Startups looking to raise capital have more options today thanks to evolving technology, regulation and market behavior. Initially, crowdfunding had adverse selection problems (e.g. only seeing deals that could not raise elsewhere), but now that it has matured, it’s becoming an option to other sources of early capital (eg. family & friends, angels, VCs). For a quality discussion on its merits see the Notes below.
Here are the biggest crowdfunders in the United States ranked by a modified FAB score, which for this category, includes the cumulative value of funds raised on the platform along with the usual inputs of the company’s funding, number of employees, and website traffic.
Rank | Company | FAB Score | Review | Founded | HQ | Platform Fundings ($M) | Company Funding ($M) | Visits (Jan ’22) |
1 | StartEngine | 889 | 8 Mar 2022 | 2014 | LA | $500 | $87.6 | 1,800,000 |
2 | Wefunder | 616 | 8 Mar 2022 | 2012 | SF | 450 | 28.6 | 790,000 |
3 | Republic | 597 | 8 Mar 2022 | 2014 | NYC | 500 | 214 | 67,000 |
4 | SeedInvest (Circle) | 470 | 8 Mar 2022 | 2011 | NYC | 410 | 12.4 | 310,000 |
5 | Microventures | 458 | 8 Mar 2022 | 2009 | Austin | 450 | 3.4 | 68,000 |
6 | MainInvest | 40 | 8 Mar 2022 | 2018 | Salem, MA | 15 | 3 | 110,000 |
7 | Netcapital | 20 | 8 Mar 2022 | 2014 | Boston | 11 | 0.1 | 51,000 |
Source: FintechLabs, 16 Mar 2022; from companies, Crunchbase, SimilarWeb, SEMRush
Note: Equity Crowdfunding resources
- First Round Capital blog post