The Startup Stock Exchange (SSX) – based in Curaçao – has combined the social aspects crowdfunding with the security, liquidity and control of a regulated securities exchange. SSX are providing a regulated marketplace where ordinary and sophisticated investors alike can purchase shares in select startup companies. These startups thus gain access to a global investor base.
Ian Haet, CEO and Co-Founder of the Startup Stock Exchange, commented:
“Investors seeking equity in a company must have security in their investment, liquidity in the equity they receive and control over their investment. Current equity crowdfunding platforms do not provide any of these items. That is why the Startup Stock Exchange is the evolution of crowdfunding. We have moved crowdfunding beyond its social roots to provide both Investors and Companies with the investment principals they require”.
Haet believes that crowdfunding, as a fundraising method, lacks three essential components – and that SSX can provide each of these:
Security:
Investments are made on a government-regulated exchange. Featured projects have been stringently vetted and will have submitted a detailed Offering Prospectus. As publicly listed companies, regular reports are issued to investors to ensure continued oversight.
Liquidity:
Investors hold free trading shares that they can sell or buy via SSX. There is no minimum investment amount for the shares. Investors may participate in both IPOs and post-IPO open market trading.
Control:
Investors manage their personal investments and trading account through an online brokerage system – meaning they decide how and when to buy and sell start-up shares.
It is particularly intriguing to see security and control at the heart of what makes the SSX proposition unique. AltFinanceNews has been tracking with real interest the evolution of Alternative Finance risk management tools, as well as the so-called autonomy movement within the space. SSX is a novel idea, and one that could catch on in a big way.
