Founder Newsletter

Wefunder Referral Partner Update

Published on Jan 15, 2021

tl;dr

  • 2020 was a great year for Wefunder’s growth (and team)
  • The new Reg CF rules ($5M annual cap) go into effect on March 15th
  • Referral partners can now earn $2,500 for every founder they refer

Dear Wefunder referral partners,

I wanted to take a few moments to update you on our Wefunder momentum as we enter 2021, and the exciting regulatory changes that will cause Regulation Crowdfunding to grow significantly over the coming months.

Up and to the Right

2020 was a great year for Wefunder. We more than doubled investment volume, and that growth accelerated throughout the year – in the fourth quarter of 2020, our investment volume was 4.3X bigger than the fourth quarter of 2019.

We increased our market share lead (based on third party, Kingscrowd data) – to 41% in Q4 2020 (compared to StartEngine at 28%, Republic at 14%, SeedInvest at 1%, and all other platforms at 16%).

Perhaps even more importantly, our team remained in place, and strengthened. Our engineering team entering 2021 is significantly stronger than a year ago. I’m still leading our Business Development team, and Suzanna Rush is still running our Operations. My hunch is that there is would be a strong correlation between startups’ growth, and their employees’ tenure. Wefunder is looking good on that front.


Bending the Rules

But by far the most significant win for Wefunder in 2020 was the SEC’s vote to adjust the Regulation Crowdfunding rules in early November. After a couple of months of waiting, these updates were posted to the Federal Register this week (January 14th), kicking off a 60 day countdown to their going into effect on March 15th, 2021.

These rule changes will explosively catalyze the Regulation Crowdfunding industry over the coming years.

There are a number of important improvements, but the biggest headline is that companies will now be able to raise $5M per year through the Regulation Crowdfunding exemption, up from $1.07M previously.

Investment limits will also be harmonized with other exemptions – for example, from March 15th accredited investors will be able to invest an unlimited amount per year in Reg CF offerings, just as they are able to for Reg D offerings.

The new regulations also allow companies to “Test the Waters” – i.e. assess investor demand by publicly sharing about a potential upcoming fundraising campaign.


Pay Raise

Effective immediately, partners referring founders who go on to file a Form C with Wefunder (and launch a public campaign) will be entitled to referral fees of $2,500 (up from $1,000 previously). This can be invested into the company that was referred, or taken as cash.

Referral partners can also earn their referrals a $2,500 discount on Wefunder fees.

For more information on our referral program, please visit this GoogleDoc.


If you would like to set up a call to discuss anything here in more detail, or chat more about deepening your (or your organization’s) partnership with Wefunder in 2021, please do let me know, and our Business Development team would love to get a meeting on the books.

2021 is going to be an amazing year for us, and we hope you and the founders in your community as well!

Jonny Price
Director of Fundraising
Wefunder

And the rest of the Wefunder BD team:
Adie Akuffo-Afful
Ben Garcia
Justin Renfro
Kati Conley
Lydia Smith
Mariel Rosic
Mark Rodli
Todd Folk

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