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Crowdfunding meets VC funding in Australia

StrideCorp Equity Partners has recently unveiled Stride Equity, Australia’s own equity crowdfunding platform. 

Stride Lead will back the platform, a venture capital fund committed to providing cornerstone investments to companies that successfully raise capital.

The platform assesses investment opportunities against its internal selection criteria and provides cornerstone investment to pre-qualified companies with up to 20 per cent co-investment from Stride Lead. 

The remaining amount is raised on the crowdfunding platform. Additionally, the platform offers mentoring and industry contacts to early-stage founders to improve their companies’ chances of success.

“Stride Equity will evaluate investment opportunities based on its internal selection criteria and offer pre-qualified companies up to 20 per cent co-investment from Stride Lead, while the remaining amount will be raised on the crowdfunding platform. 

“The platform will also provide mentoring and industry contacts to early-stage founders to boost the chances of their company’s success,” per the statement.

Maria Halasz, CEO of Stride Equity, said, “Around $220 million has been raised by crowdfunding intermediaries since 2018, but only a few exits have been executed so far. Unlike our model, where we pre-qualify investee companies, crowdfunding is normally transactional and professional investors do not routinely vet companies.” 

“Our purpose is to close the funding gap for emerging businesses by combining our experience as successful venture investors with the power of equity crowdfunding. We back these companies with our money, expertise and connections.” 

Alan Chonowitz, Director of Stride Equity, added, “I am especially excited about the uniqueness of our offering in the crowdfunding market, which brings our own funds as co-investment into each offer, making our model more attractive to investors and investee companies alike .” 

The Stride Equity team will host a launch event on 28 March at the Sydney Startup Hub to introduce their new venture capital and crowdfunding platform.

CEO Maria Halasz will lead a panel discussion with entrepreneurs Sam Brett and Ben Lipschitz and StrideCorp Chairman Jon Brett to discuss funding opportunities for emerging companies and the future of venture capital.

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Yajush Gupta

Yajush Gupta

Yajush is a journalist at Dynamic Business. He previously worked with Reuters as a business correspondent and holds a postgrad degree in print journalism.

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