MaRS’ response to the potential crowdfunding exemption

NOTE: On August 28, 2013, the OSC issued an update report listing the capital-raising areas that it is still reviewing, including crowdfunding. The report also includes a summary of the comments the OSC received about crowdfunding, as well as the results of an investor survey that the OSC commissioned from a third party.

In a previous post, we mentioned that the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) was in the process of reviewing a potential crowdfunding exemption to enable the issuance of crowdfunded equity for local companies, and that they had prepared a detailed paper for review and comment.

Essentially, the OSC was seeking feedback from anyone with an interest in the topic—company managers who may be interested in issuing shares/raising capital (“issuers”) as well as investors, including members of the general public, accredited angel investors, venture capital firms and other institutional investors, and the legal, financial and other advisors who support them.

As such, we collected input from our client companies, our team and our volunteer mentors (who include local leaders from startup companies, the early-stage investor community and the legal advisors who support us). On February 26, 2013, MaRS also held a stakeholder event where we provided an opportunity for entrepreneurs and investors from our community to hear the OSC present highlights of their potential crowdfunding exemption, and gave them the chance to provide direct feedback to members of the OSC on the concepts and questions described in their paper.

We thank all of our stakeholders for their valuable input!

MaRS’ submission to the OSC

After consolidating all the feedback we gathered at the event, we submitted our response to the OSC on March 8, 2013. To view our full submission, click here.

Note: All comments received during the comment period will be made publicly available and posted on the OSC website at: www.osc.gov.on.ca.