StartEngine Marketplace hits $400K+

Welcome to this week’s edition of CROWDSCALE - we’re taking a step back from the company-specific deep dives to check in on the overall startup investing landscape

• 💵 Ding Ding Ding! Top discounted deals on StartEngine Marketplace

• 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 State of Equity: Equity Crowdfunding in 2023

• 🗳️ The People’s Vote: Revealing investors’ decision on AppMail

STARTENGINE MARKETPLACE HITS $400K+

A few weeks back, StartEngine rolled out Marketplace, a place to buy or sell equity in startups from existing investors.

If you wanted more immediate liquidity on your investment, you could list your shares on Marketplace at a price you determine, and see if anyone’s interested/

This weekend I shut the blinds, cracked my knuckles really dramatically, and dug into the 188 active listings on StartEngine Marketplace.

I found that Marketplace had 116,451 shares actively available for trading, totaling $437,217 in equity value.

The majority appeared to be listed at an increase relative to their latest fundraising round, and the most frequent startups listed were TerraCycle, Solar Roadways, and 20/20 Gene Systems.

TOP DISCOUNTED DEALS ON MARKETPLACE

The greatest friend to a savvy investor is a motivated seller.

Here are four deals I found where the share price is lower than what was listed in the latest funding round.

As a disclaimer, I have not researched the current health of the below companies and in no ways am I recommending investing in anything here.

Solar Roadways | Marketplace Listing

• What they do: Aim to integrate solar panels into roadways

• Shares Available: 71

• Share Price: $4.35

• Estimated Discount to latest Round: -4%

Xcraft Enterprises | Marketplace Listing

• What they do: Designed & produce commercial drones

• Shares Available: 129

• Share Price: $7.55

• Estimated Discount to latest Round: -21%

Virtuix | Marketplace Listing

• What they do: Created a virtual reality treadmill that allows you to move in place while experiencing VR

• Shares Available: 41

• Share Price: $4.00

• Estimated Discount to latest Round: -36%

20/20 Gene Systems | Marketplace Listing

• What they do: Lab focused on breakthrough cancer-treatments

• Shares Available: 148

• Share Price: $3.20

• Estimated Discount to latest Round: -46% 

IT’S TOUGH OUT IN THE STREETS

you may want to be sitting down for this one…

I tallied up all crowdfunding startup investments made so far in 2023, and the figure stands at $271M.

That actually sounds like a big number, but it’s down a whopping 46% from the $498M that was invested up to this point in 2022.

In attempting to identify underlying causes, I also summed up the number of active startups between these time periods.

While the number of active raises declined by 15%, that alone is not enough to justify the 46% drop in investment - people are simply investing less into startups.

IS EQUITY CROWDFUNDING IN DECLINE?

is that it, are we packing up shop and moving on???

Hardly. We’re in a period of decline for all investment options.

Looking to the much more mature Venture Capital market, investment has plummeted 65% through the first 6 months of 2023. So comparatively, equity crowdfunding is doing better than the larger market.

I believe that investment volume will return to positive growth heading into 2024 - for now here’s what you need to be aware of when investing.

A successful startup is made of three things: idea, founder, and capital.

In this tighter funding environment, startups are raising less money. Make sure that your investments are well-funded or are raising enough money.

If a startup is finishing its funding round with only $25k raised and 2 months of runway left, they might not be in a financial position to succeed.

The idea and founder could be top-tier, but without capital it becomes increasingly difficult to operate!