AUSTIN, TX--(Marketwired - Feb 13, 2015) - The new equity crowdfunding rules from the Texas State Securities Board (TSSB) allow online ecommerce sites, also known as Texas crowdfunding portals, to market private placement memorandums (PPMs) from entrepreneurs, startups and existing businesses seeking funds to expand their operations throughout Texas. Instead of raising large sums of cash from a few Angel Investors or Venture Capitalists, any Texas-based business can now raise money utilizing a Texas crowdfunding site to market and sell equity shares to more than 20 million non-accredited Texas investors who are Texas residents.

For the first time in 80 years, any Texan 18 years or older can now invest up to $5,000 in multiple companies per year. This means any Texas-based business can now raise up to $1 million per year from hundreds to millions of Texas hobby investors and/or micro venture capitalists as well as traditional accredited investors nationwide.

For example, high-technology companies selling leading-edge wearable gadgets, smart phone apps, video games, social media management, or smart cooking appliances that set a minimum price of $500 per share can sell up to 2,000 private equity shares for a small percentage of the company's ownership to raise $1 million of startup venture capital.

Unlike well-known, rewards-based crowdfunding sites such as GoFundMe, IndieGoGo or Kickstarter, where Crowdfunders are raising money over long 30-, 45- or 60-day campaigns, equity crowdfunding sites will be able to raise large amounts of money in a matter of hours via email blasts directing investors to online investment profiles.

"When an equity crowdfunding PPM is posted, every investor signed up on the crowdfunding portal via CrowdPay's automated Application Programming Interface (API) will be able to fund an investment account and invest in the offering," said Josh Duckworth, GoldStar Trust's Director of Marketing. "Similar to the way shares are sold during an Initial Public Offering (IPO), CrowdPay will allow investors to buy online with an electronic transfer or self-directed IRA. This requires a massive amount of processing power, stringent security and the ability to fulfill hundreds, even thousands of financial transactions automatically, which is why we branded it CrowdPay."

Shifting the power from exclusive groups of Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists that refuse about 95% of the deals they are pitched, equity crowdfunding sites allow Issuers to market their PPMs directly to a potential audience of 20 million investors who can search equity crowdfunding sites or set automated email alerts by subject matter, product category or vertical business segment. Investors, however, must be registered with one or more of the top Texas crowdfunding sites in order to participate and to receive the confidential financial details and disclosure information associated with each PPM deal.

Any Texas-based business can open an equity crowdfunding portal by filing Texas Crowdfunding Portal application form with the TSSB. Colleges, universities, incubators, accelerators, SBDC, chambers of commerce, magazines, industry trade associations, franchises, solar energy farms, co-operatives or any other large business organization with thousands of members who want to invest in startups and businesses as a crowd to create economic development and stimulate jobs is/are a good candidate to open an online Texas crowdfunding portal.

To setup a crowdfunding portal in Houston, the Woodlands, Sugarland, Dallas, Plano, Richardson, Irving, Fort Worth, Arlington, Hurst, Euless, Bedford, San Antonio, San Marcos, Austin, Round Rock, McAllen, Edinburg, Mission, El Paso, Killeen, Temple, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, Harlingen, Beaumont, Port Arthur, Lubbock, Laredo, Amarillo, Waco, College Station, Bryan, Longview, Tyler, Abilene, Wichita Falls, Midland, Odessa, Sherman, Dennison, San Angelo, Victoria, Texarkana and any other city in Texas, please call CrowdPay at (800) 486-6888.

About CrowdPay
CrowdPay supports equity crowdfunding portals for accredited investors nationwide and Texas intrastate crowdfunding portals that will open up crowdfunding to unaccredited investors. The system works behind the scenes via an API to open and fund investor accounts as part of the required escrow process; dividend and interest payments will also be paid to these investor accounts when applicable. CrowdPay.com is a site for portals and developers that details the specific crowdfunding process and provides in-depth API documentation. Please click here to check out CrowdPay's API.

About GoldStar Trust
GoldStar Trust Company is one of the nation's leading Self-Directed IRA custodians with over twenty years of experience and is the first bank in Texas to provide a working escrow solution approved by the Texas State Security Board for crowdfunding. GoldStar offers unique retirement solutions that allow investors to diversify their IRA portfolio with precious metals and other alternative investments such as equity crowdfunding. GoldStar serves as a paying agent and trustee for issuers of church bonds and municipal bonds in 38 states and serves as a custodian for more than 37,000 IRA accounts with total assets of more than $1.9 billion (as of March 31, 2014). Click here to setup a GoldStar Trust crowdfunding account.