TORONTO, Dec. 10, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Silver Maple Ventures Inc. is pleased to announce new synergies between its two fintech platforms designed to enable robust investor access to private market deals and further simplify the transaction process. FrontFundr, Canada’s leading equity crowdfunding platform and exempt market dealer, has officially become a participating dealer on DealSquare, Canada’s first centralized dealer platform for private placements. The team at Silver Maple Ventures is excited to be first movers in providing widespread investor access to private market deals, digitally connecting capital-raisers to all investors, investment dealers and their advisory networks.
“In recent years, the private markets have been growing twice as fast and producing 3-4% higher returns than the public markets, but the average retail investor hoping to diversify their portfolios have traditionally been locked out and unable to participate. With FrontFundr, all investors can get in on the private market action,” says Peter-Paul Van Hoeken, Founder and CEO of Silver Maple Ventures Inc. “The synergies work both ways. On the one hand, FrontFundr can now make its private placements available to other dealers and advisors by connecting to DealSquare. On the other hand, FrontFundr can make private placements listed on DealSquare available to its community of equity crowdfunding investors, truly democratizing access to the private markets.”
Launched in October 2019, DealSquare simplifies the current private placement process for dealers, advisors and capital raisers. The platform is a fintech solution to the traditionally fragmented private markets developed in partnership with NEO, where private placement deals are most often marketed through word-of-mouth and transacted using archaic technology. Through DealSquare, investment opportunities are marketed online, subscriptions processed electronically and transactions are closed using NEO Connect, seamlessly integrating a client’s exempt securities into their portfolio account.
However, companies completing private placements still rely on friends, family, business relationships and accredited investors inefficiently raising money from a very small group of investors. With the onboarding of FrontFundr to DealSquare, accredited and non-accredited investors now have the opportunity to participate in private placements posted on DealSquare.
FrontFundr has pioneered investment crowdfunding in Canada. As of today, FrontFundr’s community of 15,000 accredited and non-accredited (retail) investors can search, find, review and complete an investment in private placements, all within one session and on one digital platform. Since launch in June 2015, over $20 million has been raised on the FrontFundr platform, with $5 million raised in 2019 alone, and nearly $15 million anticipated to be raised through the platform in 2020. With offerings for a range of investor types, the average FrontFundr investment is approximately $5,000, with a median investment of approximately $2,000 per investment.
FrontFundr continues to lead the democratization of the private markets in Canada. On November 27, 2019 the company obtained approval from the Ontario Securities Commission to use start-up crowdfunding rules in Ontario that were already available in other provinces. FrontFundr can now offer previous and future issuer clients the opportunity to raise up to $250,000 twice per year and any Ontarian can invest up to $5,000 with each offering where suitable.
In order to provide important investor protections as the retail community enters the private markets space, FrontFundr developed a Suitability Assessment Manager (SAM) and secured discretionary approval from the Canadian securities regulators earlier this year. This online tool is fully integrated into the FrontFundr platform and performs an electronic suitability assessment automatically, enabling an investor to complete a security purchase from start to finish in one online session. SAM is a significant step forward in democratizing access to the private markets, making it easy and efficient for everyone.
About Silver Maple Ventures Inc.
Silver Maple Ventures Inc. (“SMV”) is an exempt market dealer and holding company of FrontFundr Financial Services Inc. (“FrontFundr”) and DealSquare Technologies Inc. (“DealSquare”). With offices in Toronto and Vancouver, the SMV team are national leaders in the private capital markets, developing and operating two fintech platforms to provide access to private markets in Canada and simplify the transaction process. Launched in 2015, FrontFundr is Canada’s leading online marketplace that allows all investors, accredited and non-accredited, to participate in curated private placements through equity crowdfunding. DealSquare launched in October 2019 as Canada’s first centralized dealer platform for private placements, digitally connecting capital-raisers to investment dealers and their advisory networks.
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For more information:
Adam Bornstein
adam.bornstein@smithcom.ca
905.505.2540