CrowdPal Launches 1st Equity Crowdfunding Platform to Support Economy in Palestine

Connects Palestinian Entrepreneurs with Investors and Supporters to Create Social and Economic Change in Palestine

By Robert Hoskins

Santiago, Chile – CrowdPal, the first online equity crowdfunding platform purpose-built to support Palestinian entrepreneurship, announced today the launch of their website at www.crowdpal.net.

CrowdPal Launches First Equity Crowdfunding Platform to Support Palestine

Ongoing political unrest and the resulting economic slump have presented difficulty in finding venture capital opportunities for Palestinian-based founders. With an unemployment rate over 20% and low GDP per capita, securing funding to get startup businesses off the ground has been a constant uphill battle.

“Through investing in promising startups, we can drive economic and social development as a step forward to pave the way for peace,” said Anas Hamed, CrowdPal’s Founder and CEO. 

To remove these barriers to entry and promote economic growth, Anas and his team created CrowdPal to allow Palestinian-founded companies or other international entrepreneurs who want to invest part of their funding in early stage Palestinian startups or employ/outsource professionals in Palestine to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Users can seek investment funding by reaching out to personal contacts or by leveraging CrowdPal’s community of investors, who can be located anywhere in the world.

Co-Founder and CVO, Alejandro Dughman, views the platform as offering an important economic lifeline to an area limited in resources but with great investment opportunities and stated that, “Palestinians and peace supporters all over the globe that wish to do their part to and make an investment in the future of Palestine haven’t had a sound place to put their investment. With CrowdPal, now they do.”

Entrepreneurs also have access to a world-class mentorship and advisory network which provides founders with valuable educational resources. From a combination of online materials, video tutorials, and advice from industry experts, entrepreneurs can gain key insights into best practices for successfully running their business.

The CrowdPal platform will also feature a job search and hiring function. This will allow companies funded through the site to hire from the talent pool in their particular region.

CrowdPal is already garnering early interest in the investment community and with industry influencers. Paul Niederer, a lead pioneer in equity crowdfunding, said, “Crowdfunding for a purpose is very rewarding for the entrepreneurs, supporters and society as a whole. CrowdPal are a passionate, highly qualified team that are serious about making a real difference for Palestinian entrepreneurs wherever they may be.”

The company’s launch comes at a time when the regulatory environment has become increasingly favorable for entrepreneurs across the globe. For the founding members, CrowdPal represents a vital opportunity to use entrepreneurship as a mean of inspiring change in a volatile region, “The ultimate goal is to support companies that give back to the Palestinian community, create jobs, and increase quality of life,” said Marcelo Diaz, CrowdPal’s Co-Founder and CIO.

CrowdPal is launching with an initial concentration on the Chilean market, which has an influential Palestinian community of half a million. CrowdPal will then roll out in the Americas, followed by the Middle East, and then Europe.

The CrowdPal platform is currently seeking early adoption by investors and entrepreneurs. The company invites those interested in getting involved to follow their journey by visiting their website to find out more.

 

# # #

Robert Hoskins
(512) 627-6622
@Crowdfunding_PR

---

Mr. Robert Hoskins is a seasoned marketing veteran with a proven track record of helping entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses as well as Fortune 500 corporations launch successful marketing communications campaigns to gain market traction for a wide variety of products and services.

On a regular basis, Mr. Hoskins consults with crowdfunding campaign managers as well as crowdfunding sites, portals and platforms to deliver successful crowdfunding marketing campaigns.

Google search “Robert Hoskins Crowdfunding” to see why Mr. Hoskins is considered one of the industry’s foremost crowdfunding experts that has amassed a huge social media following, which is dedicated to supporting donation, rewards and equity crowdfunding campaigns.

Advertisement

iCrowd Hotels Opens Premier Real Estate Crowdfunding Site to Pair Hotel Developers with Hungry Real Estate Investors

 The new crowdfunding portal provides investors with direct access to top-performing hotel investments and streamlines the fundraising process for hotel owners and developers

By Robert Hoskins

Miami, Florida – iCrowd Hotels, Inc. announced the launch of its new proprietary online hotel crowdfunding platform. The innovative platform, which is focused on hotel properties across the globe, answers the mounting demand for direct access to tangible, top-performing hotel investments, as well as the need from owners and developers for a more streamlined and efficient fundraising process.

iCrowd Hotels Opens Premier Real Estate Crowdfunding Site to Pair Hotel Developers with Hungry Real Estate Investors

“Our crowdfunding platform has been in development for the past 18 months, with the goal of creating the premier hotel crowdfunding site. Since the adoption of Title II of the JOBS Act, and the passage of Regulation A+, there is an incredible untapped potential for private investors to diversify their portfolios and become pioneer crowd investors in the lucrative hospitality market,” said Ted Farnsworth, chairman and founder of iCrowdHotels, Inc.

“According to experts Massolution and Bloomberg, global crowdfunding is expected to reach $34.4 billion this year and real estate crowdfunding to top $250 billion by the end of 2020. We have opened the door to enable individuals to hold a valuable stake in premium hotel properties across the globe for as little as $10,000,” Farnsworth continued.

iCrowdHotels’ online platform will put the power directly in the hands of the investor by providing state-of-the-art technology that allows users to closely track the composition of their hotel portfolios, along with fundraising progress for properties in crowd investing status.  For owners and developers looking to raise capital, iCrowdHotels’ seamless tools allow for easy management and tracking of fundraising progress.

The company is now working on the release of its planned hotel pipeline comprised of more than $130 million in current deals in key markets including New York City, Miami, California and Europe. It will be working strategically with its partners to systematically choose the appropriate properties for the crowdfunding platform.

The company has also been tactically building its team of highly experienced industry veterans. Carl J. Schramm, an expert on new business strategy and innovation, has been advising the company during its early formation. Schramm, a professor at Syracuse University, served as president of the Kauffman Foundation until 2012, leading it to global preeminence in encouraging entrepreneurship and its link to economic development.

iCrowd Hotels, Inc. is a real estate developer and investor with a groundbreaking hospitality strategy focused on the millennial market. Situated in the forefront of the real estate crowdfunding movement, iCrowd Hotels is defining itself as the premier portal of its kind, seeking to create a marketplace in which hotel real estate developers and investors will come together to forge mutually beneficial relationships.

Taking sight of the positive outlook for the hospitality market, its foremost thrust is hotels but it is an equity-based crowdfunding portal that may offer different types of investment properties as well. Setting iCrowd Hotels apart is the fact that it affords the investor an in-depth knowledge of how the hotel industry functions.

# # #

Fundrageous.com Launches a $50 Million Capital Raise for Its Equity Crowdfunding Site, Empowering Accredited Investors to Take Real Estate Investing into Their Own Hands

Fundrageous offers an international platform in Miami that connects accredited investors Latin America, Europe and the United States and lets them invest in one of the hottest the real estate industries in the United States

 By Robert Hoskins

Miami, Florida – Benworth Capital Partners announced a new real estate crowdfunding site in South Florida called Fundrageous.com.  The company launched a $50 million capital raise for its initial growth phase, empowering accredited investors to take real estate investing into their own hands, while giving borrowers a new avenue from which to fund for local projects in which they believe.  Fundrageous opens its doors officially on at the second annual eMerge Americas, a movement to make Miami the technology hub of theAmericas.

Fundrageous.com Equity Crowdfunding Site for Real Estate in South Florida

 

“Real estate investing has long been relegated to a private club for the select few, where less people have opportunity and less exciting deals get funded due to suffocating regulations with traditional banks.  We say no more!” commented Bernie Navarro, Fundrageous Founder & CEO.  “Our intent is to democratize real estate investing, benefitting both the borrower as well as accredited investor.  With that spirit in mind, we felt there was no better place to innovate an industry than at eMerge, where in its first year we were inspired to create something truly disruptive.”

“Fundrageous embodies what eMerge is all about – innovation developed in Miami that creates an international platform connecting Latin America, Europe and the United States, and disrupts an industry,” added Manuel D. Medina, Founder of eMerge Americas and a technology entrepreneur.

Real estate crowdfunding is a new industry with no long-term legacy companies.  For that reason, many of the top players have been clouded in secrecy, treating their investors and borrowers with little respect or disclosure.

To address this white space, the company launches with its proprietary Fundrageous Peace of Mind Guarantees:

1. Our guiding principle is TRANSPARENCY at all levels.
2. We are a licensed mortgage lender with decades of expertise
3. We only invest in debt on deals backed by real estate.
4. All documentation on investments can be found online
5. Vetted borrowers and real estate assets
6. Only offer first position mortgages
7. Never offer you borrower dependent notes.
8. Fractionalized fund investing based on percentage you own, which you can always check.
9. Funds go directly to an attorney closing agent
10. We facilitate outrageous investment deals, not lend on them to own later.
11. We escrow for taxes and insurance on every loan.
12. Investment portfolios can be found online 24/7

Mr. Navarro is a member of the Board of Advisors of the groundbreaking Idea Center at Miami Dade College (MDC) and of its Board of Trustees, joining the College as a presenter at eMerge Americas.

“We wish Trustee Navarro the best of luck. He brings so much energy and innovation to all he does,” said MDC President Dr. Eduardo J. Padrón.

Added, Navarro, “I couldn’t be prouder of my association with MDC or our mutual interest in further advancing Miami’s presence on the global stage.”

The company launches with a select a few deals and recently completed projects on the site, and is immediately focused on the dual efforts of raising capital from the U.S. and Latin America, and attracting borrowers with attractive deals ready to be funded.

“Investors are often presented with two equally bad options; either over-crowded, small-yield opportunities; or investments with large potential but little transparency. We believe this is a false choice,” added Navarro.  “Fundrageous is where real estate opportunity meets crowdfunding transparency.”

# # #

Leading Crowdfunding Research Industry Analyst Firm Forecasts $34.4 Billion Global Industry Growth in 2015

Massolution crowdfunding research reports that crowdfunding portals raised $16.2 billion in 2014, a 167% increase over the $6.1 billion raised in 2013

 By Robert Hoskins

Los Angeles, California – Crowdfunding is accelerating at an unprecedented rate and impacting government policy, informing enterprise innovation, and changing the role of financial institutions around the world. Massolution, the leading research firm in world that specializes in reporting on the growing crowdfunding industry, released its annual 2015CF – Crowdfunding Industry Report. 

2015 Crowdfunding Industry Report Covering the United States, Europe, Asia, South America, Oceania and Africa

After collecting data on 1,250 active crowdfunding platforms (CFPs) worldwide and undertaking significant further research, the results reveal that CFPs raised $16.2 billion in 2014, a 167% increase over the $6.1 billion raised in 2013.

North America still accounts for the largest market but 2014 saw Asia overtake Europe, by a small margin. With exponential growth in Asia, Massolution forecasts this lead will increase significantly in 2015 with the delta between Asia and Europe increasing to over $4 Billion.

The report predicts that Europe’s 20.1% of market share in 2014 will decline slightly in 2015 when Europe will account for 18.8% of the worldwide market.

“In April 2013 we predicted that total crowdfunding volume by the end of 2013 would nearly double from 2012’s $2.7 billion but in fact the market reached $6.1 billion, largely due to faster growth than anticipated in Asia. Acceleration continued in 2014 achieving an impressive $16.2 billion in funding volume and we are forecasting that worldwide crowdfunding volumes will more than double again in 2015, to reach $34.4,” said Carl Esposti, Massolution’s CEO.  “Surprises materializing from this year’s research included GoFundMe topping Kickstarter as the largest donation/reward based CFP and astounding growth in the P2P lending market in Asia, stemming largely from the Chinese market. Further, the top 5 CFPs in North America increased wallet share during the period 2011-14 while in Europe the top 5 lost 30% of their market share, indicating that the markets in North America and Europe are shaping up very differently.”

Growth Rates By Region in 2014
North America retained its market lead in 2014 but Asia topped Europe to become the second largest region by funding volume.

• North America: crowdfunding volumes grew 145% to $9.46 billion
• Asia: crowdfunding volumes grew 320% to $3.4 billion
• Europe: crowdfunding volumes grew 141% to $3.26 billion
• South America, Oceania and Africa grew 167%, 59% and 101%, respectively

Growth Rates By Models in 2014
The growth in funding volumes continued to be primarily driven by lending-based crowdfunding, but significant annual growth in equity-based crowdfunding and increased adoption of newer hybrid and royalty-based models indicates that the allocation of funding volume across different models will be more highly distributed over the coming years.

• Lending-based crowdfunding grew 223% to $11.08 billion
• Equity-based crowdfunding grew 182% to $1.1 billion
• Hybrid-based crowdfunding grew 290% to $487 million
• Royalty-based crowdfunding grew 336% to $273 million
• Donation- and Reward-based crowdfunding grew 45% and 84% respectively

Most Active Categories in 2014
Crowdfunding’s popularity as a way to fund creative, philanthropic, and social endeavors still prevails but crowdfunding’s application for entrepreneurial ventures began to gain significant traction over the last few years. Business and Entrepreneurship had become the lead category by 2012 at 27.4% of total crowdfunding volume and in 2014 had increased in importance, accounting for over 40% of worldwide funding volume. In 2014, the lead categories share of funding volume was:

• Business & Entrepreneurship at 41.3% / $6.7bn
• Social Causes 18.9% / $3.06bn
• Films & Performing Arts 12.13% / $1.97bn
• Real Estate 6.25% / $1.01bn
• Music and Recording Arts 4.54%/ $736m

Further insights in the 2015 Crowdfunding Research Report include:

• Historical comparison of crowdfunding’s growth 2011 through 2014
• Breakdown of Regional funding volume by model and model by region
• Top 11 performing crowdfunding categories
• Average deal size for each crowdfunding model
• Crowdfunding outlook trends: 15 major developments
• CFP leaderboards worldwide, by region and by model
• Growth in CFP numbers and worldwide distribution
• Market predictions for 2015 by region and model

Research Methodology
The 2015 – Crowdfunding Industry Report is a research report that provides a unique and in-depth analysis of crowdfunding market size, composition, trends and composition. The Crowdfunding Industry Survey, to which Massolution received 463 high-quality responses, was conducted during late 2014 and early 2015 and resulted in the most comprehensive data collection on the worldwide crowdfunding market to date. Massolution has conducted significant follow-up research via other reliable channels to complete the profiling of the global crowdfunding industry.

# # #

Leading Research Study Shows America’s Crowdfunding Industry Soared at an Amazing 105% Growth Rate in 2012

By Robert Hoskins

Crowdfunding is accelerating at an unprecedented rate and impacting government policy, informing enterprise innovation, and changing the role of financial institutions around the world. Today, massolution, a research firm specializing in the crowdsourcing and crowdfunding industries, released its annual 2013CF – Crowdfunding Industry Report.

Massolutions Crorwdfunding Research Study Reports that America’s Crowdfunding Industry Grew a Whopping 105% in 2012

After collecting data from 308 active crowdfunding platforms (CFPs) worldwide and undertaking significant further research, the results reveal that CFPs raised $2.7 billion in 2012 – an 81% increase over 2011 – and successfully funded more than one million campaigns. North America and Europe account for over 95% of the total market.

“Consistent with our 2012 forecast, total crowdfunding volume nearly doubled last year, and with regulatory bodies continuing to pave the way, we expect global crowdfunding volumes to exceed $5 billion in 2013,” said CEO of massolution, Carl Esposti . “While lending-, donation-, and reward-based crowdfunding have thus far been leading this global financial revolution, equity-based crowdfunding is about to take center stage in the U.S. The JOBS Act, which will allow non-accredited investors to make investments in exchange for equity, is expected to go into effect by the end of 2013.”

Growth Rates By Region

Although crowdfunding offers a growing number of countries opportunities to access funds, North America and Europe raised much more capital than platforms in other regions.

• North America: crowdfunding volumes grew 105% to $1.6 billion
• Europe: crowdfunding volumes grew 65% to $945 million
• In total, all other markets grew close to 125%

Growth Rates By Models

The growth in funding volumes was primarily driven by lending- and donation-based crowdfunding, and by SME adoption of reward-based crowdfunding. The growth in lending volumes mainly stemmed from crowdfunded micro-loans and community-driven loans to local SMEs.

• Donation- and Reward-based crowdfunding grew 85% to $1.4 billion
• Lending-based crowdfunding grew 111% to $1.2 billion
• Equity-based crowdfunding grew 30% to $116 million

Most Active Categories

Crowdfunding first gained popularity as a way to fund creative, philanthropic, and social endeavors. This popularity prevails, but crowdfunding’s application for entrepreneurial ventures has also gained traction. Driven by models that offer financial return, the ‘Business/Entrepreneurship’ and ‘Energy/Environment’ categories are the next highest performing categories.

• Social Causes are most active, driving close to 30% of all crowdfunding activity
• Business & Entrepreneurship (16.9%), and the two major Art Categories follow: Films & Performing Arts (11.9%) and Music & Recording Arts (7.5%)
• Energy & Environment (5.9%) is the emerging category among the five most active

“Obtaining reliable and analyzable data on all aspects regarding new constituents- and market-related activity will be critical to the creation of the new crowdfunding industry,” said EGS Managing Partner, Douglas Ellenoff . “This includes more research on funding platforms, deals, investors, amounts being raised, actually raised, industries, and geographies. For the last several years, massolution has committed itself to developing these necessary capabilities, relationships and infrastructure to be the best positioned and most reliable market leader for this purpose.”

# # #

Please click here to help us Crowdfund this website’s editorial development

Related articles

• Crowdfunding & the JOBS Act: What Does This Mean For You?
• Loan, reward, donation-based crowdfunding booms
• Crowdfunders Are Quietly Donating and Lending Billions
• Crowdfunding raised billions in 2012
• Crowdfunding nearly doubled last year with 1M successful campaigns
• Crowdfunding: Say Hello to Your Next 10,000 Investors
• Crowdfunding Gathers Business Mentors, Financial Advisors and Investors in India
• Crowdfunding Industry On Fire: Trends to Watch
• Global Crowdfunding Volumes Rise 81% In 2012
• Could crowdfunding reach $5 billion this year?