sees an even broader role. The current US disclosure system is “written by lawyers for lawyers,” he said, and is increasingly unusable for the very retail investors it is supposed to protect. AI could help regulators and platforms converge on shorter, more intelligible, yet still compliant disclosures that meet investors where they are and accommodate cross‑border offerings.
On shared infrastructure, Dacxi Chain’s Chief Product Officer Neera Patel sketched a future in which neutral networks and common rails underpin syndicated deals across platforms and borders.
She highlighted three layers:
- Operational efficiency: Issuers launch a deal onto a network and have AI‑infused compliance engines run jurisdiction‑specific checks in parallel, drastically reducing manual legal duplication and accelerating time‑to‑market.
- Investor experience: A shared, verifiable KYC/identity layer -likely based on verifiable credentials - would allow investors to onboard once and then invest across multiple platforms with minimal friction, reducing drop‑off rates and cutting KYC costs.
- Transparency and auditability: Blockchain infrastructure provides an immutable record of allocations, payments, disputes and withdrawals, making it easier for platforms and regulators to monitor the life of a deal - especially when it is syndicated across borders.
Patel was pragmatic about the obstacles. Tax, business‑model economics (e.g., fee split mechanics between platforms), and differing local rules still need human and political negotiation. But those are precisely the topics she believes alliances like GECA should own - creating standards and norms that technology can then codify.
Secondary markets and the search for real liquidity
If there was one theme that united all jurisdictions, it was the sense that primary issuance is only half the story. Without functioning secondary markets, equity crowdfunding will struggle to fulfill its promise.
In the US, the problem is structural. Primary issuance under Reg CF and Reg A is governed at the federal level. Secondary trading, however, falls under state “blue sky” laws, splintering the market into 50 different regimes.
Neiss pointed to the “manual exemption” as one partial workaround: issuers who publish standardized information into a national securities manual - an “Edgar‑lite” - can qualify for exemptions in many states. But the complexity of those rules, and the lack of investor demand for smaller names, have constrained activity. Most meaningful secondary trading in the US still takes place in the Reg D space, on venues like Nasdaq Private Market, Forge and EquityZen, or among larger Reg A+ issuers where investor interest is sufficient to justify the overhead.
Dix did not mince words on the state of US blue sky law: a “Byzantine mess” sustained by state regulators’ desire to preserve their own empires. He argued for a more federalized approach to secondary trading in line with the Clarity Act’s broader effort to update market infrastructure, while acknowledging that current US proposals focus more on digital commodities than tokenized securities.
In the UK, Pisces is an early attempt to square that circle by allowing controlled, episodic liquidity events without the full weight of listing rules. Davis framed the debate in lifecycle terms: different investors want or need to exit at different points, and the system should be able to recycle capital efficiently rather than locking it up until an IPO that may never come.
In Europe, stock exchanges are among the fiercest opponents of any move that might erode their monopoly on secondary trading, and that political reality helps explain ECSPR’s conservative stance on matching engines. But Wenzlaff was blunt: if Europe is serious about financing the green and digital transitions, it will need mechanisms that allow capital from the global north to flow into renewable infrastructure projects in Latin America, Africa and parts of Asia, with credible liquidity options along the way.
Here again, the idea of a shared, decentralized protocol surfaced -not to replace local rules, but to provide a common technical substrate onto which different regulatory wrappers could be mapped.
Why this matters now
The stakes behind this dense, acronym‑heavy conversation are high. For all the technical debate about thresholds, investor tests and SPVs, the through‑line was clear: the world needs more ways for ordinary and professional investors to fund the companies and projects that will shape the next decade - and those channels need to work across borders.
The building blocks are already visible:
- US exemptions that now support meaningful retail participation and are edging toward more inclusive definitions of sophistication.
- A pan‑European license that, once re‑tuned, could allow SMEs to raise up to 12 million euros in a single, cross‑border campaign.
- A UK ecosystem that has quietly invented a tax and regulatory stack for high‑risk private capital, and is now experimenting with POPs and Pisces as bridges into the listed world.
- Tokenization and AI tools that can take friction, cost and opacity out of compliance and operations, rather than adding new layers of hype.
What is missing is coordination - and that, ultimately, is where GECA, EDFA and their partners come in.
As Andy Field closed, the webinar was not intended as an endpoint, but as a starting block. The next step is bringing these conversations into the room: regulators, platforms, academics and technologists meeting face‑to‑face in Malaga this April to move from diagnosis to design.
Dix’s final message was simple and, in its own way, optimistic: the direction of travel is right, even if the pace is frustrating. Progress will depend on exactly the kind of cross‑jurisdictional, cross‑disciplinary dialogue this webinar represented - because in a world where capital, talent and technology are already global, leaving crowdfunding trapped in national silos is no longer a tenable option.
Watch the full webinar here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhvKrySbAr8
GECA: Frequently Asked Questions
What is GECA?
The Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance (GECA) is a neutral, industry‑led network that brings together platforms, investors, founders, industry associations, regulators, policymakers and technology providers focused on investment crowdfunding.
Why was GECA created?
GECA was formed because crowdfunding is already global in practice, but fragmented in regulation, infrastructure and coordination, which slows growth and limits cross‑border capital flows.
What problem is GECA trying to solve?
Today, a business that wants to raise capital across borders faces multiple regulatory systems, overlapping compliance regimes and different technology standards, while investors struggle to access opportunities outside their home market.
Is GECA a lobbying organization?
No. GECA’s mission is not to promote one regulatory regime over another but to act as a neutral convening layer that fosters dialogue, alignment and practical pathways for cross‑border collaboration.
Who participates in GECA activities?
Participants include crowdfunding platforms, SME and startup founders, retail and professional investors, national and regional industry bodies, regulators, policymakers and technology providers building market infrastructure.
What is GECA doing in practice, beyond webinars?
GECA is publishing primary‑research‑based white papers, convening working groups with partners like EDFA, and co‑hosting in‑person events such as the April meetings in Malaga to drive regulatory and technical alignment.
How does GECA view emerging tech like tokenization and AI?
GECA sees tokenization and AI as tools to reduce cost and friction in compliance, reporting and cross‑border syndication - not as regulatory shortcuts - and is encouraging shared standards and infrastructure in these areas.
How can I engage with GECA next?
GECA and EDFA are inviting platforms, associations and regulators to the in‑person sessions in Malaga (8–10 April) to continue these conversations through workshops on UX, secondary markets, tokenization and collaboration with academic researchers.
Full Details https://www.crowdfunding-research.org/icafr2026
Register https://www.crowdfunding-research.org/pago
GECA Membership & Participation
Who can join GECA?
GECA welcomes equity crowdfunding platforms, national and regional crowdfunding associations, regulators and policymakers, technology providers, investor associations, researchers and academics.
How do I join GECA?
Visit https://thegeca.org/join to become a GECA member or supporter organization.
What are the benefits of joining GECA?
GECA members gain:
- Access to cross-border dialogue and coordination forums
- Participation in working groups on standards, secondary markets, disclosure templates
- Networking with platforms, regulators, and technology providers globally
- Early access to research, whitepapers, and policy recommendations
- Invitations to GECA events (webinars, workshops, conferences)
- Influence on the development of global crowdfunding infrastructure
Equity Crowdfunding Trends in 2026: From Crowd Capital to Coordinated Capital
(A research-backed trends brief)
Over the past decade, equity crowdfunding has evolved from an experimental financing model into a regulated component of modern capital markets. By 2026, the sector is increasingly characterised not by loosely organised “crowds” but by structured ecosystems combining retail investors, professional capital, and supervised platforms. This transition reflects regulatory consolidation, technological infrastructure development, and the growing integration of crowdfunding into the broader private-capital landscape.
1. From experimental niche to supervised market infrastructure
By 2026, equity crowdfunding (ECF) has moved decisively out of its experimental phase and into the regulated online capital-markets stack. The common pattern across major jurisdictions is the same: clearer operator responsibilities, harmonised rules for cross-border activity, and a sharper distinction between supervised platforms and unregulated campaign websites.
In the European Union, the European Crowdfunding Service Providers Regulation (ECSPR, Regulation (EU) 2020/1503) has created a passport regime under which platforms must be authorised as Crowdfunding Service Providers (CSPs) and may then operate across participating member states under a single rulebook. According to ESMA’s 2024 and 2025 Crowdfunding Market Reports, the EU market now represents low-single-digit billions of euros in annual volume, with a growing share of cross-border activity; equity and equity-like instruments account for a meaningful portion, and retail investors represent the vast majority of participants.[ESMA 2024; ESMA 2025]
In the United States, Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF) has stabilised into a predictable retail-access channel: issuers may raise up to 5 million USD in a 12-month period, provided they use a registered funding portal or broker-dealer and comply with Form C disclosure, ongoing reporting, investor-limit, and books-and-records requirements. SEC data and independent industry analyses indicate that, since the 2021 limit increase, median and upper-quartile raise sizes have trended upward, with more campaigns now falling in the 1–5 million USD band—evidence of deal-size maturation rather than a pure micro-raise phenomenon.[SEC Reg CF; KingsCrowd 2025]
In the United Kingdom, post-Brexit reform of the prospectus and public-offer regime has introduced a new Public Offer Platform (POP) framework, with rules taking effect in January 2026. FCA policy statements on the new regime explicitly anticipate that some existing crowdfunding operators will seek POP authorisation, effectively moving parts of the crowdfunding model into a more formal public-offer environment with clearer disclosure and governance expectations.[FCA 2025a; FCA 2025b]
Trend signal: ECF is being pulled into mainstream capital-markets architecture. In the EU, ECSPR consolidates a supervised, passported market; in the US, Reg CF defines a stable exempt-offering lane; in the UK, POP rules invite platforms into a modernised public-offer framework.
2. From “pure crowd” to hybrid: the rise of crowd + professional capital
A key empirical trend is the shift from purely retail-driven campaigns to hybrid capital stacks where professional or sophisticated investors act as anchors, validators, and governance partners.
Large-sample studies of technology-oriented startups and SMEs funded via crowdfunding show that early participation by professional investors -angels, funds, or platform-curated “lead investors” - has a statistically significant positive effect on campaign success, particularly in sectors with high information asymmetry such as IT and deep tech.[Shabbir et al. 2026] Professional involvement functions as a signal of quality and due diligence, reducing perceived uncertainty for retail investors and triggering informed herding behaviour.[Shabbir et al. 2026] Complementary work on sustainable-oriented ventures finds that the human capital of lead investors (experience, reputation, sector expertise) not only raises the probability of funding success but also correlates with better post-campaign performance, especially where projects are complex to evaluate.[Del Sarto et al. 2025]
Across markets, research and platform data indicate that:
- Platforms highlighting co-investment from professional investors or credible institutions see higher conversion rates.
- Campaigns with visible lead investors or platform-endorsed cornerstone commitments attract more and faster retail participation.[Estrin et al. 2022; Moysidou & Hausberg 2020]
Trend signal: In 2026, equity crowdfunding is maturing into coordinated capital: professional anchors plus structured platform screening plus retail participation. For platforms and associations, this elevates the importance of explicit signalling architecture -clear labelling of lead investors, standardised “proof layers” (traction, governance, controls), and transparent screening criteria.
3. Liquidity: from aspirational talking point to design constraint
Illiquidity has long been ECF’s structural weakness. Work on secondary markets in equity crowdfunding highlights how difficult it is to design trading venues for privately issued shares, given challenges around price discovery, information rights, transfer restrictions, and regulatory oversight.[Lukkarinen & Schwienbacher 2024] At the same time, both regulators and industry are experimenting more actively with liquidity mechanisms.
A likely staged pathway - based on current experiments and the secondary-markets literature -may involve:
- Phase 1: Controlled transfers. Limited transfer windows and bilateral transfers via platforms, with issuer consent, basic disclosure updates, and suitability checks.
- Phase 2: Venue partnerships. Selected crowdfunding-issued securities trading on regulated SME growth markets or multilateral trading facilities under specific listing and reporting standards.
- Phase 3: Interoperable rails. Wider interoperability, potentially including tokenised representations to simplify post-trade handling, but still under clear regulatory supervision.
European and national authorities acknowledge that ECSPR itself does not create secondary markets, while noting that the harmonised framework makes such experiments easier to supervise and scale.[ESMA 2024; FMA Austria 2025] Industry commentary similarly treats liquidity not as an optional “nice to have” but as a central design constraint for the next phase of ECF.[Lukkarinen & Schwienbacher 2024; GECA 2025b]
Trend signal: In 2026, the question is less whether liquidity will appear and more how it will be engineered and governed. “Liquidity with integrity” will require minimum issuer-reporting standards, fair-valuation practices, transfer controls, and clear investor-communication norms.
4. Tokenisation: from hype to cautious, infrastructure-first adoption
Tokenisation - representing securities on distributed ledgers with programmable features -has been widely promoted as a solution to private-market frictions. By 2026, the tone has become more cautious and infrastructure-focused.
IOSCO’s Final Report on the Tokenisation of Financial Assets summarises the prevailing regulatory view: tokenisation may improve operational efficiency, settlement, and automation of compliance rules, but it can also introduce or amplify risks, including unclear legal rights, new operational dependencies, and exposure to broader crypto-asset volatility.[IOSCO 2025] The report emphasises technology-neutral regulation: investor-protection and market-integrity standards apply regardless of the underlying ledger, and tokenisation must not obscure what investors actually own or who is accountable.
Surveys of institutional investors and market-infrastructure providers show growing experimentation with tokenised bonds, funds, and equities, but emphasise governance, interoperability, and regulatory clarity as prerequisites for scaled adoption.[EY 2025; Broadridge 2025] For ECF in 2026, the most credible near-term applications appear to be:
- Ledger-based or on-chain cap tables and share registries, tightly linked to legal title.
- Programmable transfer rules encoding regulatory and contractual restrictions into smart contracts.
- Automated compliance and audit trails that simplify reconciliations and supervisory review.[Mubarak & Petraite 2020; IRJMETS 2024; IJNRD 2025]
Trend signal: In 2026, tokenisation’s primary value for ECF is as back-office and compliance infrastructure, not as a retail “crowd token” story. The winning narrative is programmable governance, auditable rights, and supervised trading mechanisms, rather than speculative token trading.
5. AI, analytics, and data standardisation: trust throughput as the new moat
As ECF platforms mature, their competitive edge is shifting from attention capture (marketing reach) to trust throughput: how effectively they can screen deals, detect fraud, match investors, and generate reliable reporting.
ESMA’s most recent crowdfunding market reports explicitly discuss platforms’ current and planned use of AI and machine-learning tools in credit scoring, fraud detection, operational optimisation, and customer support, while flagging governance, bias, and explainability as emerging supervisory concerns.[ESMA 2024; ESMA 2025] In parallel, research on digital trust in platform-based ecosystems shows that digital platform trus t- confidence in the platform’s technological and governance infrastructure - is a critical mediator between firms’ innovation capabilities, crowdfunding outcomes, and technological learning.[Mubarak & Petraite 2020; Shabbir et al. 2026]
Shabbir and co-authors propose and test a capability-trust-crowdfunding pathway in which:
- Firms’ dynamic capabilities, digitalisation, and networking capabilities increase digital trust in crowdfunding platforms.
- Digital platform trust then boosts crowdfunding performance.
- Crowdfunding, in turn, enhances technological learning and innovation.[Shabbir et al. 2026]
They also emphasise that digital trust increasingly rests on transparency, immutability, and verifiability, with blockchain and advanced analytics playing a central role.[Mubarak & Petraite 2020; Shabbir et al. 2026]
Trend signal: In 2026, leading platforms increasingly:
- Enforce structured issuer disclosures and machine-readable data templates.
- Use AI/analytics for pre-screening, anomaly detection, and monitoring- with human oversight and documented model governance.
- Provide standardised KPI dashboards and reporting cadences to investors and regulators.
- Treat digital trust architecture as a first-order design problem, not an afterthought.
For regulators, AI and structured data are moving into the core of the supervisory conversation. For infrastructure providers and associations, this validates the need for shared data schemas and evidence layers that make platforms more comparable and exam-ready.
6. Cross-border ambition meets compliance realities
For more than a decade, “cross-border crowdfunding” was mainly an aspiration. By 2026, it is practically achievable in specific regions -but success depends on standards rather than slogans.
In the EU, ECSPR’s passport mechanism allows an authorised CSP in one member state to provide services across all participating states under a single authorisation, subject to notification procedures.[EC 2020; ESMA 2024] ESMA’s data and Eurocrowd’s commentary show that a growing share of campaigns now attract cross-border investors or involve cross-border issuers, and some platforms explicitly position themselves as pan-European marketplaces.[ESMA 2025; Eurocrowd 2026; Eurocrowd 2025] National regulators, such as the Austrian FMA, broadly welcome the creation of a genuinely European market but highlight challenges around language, disclosure comparability, marketing rules, and cross-border enforcement.[FMA Austria 2025]
Research on crowdfunding in emerging markets points to similar dynamics. Tajul Urus and co-authors note that as more emerging economies adopt crowdfunding frameworks, differences in regulatory maturity, enforcement, and governance create both opportunities and risks.[Tajul Urus et al. 2025] They emphasise that platform-level governance, disclosure quality, and accountability mechanisms are critical to building trust in markets where formal rules and supervisory capacity are still evolving.
Trend signal: In 2026, cross-border ECF is primarily constrained by:
- Disclosure and data interoperability (so investors and supervisors can understand and compare offers).
- Investor categorisation and suitability frameworks (to avoid regulatory arbitrage and mis-selling).
- Books-and-records standards (so authorities can rely on each other’s platforms’ evidence).
This is where neutral trust and evidence layers - systems that capture platform activity, disclosures, risk acknowledgements, orders, and funds flows in a tamper-evident, portable form - add structural value. They make it easier for platforms to rely on each other’s gatekeeping, for regulators to examine cross-border activity, and for investors to trust that foreign campaigns sit on robust compliance rails.
7. ESG, verticalisation, and the need for evidence-rich disclosures
Equity crowdfunding is also undergoing vertical specialisation: climate and clean energy, real estate, local infrastructure, and impact ventures are emerging as distinct segments with their own norms and expectations.
An fsQCA study of 88 solar crowdfunding projects in Spain and Italy finds that low perceived risk and short maturity periods are more consistently associated with funding success than high environmental impact alone; CO₂-saving metrics enhance appeal but are not sufficient by themselves.[Santos-Rojo et al. 2025] The authors conclude that retail “green” investors behave as conservative capital: they care about environmental outcomes but retain strong preferences for capital preservation and liquidity. Other work on sustainable-oriented ventures funded via ECF shows that lead investors’ expertise and credibility matter especially in ESG contexts, because projects are complex to evaluate and impact is hard to verify.[Del Sarto et al. 2025]
Trend signal: In 2026, vertical segments such as climate/energy and real estate increasingly require:
- Domain-specific disclosure templates (e.g., project economics, technical risk registers, impact metrics, verification sources).
- Clear risk-grading and maturity profiles expressed in plain language.
- Third-party validation or assurance of key technical and impact metrics.
- Evidence layers that surface the underlying assumptions, monitoring history, and governance practices, beyond marketing narratives.
Platforms that treat ESG offerings as “just another pitch” risk mis-pricing and mis-selling; those that build structured, evidence-rich disclosures and monitoring will be better positioned with both investors and regulators.
8. Macro sensitivity, consolidation, and sustainability of the model
Synthesised work on crowdfunding and macroeconomic dynamics suggests that ECF is macroeconomically sensitive rather than counter-cyclical by default. Summarising prior empirical and theoretical work, Wille argues that crowdfunding volumes respond to variables such as unemployment, interest rates, and policy uncertainty, and that in some contexts crowdfunding can act as a partial substitute for bank lending and venture capital when traditional credit tightens.[Wille 2025] At the same time, different forms of uncertainty have different effects: some measures of economic policy uncertainty can increase small-ticket, local-project participation, while heightened geopolitical risk often suppresses risk appetite.
On the micro side, supervisory reports and industry commentary point to platform consolidation and sustainability pressures. Authorisation costs, ongoing compliance obligations, competition for high-quality deal flow, and plateauing conversion rates in some saturated markets are driving weaker or under-capitalised operators out, while better-governed platforms gain share.[ESMA 2025; GECA 2025a; GECA 2025b] Post-campaign data -defaults, follow-on funding, dilution, and exits -also highlight that, like other early-stage asset classes, equity-crowdfunded portfolios are highly dispersed, with a minority of campaigns generating outsized returns and many underperforming.[Lukkarinen & Schwienbacher 2024; Tajul Urus et al. 2025; Santos-Rojo et al. 2025]
Trend signal: In 2026, policymakers increasingly see ECF as part of macro-sensitive alternative finance and focus on:
- Harmonised regimes (ECSPR, POP, Reg CF) that manage risk coherently.
- Platform-level resilience, governance, and data-quality expectations.
- Greater transparency around post-campaign performance to avoid unrealistic retail expectations.
For platforms, the implication is that long-term viability will depend less on raw campaign volumes and more on governance quality, trust architecture, and evidence-backed performance.
9. The 2026 inflection: from crowd-powered to coordinated capital
Bringing these threads together, 2026 looks like an inflection point where equity crowdfunding transitions from crowd-powered to coordinated capital:
- Regulated rails expand and harmonise (ECSPR in the EU, POP in the UK, Reg CF in the US), pulling ECF into mainstream capital-markets infrastructure.
- Hybrid capital stacks become normal, with professional anchors and platform screening shaping retail flows and post-campaign outcomes.
- Liquidity and tokenisation move from aspirational talking points to cautiously engineered mechanisms centred on governance, rights clarity, and investor protection.
- AI and structured data become core to both platform differentiation and supervisory scrutiny, with digital platform trust mediating innovation outcomes.
- Cross-border activity is enabled by passports but fundamentally constrained by disclosure comparability, investor categorisation, and books-and-records standards.
- Vertically specialised segments, especially in ESG, demand evidence-rich, verifiable disclosures and domain-specific governance.
In that environment, decisive advantages shift away from marketing and toward trust architecture:
- Shared data schemas and disclosure standards.
- Verifiable, tamper-evident evidence of platform and issuer behaviour.
- Robust digital-trust mechanisms that allow regulators, investors, and partner platforms to rely on what the rails say happened.
Equity crowdfunding is no longer just a way to mobilise the crowd; it is becoming one of the coordinated mechanisms through which private capital is raised, governed, and - eventually - traded.
References
Broadridge. 2025. Next-Gen Markets: The Rise and Reality of Tokenization. Broadridge Financial Solutions Industry Report.
Del Sarto, N., Di Pietro, F., and B. Prencipe. 2025. “Equity Crowdfunding for Sustainable-Oriented Ventures: The Role of Lead Investors’ Human Capital.” Journal of Business Venturing Insights.
ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority). 2024. Market Report: Crowdfunding in the EU 2024.
ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority). 2025. Market Report: Crowdfunding in the EU 2025.
Eurocrowd. 2025. “French and Italian Crowdfunding Trends: A Comparative ECSPR Monitor.” European Crowdfunding Network Report.
Eurocrowd. 2026. “ESMA Crowdfunding Market Data 2024.” Eurocrowd Market Commentary.
- 2025. Institutional Investor Digital Assets Survey. Ernst & Young Global Financial Services Report.
FCA (UK Financial Conduct Authority). 2025a. PS25/9 – New Rules for the Public Offers and Admissions to Trading Regime (Public Offer Platforms).
FCA (UK Financial Conduct Authority). 2025b. PS25/10 – Final Rules for Public Offer Platforms.
FMA Austria. 2025. “ESMA Report on the European Crowdfunding Market – National Commentary.” Austrian Financial Market Authority Briefing.
GECA (Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance). 2025a. Eight Pivotal Trends Reshaping Equity Crowdfunding in 2025.
GECA (Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance). 2025b. The $1 Trillion Liquidity Opportunity in Equity Crowdfunding.
IOSCO (International Organization of Securities Commissions). 2025. Tokenisation of Financial Assets: Final Report.
IRJMETS. 2024. “Crowdfunding Using Blockchain – Trust and Fraud Prevention.” International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science.
IJNRD. 2025. “Trust and Fraud Prevention: A Blockchain-Based Crowdfunding Framework.” International Journal of Novel Research and Development.
KingsCrowd. 2025. Investment Crowdfunding Annual Report.
Lukkarinen, A., and A. Schwienbacher. 2024. “Secondary Markets in Equity Crowdfunding.” In Palgrave Encyclopedia of Private Equity.
Moysidou, K., and J. P. Hausberg. 2020. “In Crowdfunding We Trust: A Trust-Building Model in Crowdfunding.” Journal of Business Venturing Insights.
Mubarak, M. F., and M. Petraite. 2020. “Digital Trust in Industry 4.0 Ecosystems: The Role of Blockchain and Advanced Analytics.” Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
Santos-Rojo, C., J. Gallego-Nicholls, and A. Rey-Martí. 2025. “Understanding Investor Behavior in Crowdfunding for Sustainability: An fsQCA Study.” Environment, Development and Sustainability.
SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission). 2017 (updated). Regulation Crowdfunding: Small Entity Compliance Guide for Intermediaries.
Shabbir, M., Petraite, M., Mubarak, M. F., Gobakhloo, M., and A. Rasli. 2026. “More than Money: Strategic and Operational Innovation Capabilities to Promote Technological Innovation through Crowdfunding.” Financial Innovation 12(21).
Tajul Urus, S., I. S. Mohamed, Z. Abd Rasit, and M. Mohamad. 2025. “Crowdfunding in the Emerging Market: Insight into the Conceptualization and Governing Issues of Crowdfunding.” International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science 9(4): 562–571.
Wille, N. 2025. “Crowdfunding and Macroeconomic Dynamics.” SSRN Working Paper Series.
GECA - Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What is GECA?
The Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance (GECA) is a non-profit industry alliance that brings together equity crowdfunding platforms, national associations, regulators, and technology partners to make equity crowdfunding more borderless, interoperable, and trusted worldwide.
Q2. Why does GECA matter if we already have ECSPR, Reg CF, and the UK POP regime?
Regimes such as ECSPR in the EU, Regulation Crowdfunding in the United States, and the UK’s Public Offer Platform (POP) framework define how crowdfunding operates within their respective jurisdictions.
However, these regimes do not by themselves solve fragmentation between jurisdictions, platforms, and data standards.
GECA focuses on the gaps at the edges by:
- Improving cross-border understanding between platforms and regulators
- Encouraging compatible standards across jurisdictions
- Supporting platforms that operate in multiple markets
Q3. What are GECA’s main objectives?
Based on its public statements and activities, GECA focuses on five main objectives:
- Advocacy and education - explaining the role of equity crowdfunding in modern capital markets and helping address common misconceptions.
- Policy dialogue and harmonisation - acting as a structured counterpart for regulators and policymakers working on crowdfunding, secondary markets, and related regulation.
- Ecosystem building - connecting platforms, service providers, and associations that would otherwise operate in isolation.
- Research and insight - surfacing global trends, risks, and opportunities to inform better regulation and business strategy.
- Standards and best practices - encouraging common approaches to disclosures, risk labelling, operational resilience, and cross-border practices.
Q4. How does GECA relate to the 2026 “coordinated capital” trend?
The article describes equity crowdfunding in 2026 as moving from “crowd-powered” to “coordinated capital” - where regulated rails, professional investors, and trust infrastructure increasingly shape market outcomes.
GECA’s role is to support that shift at a global level by:
- Providing a forum where platforms and associations can align on disclosure, governance, and investor-protection expectations
- Helping regulators identify where fragmentation or unintended frictions are limiting coordinated capital formation
- Highlighting successful models for hybrid investment rounds, liquidity mechanisms, and cross-border collaboration
Q5. Who can be involved in GECA?
GECA aims to support a broad membership base that may include:
- Equity crowdfunding platforms and investment platforms
- National and regional crowdfunding or fintech associations
- Professional investors and ecosystem partners such as law firms, auditors, and data providers
- Regulators and policymakers participating as observers or dialogue partners
The aim is not to create a closed club, but a representative forum for the global equity crowdfunding ecosystem.
Q6. What practical value does GECA offer to platforms?
For platforms, GECA can provide:
- Early visibility into regulatory and market trends affecting cross-border operations, secondary markets, and institutional participation
- Access to peers addressing similar challenges, such as liquidity design, disclosure standards, AI use in due diligence, and tokenisation infrastructure
- Opportunities to help shape common templates and guidelines that may later be referenced by regulators or investors
- Increased international visibility through joint research, events, and ecosystem communications
Q7. How does GECA support regulators and policymakers?
Regulators and policymakers can use GECA as a channel to:
- Understand how rules are functioning in practice across different markets
- Hear from a diverse set of platforms and associations rather than only the largest or most visible actors
- Explore the implications of emerging tools such as AI in due diligence, tokenised securities, and secondary market infrastructure in a structured dialogue
This can help inform future adjustments to ECSPR, Reg CF, the UK POP regime, and other national frameworks in a more evidence-based and internationally informed way.
Q8. How does GECA fit into the future of equity crowdfunding?
As equity crowdfunding becomes more regulated, more hybrid, and more interconnected, coordination outside formal regulation becomes increasingly important.
GECA’s role is to:
- Support alignment rather than fragmentation in disclosures, governance practices, and market expectations
- Showcase successful models from different regions and industry verticals
- Help the ecosystem move from one-off national experiments toward a more coherent global architecture for equity crowdfunding
In that sense, GECA is one of the actors helping the sector complete the transition described in the article - from isolated “crowd capital” experiments toward a coordinated and trusted layer of the private-capital market.
These Trends Don't Build Themselves
The coordinated capital era requires coordinated action - across borders, platforms, and stakeholders. GECA is where that coordination happens.
Join us in building:
✅ Cross-border disclosure standards
✅ Liquidity infrastructure
✅ Trust architecture that scales globally
👉 Join GECA today and shape the future of equity crowdfunding.
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Diaspora Capital & Ethiopian Crowdfunding: Meseret Warner's Vision | GECA Podcast
Diaspora Capital & Ethiopian Crowdfunding: Meseret Warner's Vision | GECA Podcast
Most diaspora send money home as gifts. What if those billions became investments instead?
Over $100 billion flows into Africa annually as remittances – consumed, gifted, never invested. Meanwhile, 95% of Ethiopian businesses can’t access traditional finance due to lack of collateral. What if redirecting even a fraction of diaspora capital could change entire economies?
Join Andy Field in conversation with Meseret Warner, founder of Ignite Investment (Ethiopia’s first equity crowdfunding platform) and GECA Steering Committee member, as she reveals how to bridge the gap between diaspora capital and African entrepreneurship. From IT developer in Canada to pioneering fintech in Ethiopia, Meseret shares the trust-building journey required to convert remittance senders into equity investors.
From proving the concept through digital marketing alone (raising millions before building a platform) to navigating Ethiopia’s regulatory sandbox, Meseret breaks down why trust matters more than technology, how to make companies “crowdfund ready,” and why women entrepreneurs actually repay debt at higher rates than men.
Key insights:
- Why diaspora communities are emotionally invested – not just financially
- How to convert one-way remittance flows into two-way equity investments
- The critical role of regulatory sandboxes in emerging markets
- Why 65% of Ignite’s funded companies are women-led enterprises
- How partnerships with GIZ and African Development Bank enable scaling
- The coordination gap: why retail investors face barriers high net worth individuals don’t
- What incremental progress in the UK, US, and Ethiopia signals for global crowdfunding
Remittances fund consumption. Investment builds economies.
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Andy Field (Host): Hello everyone, and welcome back to the GECA Podcast — the voice of global equity crowdfunding. I’m Andy Field, Steering Committee Lead of the Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance, where we speak with the leading voices shaping the future of capital raising across borders.
As crowdfunding continues to evolve, we’re exploring what it takes to run successful campaigns on a global basis — and what founders, platforms, and investors need to know to thrive in this ever-expanding ecosystem.
Today’s episode is a particularly special one because I’m joined by someone whose work genuinely challenges how we think about capital, borders, and opportunity.
I’m delighted to be speaking with Meseret Warner, Founder and Managing Director of Ignite Investment — Ethiopia’s first equity crowdfunding platform — and also a recent addition to the GECA Steering Committee.
Meseret brings a truly global perspective to this conversation. Over the course of her career, she’s worked across international institutions, including the United Nations and national statistical agencies, before going on to become one of Africa’s most influential fintech pioneers.
What really sets her work apart is her focus on diaspora capital — and her belief that the billions of dollars sent home every year as remittances can, and should, be transformed into productive long-term investment.
Through Ignite Investment, Meseret has helped design a borderless equity crowdfunding model — carefully navigating U.S. regulatory requirements and Ethiopian laws — facilitating millions in investment and supporting a remarkable number of women-led enterprises, all while building that all-important trust infrastructure and regulatory alignment in a complex, evolving market.
The evolving Ethiopian capital market and the growth of regulatory sandboxes have opened doors for financial innovations like Ignite.
At GECA, we talk a lot about breaking down borders in equity crowdfunding — and Meseret’s work shows what that looks like in practice. Not as a theoretical ideal, but as something that can materially change lives, businesses, and economies.
In this conversation, we’re going to explore Meseret’s journey, the power of diaspora-led investment, the realities of building crowdfunding in emerging markets, and what her experience can teach us about the future of truly global equity crowdfunding.
So, welcome Meseret. It’s great to have you here.
Meseret Warner (Guest): Great to be here. Thank you, Andy.
Andy Field (Host): And for those who may not know you yet — and I can’t believe there are many, because I’ve seen you in lots of webinars recently, right across the globe — how do you usually describe what you do, in plain, simple terms?
Meseret Warner (Guest): Yeah — I guess, in very simple terms, I always work on expanding access to finance for those who have traditionally been excluded. Whether it’s borrowing money to run businesses or for personal needs — having good access to finance really does open opportunities.
So my work has always been that. It could be crowdfunding, it could be something else — but at the end of the day, that’s the core of what I do.
Andy Field (Host): Yeah. And I mentioned very briefly in my introduction that your career path is vast — there’s a lot in there.
From working with the UN and national statistical agencies to founding Ethiopia’s first equity crowdfunding platform — what was the moment where you said, “This is what I need to build. This is what’s needed”?
Meseret Warner (Guest): You know what it’s like — like anything else, it wasn’t really like I woke up one day and said, “Oh great, this is what I’m going to do.” I wish it was that easy.
Andy Field (Host): It would be easier.
Meseret Warner (Guest): Exactly — then you’d know what you were getting into right up front.
No — it’s really a path. It’s a process.
I’m diaspora myself. I came back from Canada — that’s where I lived most of my life. I was doing other things, but then I got involved in a project in Ethiopia, and they asked me to help them raise funds.
And I immediately started thinking: where is capital? Where can we access finance? Especially in Ethiopia, where companies can only borrow money if they have an immovable asset — collateralised debt financing — and 95% of businesses are small businesses and startups, where they don’t have collateral and they can’t borrow.
So working on those projects, I could see everyone was struggling to access finance.
And then on the other side, you see billions coming in. That was easy for me to see because I’m diaspora. I used to send money to my mum and my family when I was there — when someone says they need money for something, you send it.
So I started putting those pieces together.
At the beginning, I was thinking we need diversified sources of finance — angel investors, venture capital, private equity.
But I quickly learned it’s not that easy. There are many factors. Those markets aren’t mature in Ethiopia, and you don’t see those flows very easily.
So I thought: okay — here is capital that is flowing very easily: remittances. It’s mostly consumption. There’s even a high cost to send money as remittances. But it’s a clear flow.
So I started looking at the problem and saying: here is a huge need, and here is a huge pool of capital — how do you bridge those two?
Before the platform, we tried to prove the concept. Even in a well-known project where the promoters were trusted, it was easier to mobilise capital — even without a platform. I was doing digital marketing and other things — things I knew from my career. I was an IT person; I was a developer in Canada for years.
And I was surprised to see we were able to raise millions from diaspora all over the world — completely off-platform.
That proved something important: if you give people access to structured, trustworthy, and transparent opportunities, there is openness to invest.
That was the evolution — and that’s how I got here.
Andy Field (Host): That answers what was going to be my next question — how your personal journey has shaped your thinking.
So, what changes when diaspora communities move from sending money to actually owning part of businesses they believe in?
[00:09:00]
Meseret Warner (Guest): It’s definitely a process.
When diaspora are sending money — like I said, I used to send money to my family — it’s easy. One, you send it to someone you know. You hope you know what they’re going to use it for.
Andy Field (Host): What they’ve told you they’re going to use it for.
Meseret Warner (Guest): Exactly. Sometimes you find out later it was used for something else — but from the sender’s perspective, you’re sending it to family. You’re not expecting anything back. It’s gone. It’s a donation, a gift — consumption. It’s a one-way street.
There’s no due diligence. Nothing.
But when you introduce the idea: “Instead of sending money repeatedly, what if you invest so the person or business becomes self-sustaining?” — that changes everything.
It’s the old saying: don’t give someone fish every day — teach them how to fish. That changes economies. It may not be your exact family — but it can help your country and your community.
And because I came back and I’m on the ground, I can see the Ethiopian diaspora are actually among the biggest investors. People like me gave up jobs, came back, put in money, built businesses.
So it’s not foreign to them — they do invest. But equity crowdfunding adds structure and accessibility.
The first thing I learned is: trust, trust, trust.
If I give it to my mum, I know it gets to her. But if I invest through a platform: how do I know you invested it properly? How do I know the company won’t take the money and disappear? How do I see the impact I’m looking for?
So having that conversation takes time. It’s worth it — and each time we have it, more people convert than I expect. But you need patience.
And also — equity crowdfunding isn’t just the fancy technology. In Ethiopia, it’s about building the entire ecosystem.
The companies raising funds often aren’t “platform-ready.” They aren’t prepared to share diligence materials the way someone in Washington DC would expect.
So we had to work on both sides: educate and build trust with investors — and support fundraisers to become investment-ready.
That’s partly why we partnered with GIZ (a German development agency implementing partner). They focus on private sector development. We said: these companies want to raise funds, but they need support to become investable — to become “crowdfunding-ready.”
In the U.S., you can hire marketing agencies — but it’s expensive. People talk about spending up to $50,000 USD to be ready to raise. But if an African company is raising half a million, they can’t put $50,000 — close to 10% — into preparation.
Andy Field (Host): That’s interesting — because the “crowdfunding-ready” challenge is global: marketing, getting a crowd behind you, preparing to list — and trust is absolutely universal.
So what surprised you most once Ignite Investment went live?
[00:16:00]
Meseret Warner (Guest): I was pleasantly surprised. A lot of people were already looking for something like this.
The diaspora are emotionally invested. They’re passionate about seeing progress. It’s not like investing in Apple stock — that’s purely numbers. With diaspora, there’s also identity and impact.
So as soon as they saw a pathway to invest, it was surprising. In the first week we launched in 2022, we had about 30 sign-ups — and half were investors — from five different countries, mostly the U.S. and the UK, asking: “How can I invest?”
They didn’t know me, they didn’t know Ignite — but they read, they reached out, they signed up. It proved we were filling a gap.
Andy Field (Host): And a lot of the enterprises you’ve supported are women-led. Was that intentional?
[00:18:00]
Meseret Warner (Guest): Yes — very intentional.
I’ve been working on women’s economic empowerment for years. I was President of the African Women Entrepreneurs Program — we had 42 chapters across Africa.
When you look at access to finance, it’s already difficult for SMEs — but for women, it’s even worse. Only a tiny fraction of funding goes to women-led ventures.
Even me — I’m well-spoken, I’ve worked globally — and I still don’t have access in the same way many of my male peers do. That’s just how the world works, and it’s even harder in Ethiopia.
I’m also a numbers person — computer science and mathematics — and when I look at the data, it’s shocking.
So we deliberately reach out to women-led ventures, because they’re less likely to reach out the same way others do, due to social norms, networks, and other disadvantages.
And you’d be surprised — many have amazing ventures. And they often repay debt at better rates than men-led ventures.
Andy Field (Host): I wouldn’t be surprised at all.
Let’s talk about regulation. Ignite operates within Ethiopia’s regulatory realities. What has that experience taught you about working constructively with regulators?
[00:21:00]
Meseret Warner (Guest): It’s essential. Especially where there isn’t a clear crowdfunding framework.
Most African countries don’t have dedicated crowdfunding regulations. Some platforms operate through existing financial regulations — but crowdfunding is different. It needs its own framework.
So you must bring regulators with you.
In Ethiopia, the Capital Market Proclamation came out in 2021 — and I was engaged from day one. When the regulatory sandbox opened for innovative financial systems, we applied like anyone else, and we’re still working with them.
We also worked hard to stay compliant by design. We registered the company in the U.S. and comply with U.S. regulatory requirements, and we also operate within the open rules available in Ethiopia — for example, foreign indirect investment pathways.
If you’re not compliant, you can be shut down overnight — and cross-border investment is already complex. Without regulatory support, it becomes impractical and unscalable.
We genuinely believe in the opportunity. Over $100 billion comes into Africa as remittances each year — and diaspora already invest, just not always through structured channels.
That’s why partnerships matter — like GIZ, and we’re also partnering with the African Development Bank. If we prove the concept and scale it, we can expand into other African countries.
And there’s progress: the Ethiopian approach is increasingly to say, “Tell us what you’re doing — and let’s see how it can become a regulated solution,” rather than simply saying no.
That openness matters — and you get there by engaging them consistently.
Andy Field (Host): That makes sense. And I imagine that’s part of why GECA resonated with you, and why you joined the Steering Committee — access to people and insights across the globe that can help the work in Ethiopia.
[00:26:00]
Meseret Warner (Guest): Absolutely. When I heard about GECA, I thought: “It’s about time.”
We need standards.
High-net-worth individuals and accredited investors can invest anywhere — Dubai, China, South America, the U.S. — no one stops them. But for crowdfunding, regulations are so restrictive and fragmented.
So if you’re a retail investor and you want to invest $100 into your home country legally and transparently, it becomes extremely difficult.
That’s why coordination matters. Even a little harmonisation would make a huge difference — like how global systems such as SWIFT enable coordination.
We’re not asking for identical regulation everywhere — but some baseline alignment could unlock opportunity and democratise access to investment.
That’s what crowdfunding was meant to do: give startups and SMEs access to capital when they can’t access venture capital — and allow communities to back them.
Andy Field (Host): Exactly. So what gives you the most optimism right now about the future of global crowdfunding?
[00:30:00]
Meseret Warner (Guest): We’re making progress — real progress.
Look at the UK: crowdfunding has raised billions. Those success stories open doors and push policymakers to catch up.
And it’s been incremental — but meaningful. In the U.S., under the JOBS Act, it started with under $1 million and low individual limits. Now it’s up to $5 million. Those improvements happen because impact is visible.
SMEs and startups create the majority of jobs — over 60% in most economies. If you give them access to finance, they lift the economy and everyone benefits.
So yes: incremental progress gives me hope.
Andy Field (Host): I couldn’t agree more. Meseret, this has been fascinating. Before we finish — where can people follow you and learn more about Ignite Investment?
[00:32:00]
Meseret Warner (Guest): Absolutely. Our platform is igniteinvestment.com. People can visit and see companies raising, and we have a video showing how it works.
I’m also very active on LinkedIn — that’s the best place to find me and follow our work. We have an office in Ethiopia, and a registered company in the U.S.
And of course, through GECA as well.
Andy Field (Host): Brilliant. Thank you.
Meseret, thanks so much for sharing your story and insights today. Your work is a huge reminder that equity crowdfunding isn’t just about technology or regulation — it’s about unlocking opportunity, building ownership, and creating pathways for capital to flow more efficiently to the people and ideas that need it most.
Conversations like this are exactly why GECA exists: to bring together diverse global perspectives, challenge fragmented thinking, and help shape a more connected and inclusive equity crowdfunding ecosystem.
Thank you, Meseret — and we’ll speak again soon.
And to our listeners: thanks for tuning in. Stay with us for future episodes as we continue to explore the people, the policies, and the platforms unlocking crowdfunding without borders.
Don’t forget to follow GECA for more conversations with the people shaping the future of global equity crowdfunding.
And visit thegeca.org to learn more about our mission, our growing global supporter base, and how you can get involved.
Thanks, Meseret — and thanks everyone for listening. We’ll see you next time.
[End of Transcript]
Unlocking Cap Table Value: Post-Raise Investor Activation with Joey Hayes | GECA Podcast
Unlocking Cap Table Value: Post-Raise Investor Activation with Joey Hayes | GECA Podcast
Most founders celebrate when they hit their funding goal. Then communication drops off a cliff. What if the biggest asset you gained wasn’t the capital – but the community of 500+ investors sitting in a spreadsheet you’ve never opened?
Join Andy Field in conversation with Joey Hayes, founder of THRU and investor in 65+ startups, as he reveals why post-raise investor activation is crowdfunding’s most overlooked opportunity. Joey shares how he discovered that roughly 10% of any cap table can significantly impact business growth – if founders know how to ask.
From his failed first business Mac Shack to building a platform that transforms passive backers into active growth partners, Joey breaks down why founders struggle post-raise, how to identify high-opportunity investors, and the one thing every founder should do tomorrow if they haven’t communicated with investors in 30 days.
Key insights:
- Why engaged investors are 3x more likely to reinvest
- How 20-25% of investors will actively help – if asked properly
- The difference between broadcasting to 500 people and activating the right 50
- What platforms should do differently to support post-raise engagement
- How AI will transform founder-investor relationships in the next 2-3 years
Capital raises companies. Activated communities build them.
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the GECA Podcast, powered by the Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance. Dive into the realm of borderless equity crowdfunding, where we bring the world’s top experts and industry leaders directly to you – discussing innovations that are redrawing the boundaries of finance. Ready to expand your horizons?
Here’s your host, Andy Field.
Andy Field (Host): Hello everybody, and welcome to the GECA Podcast. Today we’re diving into a part of the equity crowdfunding and startup journey that’s often overlooked—and it’s actually quite important—and that’s what happens after the raise.
So my guest today is Joey Hayes. Joey’s an entrepreneur, investor, and the founder of THRU—that’s T-H-R-U—a company focused on helping founders unlock the real value hidden in their cap tables.
Joey’s career began in global commercial roles at companies like IHG, Hyatt, Hilton, and Booking.com before he made the leap into entrepreneurship and investing. In 2021, he launched the first of his bootstrap businesses, Mac Shack. This was a journey that sparked one of the most important insights of his career.
He’s spoken about that many times—and that is: for many founders, isolation and underutilized investor support can be just as dangerous as a lack of capital.
Looking across his portfolio of more than 65 startup investments, Joey noticed a recurring pattern: founders raising money successfully, but then struggling to engage and leverage their investors once the campaign ended.
And what followed was the creation of THRU. THRU is a platform—and a philosophy—built around turning passive backers into active contributors to growth.
Now at GECA, we often focus on how to raise capital more efficiently across borders. And Joey is going to remind us that raising capital is just the beginning—and what founders and platforms do next may matter even more.
Today we’re going to explore how investor engagement really works, why so much value remains untapped, and how activating those communities could reshape the future of equity crowdfunding.
Joey, it’s great to have you with us. Welcome.
[00:02:00]
Joey Hayes (Guest): Beautifully said, Andy. Thank you so much.
Andy Field (Host): No problem. And Joey’s actually based in Amsterdam today. I’ve got a big woolly jumper on here—it’s pretty cold. Hopefully it’s not too bad for you where you are.
Joey Hayes (Guest): I find if I wear summer gear, I feel warmer. So that’s my strategy.
Andy Field (Host): No, that’s a good one. That’s a good one.
Joey Hayes (Guest): Right there with you.
Andy Field (Host): Fantastic, Joey. Let’s get right in. You’ve worked across global hospitality and tech giants. What first pulled you into startups and investing?
[00:03:00]
Joey Hayes (Guest): Yeah, so my interest in crowdfunding actually started when I was in grad school. I was at NYU, studying sustainable real estate development, and I was able to do a project on the first crowdfunded skyscraper in Bogotá.
It was a project that I really dove into, and I loved it. I became really interested in crowdfunding then.
Then later, when I moved to Amsterdam during COVID, I got really into crowdfunding again—it became my little obsession, my COVID obsession. While people were buying on Amazon, I was investing small-ticket amounts in companies, for better or for worse.
But I really got into the crowdfunding space and investing in startups. Then I started my own business—my first business—Mac Shack, my restaurant.
After that, I started joining a lot of founder communities, both online and in person. That’s really when I started to love what these communities were about—how helpful they were—and how interesting it was to understand the whole entrepreneurial journey.
And that’s what kind of got me obsessed with trying to help founders make it easier for them.
Andy Field (Host): Yeah. Okay—so going from corporate to becoming the founder, and investor at the same time—how did that shape how you see the ecosystem today?
[00:04:00]
Joey Hayes (Guest): Yeah, it was—like you said in the intro—starting a business was quite a lonely journey, but it didn’t really have to be.
It was fun and fulfilling, but what I found was that there was all this support around me. For example, I would get out of work, then go to my restaurant and start working on all the problems that a restaurant has.
I was in charge of the business side. My partner was involved in the operations and the cooking. And I would sit there and bake in my problems, for lack of a better word, and just try to determine who in my support network was there to help me.
And I realized there was a lot of—not conflict—but friction between knowing I needed help, and actually getting that help from the people around me.
That got me into: one, getting better at entrepreneurship and realizing that asking for help is actually a huge part of being a successful entrepreneur.
And two, it’s a skill a lot of people don’t have in general—but a lot of entrepreneurs don’t have it because we just want to do it all ourselves.
So that made me a bit obsessed with trying to help myself get better help from the people around me—and then help others do that too.
And when I was determining what kind of company I wanted to start, I struggled with it for a while. Then one day I was like: crowdfunding.
I looked at my portfolio and thought: none of these founders—none of these startups—have ever really asked me for help.
Andy Field (Host): Even someone who’s got an active interest in the business.
[00:06:00]
Joey Hayes (Guest): Yeah—someone with an active interest.
Actually, I have an interesting story for you, Andy. I was at a hospitality tech conference in Paris, and one of the founders I invested in was there—one of the best startups I invested in. I was really excited to meet him. His name was Luca.
I went up to him after his talk and said, “Hey Luca, I was an investor in your Wefunder campaign a little over a year ago.”
And he was like, “Oh man, that’s so great.” Then he said, “What the hell are you doing here in Paris at this hospitality tech conference?”
And I said, “I work for Booking.com.”
His eyes lit up and he was like, “You work for Booking? I’ve been looking for a Booking.com contact for months now.”
And I’m like, “Luca—I’ve been on your cap table for over a year. My bio says that, my LinkedIn says that.” And he’s a super dialed-in founder—very dialed in.
So I thought: if he’s missing it, everyone’s probably missing it.
And the more founders I spoke to, the more I noticed this wasn’t something they really planned for. After the raise, cap tables collect all this money—but post-raise, it becomes a void.
So that’s when I decided this is something I could really help with in the crowdfunding ecosystem, but also just with startups and founders in general.
Andy Field (Host): So it’s about your experience with Mac Shack. I know you’ve spoken about that not really working out so well. Can you give a bit more insight into what that period taught you about being a founder? You’ve already mentioned isolation, and the fear of asking for help. Did you recognize absolutely that you needed help?
[00:07:00]
Joey Hayes (Guest): Oh, absolutely. I recognized that. I think everyone needs help. It was a matter of determining how to ask for help, when to ask for help, and who the best person was to help.
That’s what I really struggled with—cutting through all the noise.
A lot of times, by the time I asked for help, I was in the red zone. I’d already tried everything else, and then you’re asking in a sea of panic—and that’s never nice for either person.
So I learned to be more proactive: understand what you need help with, why, and when. Then go to that person and say, “Hey, I really need help with this.”
And try not to do it in panic mode—where you put pressure on them.
One thing I learned is: when you’re asking someone for help, you have to make it as easy on that person as possible.
Also—this was a mindset shift—someone told me (and I forget who), but: when you don’t ask for help, you don’t give someone the opportunity to help you.
So when you don’t ask, you’re actually taking something away from them. That changed everything for me.
Andy Field (Host): Yeah, that’s a great way of looking at it. And I think entrepreneurs by their very nature are probably not the best people in the world to automatically ask for help. They like to think they understand their own business and nobody knows it better—and of course they don’t.
But there’s no harm and no shame. It can only be an advantage—getting the right people to help with the right problem.
How different do you think your journey with Mac Shack might have been if you’d had stronger engagement from people helping you?
[00:09:00]
Joey Hayes (Guest): It would’ve been a lot different. Honestly though, I don’t think it would’ve succeeded either way.
Andy Field (Host): Oh, okay.
Joey Hayes (Guest): Because it wasn’t the right business for me. It was a really great first business, but in the end it wasn’t. Even if it did succeed, I think I would’ve been pretty miserable, to be honest with you.
But I think my takeaways from that are exactly what was supposed to happen—and it was supposed to lead me onto this.
There are a lot of people out there in similar situations, where they have businesses that are struggling—or they’re struggling—and they don’t know how to capitalize on the networks they have, whether it’s investors, friends, or family.
Where I think this is most beneficial is crowdfunding, because you have hundreds or thousands of people who are literally invested in your business—and they’ve already given you the money, Andy. That’s the hard part, right?
Andy Field (Host): That’s right—they bought into you.
[00:10:00]
Joey Hayes (Guest): Exactly. Asking them to share a referral code or intro somebody—that’s probably the easy part.
And a big part of it is riding the momentum of the raise. You come off the raise and everyone’s excited—especially if you hit your target—and then communication drops off a cliff.
Momentum is so important in business, in everything. If you can continue that momentum after the raise and capitalize on the knowledge and skills of your investors, you’ll be more successful, keep them engaged, and overall build a better business.
Andy Field (Host): That makes perfect sense. So moving on to what you’re doing with THRU now—why do you think founders struggle so much with activating their investors after the raise? Is it that crowdfunding is seen as finished once the capital has been raised?
[00:11:00]
Joey Hayes (Guest): A couple things.
One is: they’re exhausted. The raise is exhausting—often more work than they expected. By the time it’s over, they’re relieved and want to get back to building their business, which is fair.
Another part is: they don’t plan for the post-raise. There’s so much planning for the raise itself, and post-raise gets kicked down the road.
Also, they often don’t have the people for it. The founder or CEO ends up doing it, and after the raise they want to do something else. If they don’t have a community manager (which I think is so important), it’s hard.
It’s mostly lack of planning, exhaustion, and lack of strategy. There aren’t many people focused on post-raise. Most firms and consultancies focus on the raise itself.
So it’s a lack of support—and those things combined make the transition difficult.
Andy Field (Host): And what sets crowdfunding companies apart—in a positive way—is they’ve got this marketing asset: a community of people who’ve already bought into the business. They’ve actively invested, so they believe in the story.
Approaching them and activating them can only be beneficial—they’re ready-made ambassadors.
[00:13:00]
Joey Hayes (Guest): Exactly. If you go up to any company and say, “I’ll give you 1,000 people who want to help your business grow—who are truly invested in you succeeding,” they’d say, “Oh my God—give me the names, give me the emails.”
And you already have them.
Another interesting part is: founders don’t realize that often the people investing in them are in the industry themselves. It resonates with them because they understand it.
Like, I tend to invest in hospitality companies and hospitality tech because that’s my field. A lot of founders will find, when they look through their cap table, that many investors are in the same industry—and are in a great position to help.
Andy Field (Host): So their main driver may not be a set return within a certain timeframe—it could be genuine interest and expertise, which makes them well-placed to help.
You mentioned patterns across 65+ investments. What kept repeating?
[00:15:00]
Joey Hayes (Guest): Some founders were good at the engagement piece—maybe about half. They kept investors informed by adding them to marketing emails or posting monthly updates on Wefunder, StartEngine, etc.
But hardly any were meeting the activation piece—and many didn’t have the mindset that investors are a growth channel. They see them as a source of capital, then it’s a hard stop.
I was talking to a founder the other day with 3,000 investors. He said, “Joey, I don’t know why we didn’t think of this. Why don’t we do more with these evangelists who can amplify our marketing? Refer customers? Intro partnerships?”
It’s never seen through a commercial lens—only through a capital-raise lens.
Also: engaged investors are about three times more likely to reinvest.
A lot of founders put too much emphasis on what to say. They overthink it. Sometimes they say they have nothing to say.
But people just want to know what’s going on. The worst thing is silence.
There’s a lot of underthinking and overthinking—not much middle-ground thinking.
Andy Field (Host): And you’ve answered my next question: the biggest misconception about the cap table is that it’s “just investors,” when actually it’s a whole group of ambassadors with aligned incentives.
[00:18:00]
Joey Hayes (Guest): Exactly. Even on the capital front—you should look at your investor base as a way to get more investors, even institutional investors.
When we go through cap tables, we see retail and accredited investors who work for investment firms and literally say, “Reach out if you’re looking for more capital.”
Wefunder does a good job collecting bios and asking investors during checkout what they can do to help—but it’s mostly ignored.
Because it’s intimidating: you download a spreadsheet with 500 investors and think, “I’m not sifting through this.” So it goes in a drawer.
What we do is sift through it for you. We determine who’s best suited to help and who’s willing.
We use platform data and our own co-created survey with the founder. The survey also helps identify who’s extra motivated—because they actually fill it out.
We’re seeing around 20–25% of investors take that step, and about 10% become high-opportunity investors who could do something significant for the business.
Andy Field (Host): That’s interesting. So how does THRU do things differently from typical investor relations tools?
[00:20:00]
Joey Hayes (Guest): We don’t have our own platform. The last thing anyone needs is another platform.
We ask for access to the backend of whatever tool they use so we can download reports. We co-create the survey using whatever tool the startup prefers—Google Forms, Jotform, etc.
We take the data, use AI plus manual lookup, and cross-reference it with the founder’s goals.
Then we produce a simple report—usually a Google Doc—with recommendations and insights, and we go through it together to decide next steps.
We also segment investors by industry, by engagement level, and by preference: “Do you want to be supportive, active, or silent?” We don’t want to bother people who don’t want to engage.
A useful insight we often uncover: who in the investor base is already a customer. Many founders have no idea. If 30% of your investors aren’t customers, you can run a targeted campaign to convert them—often with good success.
We also help with outreach strategy. A lot of times you don’t lead with “Can you help me?” You start with advice: “Based on your background, how would we break into this industry?” People love giving that advice—and then you build a relationship.
Ultimately, it’s about nurturing high-value opportunities in your cap table.
Our next phase is productizing this: understanding the founder’s tech stack, detecting opportunities and challenges in real time, ranking which investors can help, and reducing friction from “I need help” to “I’ve asked for help,” even drafting communications to support the process.
Andy Field (Host): That’s pragmatic. But even when founders want to do this, they can be limited by resources, money, and energy. Where do you get stuck when engaging investors?
[00:24:00]
Joey Hayes (Guest): Sometimes people say a lot and then don’t respond—and that’s okay. We usually give it three attempts, and then we move on.
Long-term, it’s valuable to understand who really is founder-focused—who wants to help versus who just says they will.
Also, don’t email-blast your whole cap table. Take the top 20 and do dedicated, personalized outreach. Call them out respectfully: “On the survey you said you were willing to help with this—I’m reaching out.”
And have a specific ask. Don’t say, “I need intros to the luxury hospitality market.” You’ll get crickets. Find the right people and ask specific questions.
If you get them on the phone, have an agenda—don’t waste their time or yours.
One founder told me, “Joey, this is great, but it’s overwhelming.” So we prioritized: for example, start with someone who invested 25,000 rather than 500. That’s not always right, but we learn as we go.
We also enrich the data with manual LinkedIn research to make it more robust and increase chances of success.
Andy Field (Host): If I was an investor and the founder approached me that way, I’d see it as proactive—trying to make my investment work.
So how should platforms support post-raise activation? Is it more platforms collecting the right data—or is there more they can do?
[00:28:00]
Joey Hayes (Guest): More platforms should do it, yes—offer templates for monthly investor updates, reminders to send updates.
KingsCrowd just launched a free investor relations tool—things like that help.
But the key is education: move investor engagement from a chore or compliance issue into something profitable. Founders need that mindset shift: “You will lose money if you don’t do this.”
Crowdsourcing support is one of the biggest reasons founders choose crowdfunding—so not capitalizing on it is a waste.
As an industry, we haven’t done well enough at that. We need stewardship—everyone pushing the same narrative.
We’ve spent the last 10 years building access—more investors, more founders. Now we need the next phase of professionalization: post-raise retention and investor experience, so investors come back. We’ve lost a decent amount of people along the way.
Andy Field (Host): And we always come back to education in these conversations: the work doesn’t end when the raise ends.
Looking ahead—how do you see founder–investor relationships evolving over the next five years?
[00:30:00]
Joey Hayes (Guest): I’m hoping AI and automation play a bigger role—that’s what we’re banking on at THRU.
Detect opportunities and challenges, match them to the cap table, and identify who can help.
Also, AI can help with the “chore” work: meeting notes, monthly summaries, drafting updates—so it’s less daunting.
I’m very clear: you need engagement before activation. And you can’t ignore the rest of the cap table. It’s the 80/20 rule: focus on the top 20%, but still communicate broadly.
I think platforms will do more—we’re already seeing it. There may be legislation in the US increasing the amount companies can raise.
But overall, the experience of both investor and founder needs to improve. I hope it only gets better from here: crowdfunding grows, people have better experiences, they come back, and they tell friends and family.
Andy Field (Host): Perfect. So to sum up: if founders listening today could change one thing tomorrow about how they operate post-raise, what would it be?
[00:33:00]
Joey Hayes (Guest): I’d ask: when’s the last time you reached out to your investors? And what do you know about your investors—your cap table?
If someone asked you, “How do I get an X, Y, Z introduction?” would you know who to go to on your cap table? Do you know who’s on there?
So: one, look at your investor insights. Two, look at when you last communicated.
If you haven’t communicated in more than 30 days—do it. There’s really no bad communication. Even saying, “We’re building a communication strategy, and here’s what you can expect,” is fine.
Just say something.
Andy Field (Host): Great. To finish—where can people learn more about THRU and your work? And do you work globally?
[00:34:00]
Joey Hayes (Guest): Yeah—we’ll work with anybody.
We’ve focused mainly in the US because we just started, and I’ve been focusing on my investments, but we’re scaling. Anyone around the world—we’re happy to help.
LinkedIn is the best way to reach me—maybe you could put the link in the show notes. And also our company page.
Our website is: https://www.comethru.co/
There’s a “Request early access” button that goes straight to me. We’ll determine if it’s the right fit.
And like I said—we’re consulting, and it’s just me right now, so there is some bandwidth limitation. But we’re trying to help as many people as possible.
Reach out, and we’ll determine the best way to help.
[00:35:00]
Andy Field (Host): Fantastic, Joey. Thanks so much. It’s a really powerful—and practical—conversation.
What really stands out is the reminder that capital alone doesn’t build great companies. It’s the people who do that.
And when founders learn how to truly activate their investor communities, they unlock not just funding, but momentum, insight, and advocacy.
And for GECA, this is a crucial part of the puzzle. Building better cross-border markets isn’t only about regulation and platforms—it’s also about what happens inside each cap table once the raise is complete.
Thanks again, Joey. That was a fantastic conversation. We’ll be sure to connect people with you who like what you’re doing.
Joey Hayes (Guest): Thank you, Andy—and thank you for everything you do for the industry and with GECA. I’m excited to work with you moving forward, and I really appreciate you giving me the opportunity today.
Andy Field (Host): No problem at all. And to our listeners—thanks for tuning in. Stay with us for future episodes as we continue to explore the people, the policies, and the platforms that are unlocking crowdfunding without borders.
Don’t forget to follow GECA for more conversations with the people shaping the future of global equity crowdfunding. And visit thegeca.org to learn more about our mission, our growing global supporter base, and how you can get involved.
Thanks everyone, and we’ll see you next time.
[End of Transcript]
GECA 2025 Year-End Update: From Belief to Global Movement
Building the Future of Borderless Equity Crowdfunding
A message from Andy Field, GECA Steering Committee Executive Lead
What began as a shared belief that “collaboration is key” has grown into a genuinely global movement. 2025 was our foundation year and what a foundation we’ve built together.
By the Numbers: 2025
Think Tank Roundtables: 5 (Architects of Change series)
Steering Committee: 7 → 15 members (+114%)
Global Reach: 4 continents (2 more in discussions)
Supporter Base: 40 → 80+ organizations (+100%)
Podcast Episodes: 12 released (GECA WorldView)
Major Events: 2 USA conferences + 2 global panels
Key Milestone: Manifesto published
From a core group to a truly global think tank- in just 12 months.
What We Accomplished in 2025
- Grew the Alliance
Our Steering Committee expanded from 7 to 15 members, now spanning four continents — with conversations already underway to bring representatives from two more regions into the fold.
Our supporter base more than doubled: from 40 to 80+ organizations and individuals who share our belief that equity crowdfunding works best when we address regulatory, technological, and cultural borders together — not in isolation.
- Launched Architects of Change Think Tank Series ⭐
Our flagship initiative for 2025: a series of five high-level roundtable discussions bringing together the brightest minds in global equity crowdfunding.
The Series:
- “Breaking Down Borders: How Platforms Can Enable Global Deal Access and Visibility”
- “Beyond Borders: Learning from EU ECSPR to Build Global Crowdfunding Passports”
- “Regulation as Rocket Fuel: How Smart Compliance Drives Platform Growth”
- “The $1 Trillion Opportunity: Building Liquidity Through Innovation”
- “The Conversion Code: What Actually Moves Global Investors from Interest to Investment”
What made it transformational:
These conversations were strategic deep-dives that shaped GECA’s policy framework. We convened platform CEOs, innovators and thought leaders from across the globe to tackle the hardest questions facing cross-border equity crowdfunding.
The impact:
- Formed the foundation for our 2026 Whitepaper (releasing Q1)
- Created working groups on key challenges identified in the series
- Generated McKinsey-style strategic analysis articles
- Established GECA as the authoritative voice on borderless crowdfunding
This series proved that collaboration produces solutions — and positioned GECA as the think tank driving the future of our industry.
- Built Industry Relationships & Representation
We forged strong partnerships with professional and industry bodies including EDFA and CfPA, amplifying GECA’s voice in critical regulatory discussions.
We represented GECA across multiple platforms:
- Two USA conferences (Supercrowd LA — Los Angeles and the CfPA Summit — Washington DC)
- Appeared on major global online panels
- Took part in numerous industry discussions worldwide
These engagements validated GECA’s mission and built the relationships that will enable real progress in 2026.
- Established Thought Leadership
Published our Manifesto — articulating GECA’s vision for collaborative, compliant, global equity crowdfunding.
Launched 12 podcast episodes — the GECA WorldView podcast featuring voices from across the ecosystem, exploring challenges and solutions.
Delivered Architects of Change series — our most ambitious initiative, from which we learned enormously and were honored to host so many influential voices.
Looking Ahead: 2026
We’re heading into 2026 with real momentum.
The Architects of Change Think Tank Series generated incredibly valuable insights, helping us to create a roadmap and sparking global collaborations that will transform our industry.
January 2026:
→ Partnership announcements — exciting global collaborations that will advance GECA’s mission (stay tuned!)
Q1 2026:
→ Whitepaper publication — distilling learnings from Architects of Change into a comprehensive framework for global equity crowdfunding infrastructure
→ Working groups launch — tackling specific challenges identified in the Think Tank series
February 2026:
→ Major global webinar — bringing together platforms, regulators, and innovators to chart the path forward (details coming soon)
Aims Throughout 2026:
→ Expand Steering Committee to 6 continents
→ Advance infrastructure working groups
→ Strengthen policy advocacy based on Think Tank findings
→ Launch collaborative initiatives with global partners
→ Turn 2025’s research into 2026’s action
2025 was about understanding the challenges.
2026 is about building the solutions — together.
The announcements coming in January will show just how serious we are about making borderless equity crowdfunding a reality.
To every platform operator, regulator, innovator, and supporter who joined us this year: thank you. Your support is really helping to build a movement.
What we’ve achieved together in 2025 is remarkable. What we’ll accomplish in 2026 -with the collaborations we’re announcing in January — will be transformational.
I hope you have a peaceful and happy festive break.
The announcements are coming. The work continues. The future is borderless.
Here’s to 2026.
Andy Field
GECA Steering Committee Executive Lead
Join the Global Crowdfunding Movement:
- Learn more about GECA: thegeca.org
- Become a member: thegeca.org/membership-app-form
- Follow GECA: LinkedIn | Twitter | Medium
The Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance (GECA) works toward creating a truly borderless global equity crowdfunding ecosystem through industry collaboration, regulatory alignment, and international knowledge sharing.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is GECA?
GECA (Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance) is a global think tank and industry
alliance uniting equity crowdfunding platforms, regulators, and innovators to
enable compliant cross-border investment. Founded in 2024, GECA now spans 4
continents with 80+ member organizations.
What did GECA accomplish in 2025?
GECA's 2025 achievements include:
- 5 Think Tank roundtables (Architects of Change series)
- Steering Committee growth from 7 to 15 members (+114%)
- Membership doubled from 40 to 80+ organizations (+100%)
- Expansion to 4 continents (Europe, North America, Africa, Asia)
- 12 podcast episodes released (GECA WorldView)
- Published industry Manifesto
- Engaged at CfPA Summit and major global events
What is the Architects of Change Think Tank series?
The Architects of Change series is GECA's flagship initiative: 5 intensive
roundtable discussions bringing together platform CEOs, regulators, and
innovators to tackle cross-border crowdfunding challenges. The insights from
this series form the foundation of GECA's 2026 Whitepaper and working groups.
How many countries does GECA operate in?
GECA has active representation across 4 continents with 15 Steering Committee
members and 80+ member organizations spanning Europe, North America, South America, Africa,
and Asia.
What is GECA's mission?
GECA's mission is to unite platforms, regulators and innovators globally to
enable compliant cross-border equity crowdfunding through collaboration,
standards, and policy advocacy.
What is GECA announcing in 2026?
In January 2026, GECA will announce major global partnerships. Q1 2026 brings
the Whitepaper publication and working groups launch. February 2026 features
a major global webinar bringing together platforms, regulators, and innovators.
Who can join GECA?
GECA membership is open to equity crowdfunding platforms, regulators,
technology providers, service providers and industry leaders committed to
collaborative, compliant, borderless crowdfunding.
How do I join GECA?
Apply for GECA membership at: https://thegeca.org/membership-app-form/
What is borderless equity crowdfunding?
Borderless equity crowdfunding enables investors to access investment
opportunities across jurisdictions and allows companies to raise capital
globally within compliant regulatory frameworks. GECA convenes stakeholders, is developing frameworks,
and advocates for policies that enable borderless equity crowdfunding
Who leads GECA?
GECA is led by a 15-member Steering Committee spanning 4 continents, including
platform CEOs, regulators, and industry innovators. Andy Field serves as
Steering Committee Executive Lead.
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From Financial Crisis to Crowdfunding Champion: Paul Lovejoy's 366-Day Journey to Democratize Investment
How a $12,000 experiment across 400+ investments is proving that everyday people can build wealth outside Wall Street - and why the future of finance depends on it
By the Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance
The Investor Who Put His Money Where His Mouth Is
Paul Lovejoy didn't set out to become a crowdfunding revolutionary. In 2008, he was a real estate investor who, along with his family, lost nearly a million dollars when a fraudulent investment scheme collapsed during the financial crisis. The money was devastating to lose. The shame was even worse.
"I didn't just lose my money, it was also my family's money," Lovejoy recalls in a recent episode of the GECA Podcast. "It was a horrible event and it took years for me to recover from just the trauma and get over the shame part of it. I didn't publicly admit that for 10 years."
But what emerged from that darkness was something extraordinary: a mission to democratize access to investment opportunities and build an alternative financial system where regular people, not concentrated wealth, determine what gets funded.
Today, as Principal Investment Advisor at Stakeholder Enterprise - the United States' first investment advisory firm specializing in regulated crowd investing - and 2024 recipient of the Crowdfunding Professional Association's prestigious 'Pay It Forward' Award, Lovejoy has become one of the industry's most prolific advocates. His weapon of choice? A year-long experiment that would change how he - and potentially millions of others - think about building wealth.
The 366-Day Challenge: Investing Every Single Day
In 2024, Lovejoy embarked on what he calls his "Leap Year Portfolio"- investing in crowdfunding opportunities every single day for 366 consecutive days. Yes, even on vacation. ("My wife hated me," he admits with a laugh.)
The parameters were simple but ambitious:
- Total invested: $12,000 over 366 days
- Average per investment: $31.52
- Portfolio allocation: 50% debt, 30% equity, 20% real estate
- Minimum investment: As low as $10
The results? Remarkable.
By the numbers:
- 432 real estate developer loans (only 3 defaults, zero actual losses due to collateral)
- 70+ small businesses supported
- 20+ family farms funded
- 33% cash flow return in just 20 months
- $4,000 returned and reinvested from the initial $12,000
"I wanted to show that you can have a legitimate financial plan without using our public stock markets," Lovejoy explains. "But more than that, I needed to put my money where my mouth is. I needed to really understand what people go through when they make these investment decisions."
The Hidden Power of Extreme Diversification
What Lovejoy discovered through his daily investment practice was transformative: diversification at scale is the ultimate risk mitigation strategy.
Unlike traditional public markets, where three institutional investors control retirement accounts and algorithmic trading concentrates wealth in just seven stocks (the "Magnificent Seven"), crowdfunding enabled Lovejoy to spread tiny investments across hundreds of opportunities.
"Some of these short-term real estate loans, I can do a $10 minimum and they would split that $10 into a dollar into different loans," he explains. "The diversification of that - you can't beat that in our public markets."
This extreme diversification proved remarkably resilient. Out of 432 real estate loans, only three defaulted - and because the loans were backed by actual property, Lovejoy didn't lose any money. The platforms were able to take control of the houses and recover the investments.
"This is investor protection right here," Lovejoy emphasizes. "Diversification, not restrictive regulations, mitigates risk."
Technology as the Great Equalizer
One of Lovejoy's most surprising discoveries was how accessible due diligence has become for everyday investors - thanks to technology.
Yelp for Due Diligence: "I discovered Yelp is a fantastic place to do due diligence," Lovejoy reveals. "You can see right away if a business just put up their Yelp page - huh, suspicious. Or if they had this Yelp page for five years with five-star reviews. There's a lot that you could see as just a regular person very easily."
AI as a Reading Assistant: "With AI coming into play, it can read these large documents very easily. You can copy text and put it into an AI and have it read for you. That is a huge help because that's really what AI is best at - reading through documents. It's either in the document or it's not. There's no opportunity to make stuff up."
This democratization of information challenges the fundamental premise behind accredited investor restrictions—that only wealthy individuals have the sophistication to evaluate private market investments.
"You don't have to be sophisticated to do this," Lovejoy insists.
The Problem with SAFEs (And Why Crowdfunding Needs Its Own Instruments)
Through his extensive experience, Lovejoy identified a critical flaw in how the crowdfunding industry has developed: we're using investment instruments designed for a completely different ecosystem.
The SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity), invented by Y Combinator for their Silicon Valley incubator, has become the default instrument for equity crowdfunding. But there's a problem.
"It was perfect for their ecosystem because they're the ones doing the valuation in the next round," Lovejoy explains. "The SAFE protects the founders and it doesn't really protect investors all that much, but it didn't matter to Y Combinator because they're the ones that were gonna set the terms the next round."
But in crowdfunding? "Nobody knew what they were doing in our industry. What are we gonna use? Let's use Y Combinator's SAFE. No one thought, 'Hey, what works best for a crowdfunding industry?'"
Lovejoy's solution: We need investment vehicles specifically designed for investment crowdfunding, not borrowed from incubators. He also advocates for alternative exit strategies beyond IPOs and mergers - like dividends and stock buybacks - that provide more predictable returns for retail investors building long-term wealth.
The Real Impact: Beyond Returns
While the financial returns are compelling, what struck Lovejoy most was the real-world impact his investments were making.
One company he invested in three times, Ovanova, dropped everything when a hurricane devastated a small mountain town in North Carolina. They arrived with chainsaws, cleared roads, and set up a solar microgrid that powered the general store for 47 days - becoming a literal lifeline for the community.
"I'm seeing my small investments go to this company and now they're literally sending a lifeline to these people devastated by this disaster," Lovejoy reflects. "That was like real impact."
He invested in family farms building micro solar grids, earning 10% returns while supporting renewable energy. He funded clean energy projects and climate tech startups. He backed local small businesses creating jobs in their communities.
"It's this awesome situation where I'm helping this family farm build a micro solar grid on it, and I'm getting a 10% return," he says. "To me, it's really hard to beat."
Paying It Forward: A Philosophy of Enlightened Self-Interest
Lovejoy's recognition with the CfPA's 'Pay It Forward' Award reflects a philosophy that drives all his work: accepting responsibility for problems you didn't create because it's in your enlightened self-interest.
Drawing from his competitive water polo background, he explains: "My coach said, 'While you guys were being reactive, they were being proactive.' They're not thinking, 'We need to stop them from scoring.' They're thinking, 'When we get the ball, I'm gonna be swimming down, beating my guy to score.'"
This proactive mindset extends to systemic change.
"When inequality deepens, social cohesion collapses," Lovejoy observes. "People turn on each other instead of questioning the systems exploiting them. Furthermore, when people are stripped of opportunity and dignity, that's when crime and violence rise."
His conclusion: "Yes, it is in your self-interest, but you almost have to think of it as enlightened self-interest that it benefits me to have an economy that looks out for the wellbeing of others and our planet."
Building Alternative Financial Infrastructure
For Lovejoy, the crowdfunding movement represents something far more significant than a new investment class - it's the creation of entirely new financial infrastructure.
"The people who are involved, we are literally creating a brand new infrastructure for an alternative financial system," he emphasizes. "It's not one where large institutions or concentrations of wealth determine what gets built, what gets funded. It's people."
This infrastructure is being built through:
- Platform innovation enabling $10 minimum investments
- Regulatory frameworks like Regulation Crowdfunding creating legal pathways
- Technology democratizing due diligence and access
- Community connecting investors who care about impact with founders building solutions
"We get to build that infrastructure where no one is too big to fail, essentially," Lovejoy says. "I just wouldn't wanna be in any other space. It's such a huge opportunity. Generational."
Designing Out Fraud: A Circular Economy Approach to Regulation
When asked about the path to true cross-border crowdfunding, Lovejoy offered an innovative perspective borrowed from environmental design: the circular economy.
"The circular economy concept is you wanna design out waste and pollution in products," he explains. "I think we can apply that in other areas. Why not create systems where we design out fraud and exploitation?"
Rather than simply creating laws to police bad actors after the fact, Lovejoy advocates for designing systems that make fraud unprofitable from the start.
"I think just saying, 'Okay, we need to make laws to kind of police people,' I think that may be a little bit of an outdated perspective," he argues. "We need to take a step back and say, 'If we design this system in the first place, let's make fraud unprofitable. How do we do that?'"
This systems-thinking approach aligns perfectly with GECA's mission to create regulatory frameworks that facilitate cross-border investment while maintaining investor protection - not through restriction, but through intelligent design.
Advice for New Investors: Start Small, Start Now
For anyone new to crowdfunding, Lovejoy's advice is refreshingly simple:
"Start small. Find a $10 or $25 investment if you can. That's the place to start."
He learned more from making his first investment than from weeks of preparation. "It's just practicing. Doing it is gonna teach you. And start small and go through the due diligence. Even if it's a $25 investment, treat it like a $25,000 investment."
His second piece of advice: Start with debt instead of equity.
"You're gonna get returns happening to you a lot quicker. A lot of my investments were in loans, not equity -these were more debt-based. And I gotta tell you, after 20 months since I first started, I've already had a 33% cash flow return."
This cash flow can then be reinvested, creating a compounding effect that builds momentum rapidly.
Advice for Founders: Community First, Always
For entrepreneurs considering crowdfunding, Lovejoy's guidance is equally direct:
"You can't just show up and expect people to invest in you."
The most successful campaigns he observed shared common characteristics:
- Community building before launch (not expecting platforms to do marketing)
- Clear communication about use of funds and exit strategy
- Modeling successful campaigns in similar industries
- Marketing budget planning as part of the raise strategy
- Authentic engagement with potential investors
"You have to plan ahead, get your community involved, plan for a marketing budget, and look at how other people have done it before just jumping in," he advises.
The Crowdfunding Revolution Is Just Beginning
Six months into his daily investment streak, Lovejoy had a humbling realization: "I look back and I was like, 'I wasn't as good as I thought I was.' It's like when you do something every day, there are things that you just see that you didn't before."
By the end of the year, his perspective had transformed entirely. "Now I don't think I'm some great investor. I know that there's a lot more to learn out there, but I am so much better than I was before I started that."
This continuous learning - this willingness to question assumptions and remain humble in the face of complexity - exemplifies the spirit GECA champions in building a truly borderless crowdfunding ecosystem.
The Path Forward: Education, Collaboration, Global Integration
Lovejoy's work intersects perfectly with GECA's mission on multiple fronts:
Education: "The entire ethos of GECA is education," Lovejoy observes. "And it's kick-ass." Whether educating founders about realistic exit strategies, investors about due diligence tools, or regulators about the power of designed systems over restrictive rules - education remains the foundation.
Democratization: Making sophisticated investment strategies accessible to everyone, regardless of wealth, geography, or "accredited" status.
Infrastructure Building: Creating the platforms, regulations, and tools that enable borderless capital flows while maintaining investor protection through design, not restriction.
Impact Alignment: Connecting capital with projects that generate both financial returns and positive social and environmental outcomes.
"I love the fact that you're trying to eliminate borders for crowdfunding," Lovejoy told GECA's Andy Field. "I think that's such a wonderful mission and I'm thrilled to be a part of it."
Conclusion: The Alternative Financial System Is Here
Paul Lovejoy's 366-day journey proves what many in the crowdfunding community have long believed: everyday people can build diversified, resilient, impactful investment portfolios outside traditional Wall Street structures.
His experiment demonstrates that:
- Extreme diversification through small investments works
- Technology has democratized due diligence
- Debt crowdfunding provides reliable income streams
- Impact and returns are not mutually exclusive
- The barriers to private market investing are arbitrary, not necessary
As Lovejoy continues his work through Stakeholder Enterprise and his Crowd Capital Blueprint program, he's not just helping individuals invest - he's helping build the infrastructure for an entirely new financial system.
"This is such a huge opportunity," he concludes. "Generational. It's an amazing opportunity that we all have in this industry."
The question is no longer whether crowdfunding can compete with Wall Street. Paul Lovejoy's 366 days proved it can. The question now is: Will regulators, platforms, and investors seize this generational opportunity to democratize wealth creation globally?
GECA believes the answer is yes. And with advocates like Paul Lovejoy putting their money - and their daily commitment - where their mouth is, the future of borderless, democratized, impact-driven investing has never looked brighter.
Connect with Paul Lovejoy:
- 🌐 Website: stakeholderenterprise.com
- 💼 LinkedIn: Paul Lovejoy
- 📧 Direct message: "Hey, I saw you on the GECA podcast"
Watch the Full GECA Podcast Episode: 🎧 Paul Lovejoy: From Financial Devastation to Daily Investment
Join the Global Crowdfunding Movement:
- Learn more about GECA: thegeca.org
- Become a member: thegeca.org/membership-app-form
- Follow GECA: LinkedIn | Twitter | Medium
The Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance (GECA) works toward creating a truly borderless global equity crowdfunding ecosystem through industry collaboration, regulatory alignment, and international knowledge sharing.
From Defrauded Investor to Crowdfunding Champion: Paul Lovejoy's 366-Day Investment Journey | GECA Podcast
From Defrauded Investor to Crowdfunding Champion: Paul Lovejoy's 366 Days | GECA Podcast
Join Andy Field for an inspiring conversation with Paul Lovejoy, Principal Investment Advisor at Stakeholder Enterprise and 2024 recipient of the Crowdfunding Professional Association’s prestigious ‘Pay It Forward’ Award. From experiencing devastating financial fraud in 2008 that affected his entire family, to discovering crowdfunding’s transformative potential during COVID, Paul shares his remarkable journey of recovery, learning, and advocacy that led him to become one of the industry’s most prolific retail investors.
In this episode, Paul reveals the insights gained from his unprecedented 366-day daily investment streak – a commitment that saw him invest in over 400 small businesses, family farms, clean energy projects, and community development initiatives, achieving a 33% cash flow return in just 20 months while starting with investments as small as $10. He breaks down his strategic portfolio allocation of 50% debt, 30% equity, and 20% real estate across 432 real estate developer loans, 70+ small businesses, and 20+ family farms, demonstrating how extreme diversification creates built-in risk mitigation that traditional public markets cannot match.
Beyond the numbers, Paul discusses the philosophical framework that drives his work – the concept of “paying it forward” through accepting responsibility for systemic problems you didn’t create because it’s in your enlightened self-interest. Drawing from his competitive water polo background, he explains how proactive thinking and designing systems that eliminate fraud (rather than just policing it) can reshape the entire crowdfunding ecosystem. He offers candid insights into the challenges facing the industry, including why SAFEs (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) borrowed from Y Combinator’s incubator model don’t serve crowdfunding communities well, and why we need investment instruments specifically designed for platform-mediated retail investment.
Paul shares practical advice for new investors – start small with $10-25 in debt instruments, use AI and Yelp for accessible due diligence, and treat every investment seriously regardless of size – and offers crucial guidance for founders on building community before launching campaigns. He discusses how technology is democratizing due diligence, why exit strategies beyond IPOs and mergers (like dividends and stock buybacks) deserve more attention, and how crowdfunding platforms are literally building the infrastructure for an alternative financial system where regular people, not concentrated wealth, determine what gets funded.
Whether you’re interested in impact investing that delivers both financial returns and community transformation, learning how to build a diversified portfolio outside traditional public markets, or understanding how crowdfunding can address inequality while serving your own long-term interests, Paul offers invaluable perspectives from someone who has put his money where his mouth is – 366 days in a row. His commitment to education, transparency, and systemic change exemplifies GECA’s mission of creating a borderless crowdfunding ecosystem that democratizes access to capital and investment opportunities worldwide.
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GECA Podcast Transcript: Paul Lovejoy Interview
[Intro – GECA Announcer]: Welcome to the GECA Podcast, powered by the Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance. Dive into the realm of borderless equity crowdfunding, where we bring the world’s top experts and industry leaders directly to you, discussing innovations that are redrawing the boundaries of finance. Ready to expand your horizons? Here’s your host, Andy Field.
Andy Field: Hello everyone. Welcome back to the GECA Podcast, the voice of Global Equity Crowdfunding. I’m Andy Field, Steering Committee lead of the Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance, where we speak with the leading voices who shape the future of capital raising across borders. As crowdfunding continues to evolve, we’re exploring what it takes to run successful campaigns globally, what founders, platforms, and investors need to know to thrive in this ever-expanding ecosystem.
And today I’m really thrilled to be joined by Paul Lovejoy. Paul is Principal Investment Advisor at Stakeholder Enterprise. He’s based in Hawaii—lucky for some. He’s a longtime advocate for crowdfunding, a prolific investor himself, and he’s also this year’s recipient of the Crowdfunding Professional Association’s ‘Pay It Forward’ Award, recognizing his incredible contribution to the crowdfunding community.
Paul, congratulations again on that award and thanks so much for joining us.
Paul Lovejoy: Oh, I’m thrilled to be here. I love the fact that you’re trying to eliminate borders for crowdfunding. I think that’s such a wonderful mission and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.
Andy Field: Oh, thank you. Thanks again for joining us. For listeners who may not know your story, can you just give us a very quick overview—just a couple of minutes—of how you first got involved in crowdfunding and what’s made you so passionate about it?
Paul Lovejoy: Yeah, back in 2008, I was a defrauded investor, financially devastated by the system collapse. And it caused me to spiral down into this shame and sleepless nights. I was in denial about it. And it was awful, really, because it wasn’t just my money I lost—it was also my family’s money. It was a horrible event and it took years for me to recover from just the trauma and get over the shame part of it. I didn’t publicly admit that for 10 years.
Anyways, I did finally get myself together and I forgave myself. I let go of the past and it allowed me to ask the question: what the heck just happened? What is going on? So it led me in a direction where I went from real estate to wealth management.
And when I got into wealth management, I saw that there was all this gatekeeping happening with the private market. In the United States you have to be something called an accredited investor and meet certain wealth thresholds. And so I saw that entire populations—large populations, something like 90% of the US—couldn’t invest in these private markets. Just this whole financial gatekeeping. Working in wealth management, I really lost my motivation to work there.
One thing I did see while I was there was peer-to-peer lending and I was like, “That’s interesting. It’s not the public market. It’s not a private market. What is this?” But I didn’t really think about it too much longer. I ended up losing my motivation to work in wealth management because of this financial gatekeeping and telling people, “You can’t have services with us.” I hated telling people that.
And that’s right when COVID hit. And another thing I got interested in was something called impact investing. And I was wondering what’s the difference between ESG and impact investing? And what I saw with all my research is that the only way you can make an impact investment was in the private market. And the only way you can be in the private market is if you were an accredited investor.
But then I remembered—I was like, what about that peer-to-peer lending stuff? And so I did this Google search: “retail access to private markets.” And that’s when crowdfunding popped up, regulation crowdfunding. And I was like, “Oh my gosh!” It was like all the dots connected for me. I was like, “Oh, this is how people can actually fund businesses they care about.”
And it allowed regular people access to really great investment opportunities that were reserved for the wealthy. So it had multiple layers: a financial layer where regular people can prosper on some really great investment opportunities, and the fact where you can fund a business that you care about in your community and that delivers real impact, shaping the future. So that’s how I got into crowdfunding. I opened up my own firm. I was just all in when I saw it.
Andy Field: Yeah, I can see how that struck a chord. Actually, you and I met for the first time—we’d obviously connected on social media previously—but a couple of weeks ago, I was over in Washington DC, as were you, at the CfPA Summit. And you were telling me some of these stories then, and I find it fascinating how that resonated with you at that time and you went straight away all in. That shows a real act of faith if you like. And you’ve built a really strong reputation in this space now.
And I know one of the things that we were talking about over in DC, and one of the things that really stands out, is your daily investment streak. So can you tell us a bit about how that started and what inspired you to commit to essentially investing every single day for—and you’ll tell me how long that was?
Paul Lovejoy: Yeah, it was for 366 days in a row because I wanted to do it for a year straight and the year I happened to choose was a leap year.
Andy Field: Yeah, great!
Paul Lovejoy: So why not one extra day? So really what I was seeing is that there were tremendous financial opportunities within this space. And I didn’t like what I was seeing in our public markets anymore, here in the US—and I know it’s similar around the world—where you have institutional investors that manage retirement accounts and they basically control the entire public markets. And it’s just three of them. And they’re using algorithmic trading to optimize to get the best stocks.
And now here in the US, it’s basically called the Magnificent Seven. So you have all this concentration of wealth, and it’s trying to optimize to get the best bang for their buck to optimize shareholder value. And seven stocks do that. So we don’t have a very diversified, in my opinion, a very diversified or safe public market.
And what I saw in crowdfunding, I saw opportunities that were highly diversified. And so I wanted to show that you can have a legitimate financial plan without using our public stock markets. So that’s what motivated me to do this. And then at the same time, I was like, if I’m gonna be recommending or advising or creating financial plans for this, I need to put my money where my mouth is. I need to really understand what people go through when they make these investment decisions.
And so I got a really unique perspective as a customer, as an investor, and as an advisor too, to really go deep into this type of financial market. And it was an incredible experience. So that’s what motivated me. That’s why I did it.
Andy Field: And was it 366 different investments that you invested in?
Paul Lovejoy: Almost. So there were a couple of times that I invested in a fund, so there’s Fundrise—
Andy Field: Yeah.
Paul Lovejoy: —and they have this venture fund, the Innovation Fund, where it’s venture capital and it’s pretty neat because average people can invest in OpenAI, ChatGPT, Canva. They have some really great digital infrastructure businesses that regular people can’t invest in. And it was $10 minimum.
I guess I did have some cheat days, you could say, where I went back into a fund. And there was about four or five of those funds where I went back to them on a regular basis. So otherwise it would be a little crazy if I didn’t do some of that stuff because—
Andy Field: Absolutely, yeah.
Paul Lovejoy: —especially when I went on vacation. My wife hated me. I did an investment every day still on vacation. She hated that. But having some of those funds to invest, that did help, like on travel when I’m flying. So it worked out.
Andy Field: Yeah, and it’s interesting you mentioned the $10. I bet there’s a lot of people out there who don’t realize that you can invest such a small amount.
Paul Lovejoy: Yeah. And there’s not just one platform where you can do that. There’s many different platforms. You can invest in clean energy and climate tech, and small businesses with $10, community development, short-term real estate loans. And the diversification I had throughout the year is just insane.
So some of these short-term real estate loans, I can do a $10 minimum and they would split that $10 into a dollar into different loans. So after the end, I had over 430—I think it was 432 exactly—small real estate developer loans. So I invested in over 400 of these small little real estate projects. And the diversification of that, you can’t beat that in our public markets.
And then on top of that, the small businesses I had—something like 70 different small businesses that I invested in over the year. Then there was the climate projects and the farms I invested in—close to 20 different family farms throughout the year. So it was just really amazing.
One thing that I really discovered about myself was when I went into that, I was like, “Yeah, I’m a good investor. I know what I’m doing.” By six months in, I looked back and I was like, “I wasn’t as good as I thought I was.” It’s like when you do something every day, there are things that you just see that you didn’t before. It’s practice. Obviously anytime you practice something, you’re gonna get a lot better at it.
And at the end, I felt really humbled. Now I don’t think I’m some great investor. I know that there’s a lot more to learn out there, but I am so much better than I was before I started that. So it’s been very rewarding, having that experience.
Andy Field: So learning so much from that year streak, has that changed how you think about risk, opportunity, and impact?
Paul Lovejoy: It changed a lot. For one, it confirmed what I thought: that when you diversify across hundreds of business opportunities, that’s a built-in risk mitigation strategy. Because, like the real estate stuff, that’s all backed by actual real estate. So out of the 400-something loans, something like three of them did default, but I didn’t lose any money because we were able to take control of the house. So the risk mitigation factor is fantastic.
Another thing that was going on was some of the wild stock market volatility going up and down. I wasn’t concerned about any volatility. A lot of my investments were in loans, not equity—these were more debt-based. In fact, I did an allocation of 50% debt, 30% equity, and 20% real estate.
And I gotta tell you, after 20 months since I first started, I’ve already had a 33% cash flow return. So I invested a total of $12,000 throughout the year. A third of that, about $4,000, has already been returned to me, and I’ve reinvested that amount already.
So it shows that you can have a great investment strategy, super diversified, mitigating all kinds of risk, and it’s compounding your interest. And so now I’m buying, supporting more small businesses and I’m prospering for it too. It’s this awesome situation where I’m helping this family farm build a micro solar grid on it, and I’m getting a 10% return. To me, it’s really hard to beat. And it’s diversified across so many levels that to me it’s obvious that this is a much safer approach than what all other financial planning is doing.
And on top of that, if you wanted to research a lot of these small businesses, one thing I discovered was Yelp is a fantastic place to do due diligence. They have all kinds of reviews and all these small businesses—you can see right away if, “Oh, they just put up their Yelp page. Huh. Suspicious.” Or if you see that they had this Yelp page for five years and five-star reviews, there’s a lot that you could see as just a regular person very easily. It doesn’t take a lot of work either.
And also with AI coming into play, it can read these large documents very easily. It takes a lot of effort doing due diligence every day. But if you can copy text and put it into an AI and have them read it for you, that is a huge help because that’s really what they’re best at. AI is reading through documents, not making stuff up. There’s no opportunity to make stuff up. It’s either in the document or it’s not. That was a big help for me also.
Andy Field: Yeah, those technological advancements. Again, when we were talking in DC we were talking about how much they’ve helped the due diligence process. And I guess that whole project is almost the catalyst for something wider. You mentioned that the money’s being reinvested now. The snowball effect is obviously starting to happen, so it’s a really interesting way of kicking off what will be a very long-term project I assume.
So let’s move on a little bit. I just want to talk about the award that you won recently, the ‘Pay It Forward’ Award from CfPA. It’s such a meaningful recognition. I just want your perspective on what paying it forward means to you personally. How do you try to embody that in your work within the crowdfunding community?
Paul Lovejoy: I am a lifelong water polo player. I actually played water polo very competitively up into my thirties. But when I was in high school, first starting, I remember we got destroyed by this team. And they had just an incredible counter attack and we just got crushed.
And I remember my coach saying, “While you guys were being reactive, they were being proactive.” And then he went on to say, “They’re not thinking, ‘Oh, we need to stop them from scoring a goal.’ They’re thinking, ‘When we get the ball from them, I’m gonna be swimming down, beating my guy to score.'” So they already had it in their head that this is what they were gonna do. It’s like when you act on something and you know the reason why you’re acting, you have that next step, it motivates you even further.
So essentially, it’s about being proactive. Paying it forward, it’s about literally being the change you wish to see. You’re not paying something back. You’re not reacting to something. You’re looking at the world and saying, “How do you make it better?” And it’s by paying it forward.
And to me, to pay it forward, I think you have to accept responsibility for problems you didn’t create. And that’s the only way I think that would motivate you to pay it forward. Now, some people may be like, “Why would you ever accept responsibility for a problem you didn’t create?” And the answer to that is: it’s because it’s in my own self-interest.
When inequality deepens, social cohesion collapses. People turn on each other instead of questioning the systems exploiting them. Furthermore, when people are stripped of opportunity and dignity, that’s when crime and violence rise. Meanwhile, if we feel entitled, we’re gonna hide behind guns and gates, fearful of a system that we help perpetuate.
Yes, it is in your self-interest, but you almost have to think of it as an enlightened self-interest that it benefits me to have an economy that looks out for the wellbeing of others and our planet. So that’s what paying it forward to me means. It really is a very meaningful award that I got because it’s something that I care about deeply. And I was surprised—I didn’t even know it really existed. And to get that recognition, it meant a lot to me.
Andy Field: Very well deserved as well. And that’s a really good way of framing it. It’s almost—I think what you’re saying is that this is, look, it’s not purely altruistic here. There is some benefit for me to help solve the problems even if I didn’t cause them. Which is a great way of thinking. And I think most people will get their head around that. So that’s a really interesting way of putting it.
So what are some of the ways that you try to—you’ve mentioned that it’s not giving back as much, but I’m sure you do give back to the industry. Whether that’s mentoring or, obviously, from an advising perspective, you help founders and new investors get started. What does that look like for you on a professional level?
Paul Lovejoy: There was one company that I really embraced during my daily investment. I invested in this one company on three different raises. They paid me back on one of the raises, and they’re still paying me back on two of the others. So anyways, I was like, “Wow, this is great.”
There was a hurricane that hit during that year, and I saw this company drop everything what they were doing, and they went to this small town that was up in the mountains in North Carolina that got devastated by the hurricane. They came in with their chainsaws, cleared the road, and then they set up a solar microgrid in the community. And it provided power to the general store that they had up there where people would put their food in the refrigerator, charge their phones. It literally was a lifeline for this community for 47 days that they had this thing up there. And I was blown away. That was like real impact.
I’m seeing my small investments go to this company and now they’re literally sending a lifeline to these people devastated by this disaster. And so they wanted to have a larger raise on Wefunder. And I was very advocate—I loved what they were doing, and I was showcasing on social media. I was engaging with them and just loving what they’re doing. They asked me to be lead investor on their Wefunder campaign.
Andy Field: Oh, okay.
Paul Lovejoy: And I absolutely agreed to do that. And it was Ovanova—I think they’re around. The raise has closed, but wonderful company. I didn’t benefit financially. They didn’t pay me to do it. In fact, I invested in them. So if they’re—to me, if I feel aligned with a company, then I’m not looking necessarily to make money off of them unless it’s some mutual benefit. I’m happy to give what I’ve learned about successful raises, what you do, and not only that, what type of investment vehicle that you choose to raise funds with. Is it gonna be a SAFE or is it gonna be a revenue sharing note, or whatever have you. And I do have some opinions on that as well.
Andy Field: Okay. That’s really interesting. So over the time that you’ve been involved in crowdfunding, from your perspective right now, what are the biggest—I guess looking at it from two fronts—what are the biggest opportunities that the industry has to potentially take advantage of? And what are the biggest challenges that also, as an industry, we face as the industry is maturing and evolving?
Paul Lovejoy: Well, a lot of the opportunities and challenges are mixed together, they’re intertwined. One thing is, I think a big challenge is the SAFE. It’s a very outdated financial instrument. You have something like that in the UK, a SAFE?
Andy Field: No, I was just gonna say, could you just explain a little bit just for people outside of—
Paul Lovejoy: It stands for a Simple Agreement for Future Equity. So you don’t really know exactly what you’re valuing your company at. You just want to get some money raised and then you get a valuation later. The people who invented the SAFE was Y Combinator. It’s an incubator in the Bay Area, Silicon Valley. And it was perfect for their ecosystem because they’re the ones doing the valuation in the next round. So it made a ton of sense: “Yeah, we’ll worry about that later.”
And the SAFE protects the founders and it doesn’t really protect investors all that much, but it didn’t matter to Y Combinator because they’re the ones that were gonna set the terms the next round. But nobody knew what they were doing in our industry. “What are we gonna use? Let’s use Y Combinator’s SAFE.” No one thought, “Hey, what works best for a crowdfunding industry?” Instead, nobody wanted to take any risks and just, “Let’s just use what’s already been out there.” And that’s what happened with the SAFE. And we’re stuck with it because network effects have taken place, and that’s all anybody uses right now.
And so trying to switch something off that—that’s an incredible challenge. So I think that’s one of the things like we need to come up with investment vehicles specifically designed for investment crowdfunding, not designed for an incubator. And so I think that’s a real challenge.
I also think that equity in general is a bit overused in the sense that when founders are saying, “Okay, I’m doing this equity raise,” they don’t really know the exit strategy. And most people think, “Oh, it’s IPO or a merger.” There are other exit strategies that you could think of that are probably more beneficial for investors. An exit could be a dividend. An exit could also be a stock buyback. A company could buy back stock. There doesn’t need to be this pressure of this huge 50x exit or even a 20x merger. That pressure oftentimes will make the company fail.
If you don’t put that pressure on and say, “Hey, a healthy exit is dividends,” okay, that’s great. And as a financial planner, I would prefer that because that is something that’s far more predictable than trying to use power law. Although there are companies where this traditional kind of IPO merger makes a ton of sense, especially in pharma. You have a lot of these bio medications that are made or these technologies, and that’s a perfect step up for a larger pharmaceutical company to acquire that technology. So I get that. But some of these other businesses, it just makes no sense to do that.
And I think the opportunity is incredible for our entire industry. The way I see it is that the people who are involved, we are literally creating a brand new infrastructure for an alternative financial system. It’s not one where large institutions or concentrations of wealth determine what gets built, what gets funded. It’s people. And so we get to build that infrastructure where no one is too big to fail, essentially.
And I think it’s such a rewarding thing to be a part of, to have, to be able to put input in on how this brand new alternative financial system is being created. And I just wouldn’t wanna be in any other space. It’s such a huge opportunity. Generational. It’s an amazing opportunity that we all have in this industry.
Andy Field: Yeah.
Paul Lovejoy: And I think it’s awesome what you’re doing. You’re taking that opportunity to say, “Hey, world, let’s come together and we can figure out how to have an incredible infrastructure.” So I just love being on this podcast. I love what you’re doing, Andy.
Andy Field: Yeah, thanks Paul. No, I appreciate that. And actually, when you were talking there about the challenges and the opportunities, it comes back down to something that keeps coming up in the roundtables that we hold and the podcasts that we do. And everyone we’re talking to really emphasizes the importance of education. Talking to founders and educating them about the importance of—first of all, realizing and understanding what their exit strategy is going to be, what that exit strategy is going to be, then being able to communicate that.
Down to educating and helping policymakers and regulators to help make some of the things and bring some of the things to life that we are striving to achieve, which is obviously to create a borderless ecosystem. So that if you are interested in a certain line of business in the United States, you can look for that certain line of business opportunities outside of the United States, in Sweden, in Finland, in Asia, and not have to worry about the fact that they’re in a different jurisdiction. You could still invest relatively easily.
I know it’s possible to invest across borders, but it’s very difficult. And we just wanna make that so much easier and so much more transparent. So that’s fantastic. So I suppose what I was gonna say there was, it kinda leads on nicely. Do you think we’re getting any closer to that true cross-border or global crowdfunding? And what do you think needs to happen for that to start to become a reality?
Paul Lovejoy: Interestingly enough, I met some people in DC a couple weeks back from Mexico, and they wanted to use tokens for cross-border. And that potentially could be a mechanism that could be used—using these new digital tokens to find a way around it.
Now, personally, I think what needs to happen is we need to design systems in place that makes it easier to implement across jurisdictions. So Andy, are you familiar with the circular economy concept?
Andy Field: No. Explain.
Paul Lovejoy: The circular economy concept is you wanna design out waste and pollution in products. And so there’s a big movement going on about circular design. I think we can apply that in other areas. Why not create systems where we design out fraud and exploitation?
Andy Field: Yeah.
Paul Lovejoy: I think just saying, “Okay, we need to just make laws to kind of police people,” I think that may be a little bit of an outdated perspective. And we need to take a step back and say, “Yeah, okay, maybe if we design this system in the first place, let’s make fraud unprofitable. How do we do that?” And so I think these are the questions we need to start asking. I’m not saying I have the answer, but I think that conversation needs to start.
Andy Field: Yeah, that’s a very interesting take on it. Because of course some of the things that certainly I was talking about in Washington were, we are not talking about having, for example, a regulatory framework where there’s one regulatory framework across the globe and that applies to every country as a starting point.
A really good starting point would be just to make each regulatory framework, which is probably working quite well locally in some cases anyway, but just make those frameworks be able to talk to each other, make them be able to communicate with each other so that one definition of sophisticated investor, for example, means the same thing in one country as it does in another.
So there’s a lot to—these are just basic examples. There’s a lot to be done to achieve what we are striving to achieve. And thanks for your kind words and your efforts in supporting us. We really appreciate it. But we will get there. We’ve made a really good start by having the roundtables that we’ve had over the last few months, and we’ve got our first white paper coming out, which is going to illustrate and outline what our priorities are going to be to start this ball rolling. So watch out for that. I’ll make sure you get a copy of that.
Paul Lovejoy: Awesome.
Andy Field: So we haven’t got that long, actually. We’ve got about three or four minutes left. Before we wrap up, I just wanted to ask you—it’s something that I always ask, actually. For someone who’s new to crowdfunding, either as an investor or a founder, what advice would you give them just based on your extensive experience?
Paul Lovejoy: Start small. Find a—I don’t know, in other parts of the world if you can make a $10 or a 10 euro or a 25 euro investment—if you can, that’s the place to start. I learned more by making my first investment than weeks of preparation for my year of investing. It’s just practicing. Doing it is gonna teach you. And start small and go through the due diligence. Even if it’s a 25 euro investment, treat it like a 25,000 euro investment.
Andy Field: Yeah.
Paul Lovejoy: And it just will help you so much. And then it’s fun too because you’re putting some skin in the game and it’s an amount that you can afford to lose. But I would also recommend that you start with something more aligned with debt instead of equity to start off, because you’re gonna get returns happening to you a lot quicker. So that would be the advice I would give to investors.
For founders, see what the successful campaigns are doing and try and model that. You gotta make sure you have—before—you can’t just set—I’m sure you’ve heard it plenty. You can’t just show up and expect people to invest in you. You have to plan ahead, get your community involved, plan for a marketing budget, and look at how other people have done it before just jumping in.
Andy Field: Oh yeah. Great advice. Great advice. And you’re absolutely right on that. The amount of times I’ve heard of founders who come up with a great idea, have a business in place, and then take it to have a campaign started by a platform and expect the platform to do all the marketing for them—it still happens. So again, that education piece is just crucial.
Paul Lovejoy: Education is key. And you’re doing that, Andy. That’s what this podcast is that you’re doing. It almost seems like the entire ethos of GECA is education. And it’s kick-ass.
Andy Field: Yeah.
Paul Lovejoy: Absolutely. It’s such a wonderful thing. I know I’m doing that all the time. People like, “Crowdfunding? What’s that? Kickstarter?” It’s a whole—it’s all education.
Andy Field: Oh, brilliant. Okay. So final point is, how can anyone who wants to follow your work or connect with you online, how can they get in touch with you?
Paul Lovejoy: I’m highly active on LinkedIn. You could just search me: Paul Lovejoy. There’s not a lot of Paul Lovejoys in the world, so it is pretty easy to find on LinkedIn. I’m very active. You could also visit my website, stakeholderenterprise.com. I’ve got some information about me and about what I do on the website as well. And feel free to direct message me. Say, “Hey, I saw you on the GECA podcast.” I would love to—you just have to message me and tell me how you know me, and then I’ll absolutely connect with you.
Andy Field: Oh, brilliant. That’s great. I’m sure people will do that. Paul, it’s been a real pleasure speaking with you today. Again, congratulations on the Pay It Forward Award. Thank you for everything you’re doing to strengthen and inspire the crowdfunding community. Your insights on purpose, persistence, and collaboration—they really capture the spirit of what GECA is all about. So thanks for joining us and we’ll speak to you soon.
Paul Lovejoy: All right. Thank you, Andy.
Andy Field: And thanks to everybody for listening. Look out for us on the next podcast, which is coming your way soon. Bye for now.
[End of Transcript]
Crypto, Tokenization and the Future of Regulated Crowdfunding: Insights from the CfPA 2025 Summit
The intersection between digital assets and regulated investment crowdfunding has moved from theoretical curiosity to central strategic question for policymakers, platforms, and market operators. At the 2025 CfPA Regulated Investment Crowdfunding Summit in Washington, D.C., this emerging convergence took center stage across three major discussions: the Crowdfunding & Adjacent Innovations panel, the Crypto & Crowdfunding panel, and a fireside conversation with SEC Commissioner Hester M. Peirce.
Across these sessions, one theme became clear:
Innovation is accelerating, policy is evolving, and the infrastructure to support the next decade of capital formation is still taking shape.
Crypto and tokenization are not replacing crowdfunding - but they are increasingly shaping expectations around efficiency, transferability, compliance architecture, and global participation in private markets. The Summit offered a rare, candid snapshot of where these conversations stand, what remains unresolved, and how the industry can prepare for a more interconnected future.
This article synthesizes the most important insights from those discussions and places them in a broader global context consistent with GECA's mission: to support responsible, harmonized, borderless equity crowdfunding infrastructure.
I. Adjacent Innovations: Where Crypto Meets the Mechanics of Capital Formation
The Crowdfunding & Adjacent Innovations panel set the stage by outlining the new wave of tools reshaping issuance and compliance.
Technologies such as Securities-as-a-Service, token-based representations of ownership, automated compliance engines, and new clearing mechanisms are accelerating progress in areas where crowdfunding has historically lagged:
- Transaction efficiency
- Investor onboarding
- Secondary liquidity
- Data flow
- Compliance automation
But panelists were clear: these tools must work within regulated crowdfunding - not as end-runs around it.
The Mirror Token Question
Mirror tokens emerged as a discussion point - and were largely viewed with skepticism.
Mirror tokens and similar instruments promise exposure to private companies without owning the underlying security. The concept has been promoted by a few as a way to expand access to retail investors or create synthetic liquidity.
Yet the discussion made it explicit: these instruments introduce structural and investor-protection concerns that cannot be reconciled within the ethos of regulated crowdfunding.
The industry sentiment expressed during the panel was that tools which synthetically replicate private securities, without passing through established investor protections, create more problems than they solve. They:
- Blur the boundary between compliant retail investment and speculative synthetic assets
- Introduce valuation, custody, and disclosure uncertainty
- Risk undermining trust in the regulated crowdfunding framework
- Offer indirect exposure rather than true ownership
- May distort the cap table or investor expectations
This position - clear and consistent across the discussion - aligned with recent public statements from CfPA leadership. The message was unmistakable:
Innovation is welcome. Circumvention is not.
Tokenization may offer a future-proof upgrade for private market infrastructure, but only if it strengthens transparency, traceability, and market integrity.
II. Regulatory Reality: Where Crypto and Crowdfunding Actually Intersect
The Crypto & Crowdfunding panel explored the policy environment more directly, focusing on the growing number of legislative and regulatory proposals - including the Clarity Act - that aim to bring more certainty to digital-asset classifications and market structure.
The panel's consensus was straightforward:
1. Digital-Asset Regulation Remains Fragmented and Slow-Moving
Despite years of discussion, the regulatory environment for tokenized assets is still inconsistent, both in the U.S. and globally. Participants noted that:
- Agencies often take differing interpretations
- Definitions of "security," "digital commodity," and "tokenized asset" remain unsettled
- Platforms must navigate conflicting rules across jurisdictions
While innovation continues, regulatory clarity has not kept pace.
2. The Most Realistic Near-Term Role of Tokenization Is Infrastructure, Not Product
Rather than replacing securities, tokenization may improve how they are administered. Use cases discussed included:
- Programmable compliance
- Automated transfer restrictions
- More efficient secondary-market rails
- Real-time cap-table reconciliation
- Cross-border identity verification
These applications support Reg CF and Reg A+ rather than competing with them.
3. Issuers and Platforms Need Clear Pathways - Not Exemptions
Participants emphasized that the goal is not to weaken regulations, but to modernize them. In particular, clarity is needed around:
- Custody of tokenized securities
- Use of wallet-based investor identification
- Blockchain-based transfer agents
- Integration of secondary ATS platforms
- Tax reporting for tokenized private assets
The panel acknowledged that without clearer rules, many tokenization opportunities remain technically possible but commercially impractical.
4. Retail Investors Must Remain Protected
There was broad agreement that crowdfunding exists because retail access was historically restricted. Tokenization should expand access responsibly, not replicate the risks seen in unregulated crypto markets.
Any model that disconnects ownership from information rights or that creates synthetic exposure without traditional investor protections was viewed as incompatible with the purpose of Reg CF and Reg A+.
III. The SEC Perspective: Commissioner Hester M. Peirce's Outlook
In a candid fireside session, SEC Commissioner Hester M. Peirce addressed the intersection of digital assets, innovation, and retail-access regulation.
Her remarks underscored several key points:
1. The SEC Recognizes That Innovation in Capital Formation Is Accelerating
Commissioner Peirce acknowledged that tokenization, digital rails, and decentralized architectures are already influencing how private-market transactions are designed and executed. Whether the Commission ultimately embraces specific tokenized models or not, the underlying technological shift is undeniable.
2. Regulatory Clarity Is Essential
She emphasized that many market participants are willing to operate compliantly, but struggle due to:
- Ambiguous digital-asset definitions
- Inconsistent guidance
- Overlapping agency jurisdictions
- Prolonged delays in rulemaking
This uncertainty slows adoption and deters responsible experimentation.
3. The SEC Is Open to Constructive Engagement
Commissioner Peirce encouraged industry participants - including crowdfunding platforms and innovators - to engage early and often with the agency. Clear communication, she noted, helps regulators better understand the operational reality on the ground.
4. Responsible Innovation and Investor Protection Can Coexist
Rather than viewing innovation as a threat, she framed it as an opportunity - provided that guardrails are maintained. This balanced view reflects a broader recognition within the Commission that digital-native market infrastructure may eventually simplify compliance and enhance auditability.
IV. The Industry's Emerging Consensus
Across discussions, a subtle but important industry consensus emerged:
Crypto is not a replacement for crowdfunding; tokenization is a potential upgrade to its infrastructure.
The purpose of Reg CF and Reg A+ is to widen access to investment while maintaining investor protections and issuer accountability. Crypto, in its speculative and decentralized form, does not achieve this.
Tokenization, on the other hand, may accelerate:
- Identity verification
- Cap-table updates
- Transaction speed
- Cross-border participation
- Secondary market readiness
But only when embedded within regulated frameworks.
Panels repeatedly emphasized that the industry must distinguish between:
Digital assets as speculative instruments vs. Digital rails that administer compliant securities.
Responsible tokenization lives in the latter category.
V. The Global Dimension: Why This Matters for GECA
Although focussed on the US market, the CfPA discussions reflect issues felt globally:
1. Cross-Border Access Remains Constrained
Even as tokenized models promise faster settlement and greater transferability, regulatory fragmentation continues to limit global investment mobility.
2. The Industry Needs Interoperable Definitions
As GECA has emphasized, true harmonization does not require identical rules - it requires mutually recognizable frameworks. Crowdfunding, crypto, and tokenization all challenge the assumption that domestic investor-protection regimes can remain isolated in a global digital market.
3. Global Secondary Liquidity Remains an Unsolved Frontier
Tokenized rails may eventually support cross-border trading environments. But without consistent disclosures, shared investor-identification standards, and compatible custody models, this remains aspirational.
4. Technology-Led Infrastructure Is the Next Inflection Point
Platforms, regulators, and intermediaries worldwide increasingly recognize that next-generation rails - identity, settlement, governance, secondary trading - will define the next decade of crowdfunding growth.
GECA's work with global platforms, regulators, and fintech builders positions the organization at the center of this emerging conversation: how to achieve borderless, trusted, investor-first participation without compromising compliance or clarity.
VI. What Comes Next: A Roadmap for Responsible Integration
Based on the CfPA 2025 discussions, four strategic priorities emerged for the industry:
1. Clarify Compliance Pathways for Tokenized Securities
Regulators need to provide consistent, predictable rules around:
- Blockchain-based transfer agents
- Tokenized representations of equity or debt
- Digital identity standards
- Custody of tokenized assets
- Secondary trading of tokenized securities
This clarity is essential before the market can scale responsibly.
2. Preserve Investor Protection While Modernizing Market Mechanics
Crowdfunding thrives when retail trust is strong. Tokenization should strengthen - not dilute - disclosure, rights, and transparency.
3. Build Infrastructure That Supports - Not Circumvents - Regulation
Tools such as programmable compliance and automated reporting can reduce complexity for issuers, platforms, and regulators alike.
4. Encourage Global Cooperation and Harmonization
As every panel implicitly recognized, fragmentation slows growth. International collaboration - across jurisdictions, platforms, and regulators - is indispensable to unlocking global scale.
Conclusion: The Next Decade of Crowdfunding Will Be Digital - and Regulated
The CfPA 2025 Summit made it abundantly clear that : the future of regulated crowdfunding will be shaped by digital infrastructure, tokenization, and global connectivity - but grounded firmly in investor protection and regulatory clarity.
Crypto, in its speculative form, is not the path forward. But digital rails that make compliance more efficient, investor rights more transparent, and markets more globally accessible represent a profound opportunity for the entire industry.
For GECA and its global partners, this moment is pivotal. As jurisdictions evolve, technologies mature, and cross-border conversations deepen, the industry's next challenge is to build a harmonized, interoperable, investor-first capital formation ecosystem that aligns innovation with trust.
The Summit's discussions were not simply about crypto or crowdfunding. They were about designing the infrastructure for the next era of global private markets.
The work ahead will require collaboration, discipline, and vision - qualities that define both the CfPA's leadership and GECA's global mission.
About GECA
The Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance (GECA) is an international organization dedicated to creating a borderless equity crowdfunding ecosystem. Through regulatory alignment, industry collaboration, and knowledge sharing, GECA works to unlock cross-border capital flows that support entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic development worldwide.
Connect with GECA:
- 🌐 Website: https://thegeca.org
- 📧 Contact: contact@thegeca.org
- 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gecaorg
- 🐦 X (Twitter): https://x.com/GecaOrg
- 📝 Medium: https://gecaorg.medium.com
Related Reading:
- GECA at the 2025 CfPA Summit: Full Recap
- Europe's €1 Trillion Crowdfunding Vision with Karsten Wenzlaff
GECA at the 2025 CfPA Summit: Advancing a Shared Vision for the Future of Global Capital Formation
October 21-22, 2025 | Washington, D.C.
The Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance (GECA) participated in the 2025 Regulated Investment Crowdfunding Summit, hosted by the Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA) in Washington, D.C. Over two days, the most influential voices in capital formation - regulators, policymakers, economists, industry builders, and leading intermediaries - gathered to chart the future of regulated crowdfunding in the United States and beyond.
As the global alliance dedicated to harmonizing equity crowdfunding across borders, GECA was honored to contribute to one of the most substantive and forward-looking conferences the industry has hosted to date.
A Shared Presence: GECA Leaders at the CfPA Summit
The Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA) is the leading convener of the U.S. regulated investment crowdfunding industry. Several GECA Steering Committee members were present at the Summit in their capacity as long-standing contributors and leaders within the CfPA community.
Seven GECA Steering Committee members attended in their primary roles as CfPA officers, platform executives and industry practitioners - bringing international insight shaped through their work with GECA.
GECA Steering Committee Members in Attendance
- Aaron Shafton – Managing Director, Dealmaker Securities
- Andrew Field – Executive Lead (UK), GECA
- Chris Lustrino – CEO, KingsCrowd
- Jason Fishman – CEO, Digital Niche Agency; Secretary, CfPA
- Scott McIntyre – Vice Chair, CfPA; Executive Director, WEconomy
- Vicky Barker – Head of Global Marketing, Dacxi Chain
- Meseret Warner – Founder & CEO, Ignite Capital
These individuals participated as CfPA leaders and industry experts - not as GECA delegates. Their dual involvement reflects the global perspective they contribute to both organizations.
Reflecting a Collaborative Industry
This shared presence highlights the natural alignment between CfPA's U.S. leadership and GECA's work on global harmonization. Many industry leaders support both missions, reinforcing a fundamental truth:
The future of regulated crowdfunding will be built through collaboration, not silos.
The Global Perspective: What GECA Contributed
During the summit, Andrew Field (GECA UK Executive Lead) delivered key remarks addressing:
- The global case for harmonized crowdfunding rules
- Lessons emerging from ECSPR in Europe and regulatory reform worldwide
- The need for interoperable due diligence standards
- The future of compliant cross-border deal sharing
- How national frameworks can evolve to embrace global investor participation
His contribution expanded the summit conversation beyond a U.S.-only lens - reinforcing that the future of capital formation is inherently global, digital, and collaborative.
What the CfPA Summit Revealed About the Industry's Next Chapter
Throughout two intensive days, the summit demonstrated regulated crowdfunding's clear evolution from niche fundraising tool to serious pillar of modern capital markets. Eight defining themes emerged:
1. Institutional-Grade Sophistication Is Entering the Market
From valuation discipline to accounting practices, investor communications, and compliance frameworks, the professionalization of the ecosystem is accelerating rapidly.
2. Community Investment Rounds Are Becoming Mainstream
Major brands including Picasso, EnergyX, and Newsmax demonstrated the power and inevitability of community-driven capital raises.
3. Retail Investors Increasingly Demand Private Market Access
Platforms, advisors, and regulators universally acknowledged this structural shift in investor expectations and market dynamics.
4. Liquidity and Secondary Markets Are Emerging as Defining Priorities
The industry's future hinges on credible paths to liquidity - through alternative trading systems (ATSs), Reg A+, digital infrastructure, and compliant tokenization.
5. Quality Issuers and Investor Returns Will Determine Industry Growth
A consistent message from multiple speakers: the next phase of sector expansion will be led by performance, tangible outcomes, and long-term investor trust - not just volume.
6. Global Harmonization Is Now Recognized as Essential
Fragmented rules limit investor opportunity and constrain SME growth. The summit affirmed that cross-border regulatory alignment isn't aspirational - it's economically necessary.
7. Education Outperforms Advertising
Multiple presenters - including GECA Steering Committee members - emphasized that investor education is the most reliable driver of trust, conversion, and long-term retention.
8. The Industry Is Entering Large-Scale Brand Adoption
Participation from major media companies, global platforms, data firms, and venture-backed issuers highlighted the sector's decisive movement into the mainstream.
GECA's Strategic Takeaways
From a global vantage point, GECA identified key insights that will shape the next decade of crowdfunding:
Cross-Border Investment Readiness Must Be Prioritized Globally
Capital markets are global by nature; regulatory frameworks must evolve accordingly. The current fragmentation creates unnecessary friction for both issuers and investors.
Standardized Due Diligence and Issuer Disclosures Are the Foundation of Trust
Without consistency, retail investors cannot meaningfully evaluate opportunities across borders. Harmonized standards will unlock cross-border capital flows while maintaining investor protection.
The Future of Crowdfunding Is Hybrid
Community capital, institutional investment, and accredited investor participation will increasingly work together rather than in isolation.
Liquidity Will Define the Next Era
Secondary markets, compliant digital securities, and harmonized regulatory frameworks will unlock significant economic value and transform investor expectations.
Data and AI Will Transform Opportunity Discovery
Intelligent matching, personalization, identity verification, and risk assessment will become core components of market infrastructure - improving outcomes for all participants.
Alignment Between Major Markets Is Now a Global Priority
Coordination between U.S., EU, UK, and emerging-market frameworks has moved from "nice to have" to strategic imperative. GECA is uniquely positioned to facilitate this evolution.
GECA's Role in the Global Ecosystem
The summit reinforced the vital importance of GECA's mission:
To build a safe, trusted, and globally interconnected equity crowdfunding ecosystem that supports SMEs, empowers investors, and accelerates economic growth worldwide.
GECA continues to focus on:
- International regulatory harmonization - Working with regulators across jurisdictions to identify alignment opportunities
- Shared diligence and trust frameworks - Developing standards that work across borders
- Cross-border investment pathways - Creating practical mechanisms for international capital flows
- Research and data-sharing - Building the evidence base for effective policy
- Education for issuers and investors - Ensuring all participants understand opportunities and risks
- Convening global platforms - Bringing together market participants to align standards
- Collaboration with regulators and policymakers - Bridging the gap between industry innovation and regulatory frameworks
- Partnership with industry bodies - Working alongside organizations like CfPA to advance shared goals
GECA's presence at the CfPA Summit highlighted the alliance's unique role in bridging ecosystems, regions, and policy conversations that will shape the industry's future.
A Message of Gratitude
GECA extends deep appreciation to:
- Jenny Kassan, President, CfPA
- The CfPA Board of Directors for their vision and leadership
- Panel moderators, speakers, and regulators who shared expertise and perspectives
- CfPA volunteers, sponsors, and industry partners who made the summit possible
The CfPA has demonstrated exceptional leadership in shaping the future of regulated crowdfunding. GECA is honored to stand alongside such a respected and mission-driven organization.
Moving Forward: A Shared Global Mission
GECA looks forward to building upon the momentum generated at the 2025 CfPA Summit - strengthening international collaboration, advancing global industry standards, and expanding access to capital for innovators, entrepreneurs, and communities worldwide.
Together, the industry can evolve regulated crowdfunding into a trillion-dollar global asset class, grounded in transparency, integrity, and cross-border cooperation.
The foundation has been laid. The path forward is clear. The work continues.
Join the Global Movement
If you would like to collaborate with GECA or learn more about our initiatives:
🌐 Visit: thegeca.org
📧 Contact: contact@thegeca.org
🔗 Connect: LinkedIn
🐦 Follow: @GecaOrg
About GECA
The Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance (GECA) is an international organization dedicated to creating a borderless equity crowdfunding ecosystem. Through regulatory alignment, industry collaboration, and knowledge sharing, GECA works to unlock cross-border capital flows that support entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic development worldwide.
About CfPA
The Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA) is the leading U.S. organization representing the regulated investment crowdfunding industry. Through advocacy, education, and community building, CfPA advances the growth and professionalization of equity crowdfunding while protecting investor interests and supporting entrepreneurial ventures.
