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Equity Crowdfunding Exemption Scheduled for Q1 2015

by | Apr 16, 2014 | Crowdfunding | 0 comments

I had the pleasure of speaking on a panel this morning with Gerrard Buckley of Maple Leaf Angles, Jos Schmidt of Aequitas Innovations Inc. and Jim Turner the Vice Chair of the Ontario Securities Commission. The event, Igniting Entrepreneurship and Capital Flow in Ontario was hosted by the National Crowdfunding Association and the City of Toronto at the Ontario Investment and Trade Centre.

The audience brought together professionals with a wide range of backgrounds from accountants and lawyers to entrepreneurs and investors.

Jim Turner kicked the event off by providing the audience with a summery of the newly proposed crowdfunding regulations (see Appendix D) released on March 20th. If you are considering equity crowdfunding as a means to access capital for your business, I would encourage you to read the proposed regulations. In particular, Annex D4 to the document sets out a template “Crowdfunding Offering Document” issuers will be required to prepare.

 

Gerrard Buckley gave some interesting insights on crowdfunding from the perspective of an angel investor, while Jos Schmidt spoke about the importance of ensuring investor protection in the crowdfunding space.

During the Q&A session Jim Turner indicated that the crowdfunding exemption would likely come into force and effect in early 2015. At the moment there is a 90-day consultation period ending June 19th. Stakeholders interested in shaping the future of crowdfunding are encouraged to make submissions on the proposed regulations.

Wires Law will be helping growth companies put together their crowdfunding offering documents in order to raise capital from the crowd and list on a registered Canadian crowdfunding portal. For more visit our Crowdfunding page.

To stay on top of the latest crowdfunding news subscribe to the NCFA newsletter and follow them on twitter @NCFACanada.

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John Wires

Founder at Wires Law
John Wires is a business and technology lawyer and the founder of Wires Law, a boutique firm that helps startups, e-commerce companies, and SaaS businesses navigate Canadian law. He’s appeared before the Ontario Superior Court and the Court of Appeal, but today focuses on helping founders build, grow, and exit their companies with smart legal foundations. John is the author of The Law for Founders: Canadian Edition — a practical legal guide for entrepreneurs available at https://founderlaw.ca. He graduated from law school with first class honours, specializing in international trade and corporate commercial law.