Published: Apr 23, 2015 1:22 p.m. ET
By Wallace Witkowski
http://www.marketwatch.com/
Venture capitalists are always looking for the next
big investment in tech, whether it’s cloud-computing, data analysis, or
software development. But a growing trend in startup funding seeks to give the
smaller retail investor a shot at getting in on the ground floor of the next
Google or Facebook.
It used to be
that tech companies like VMware Inc. VMW, -2.07% sought how to take large servers and cut them up into tiny
virtual computers. Now, with smartphones and wearable devices like Apple Inc.’s AAPL, +0.42% Apple Watch or FitBit fitness trackers, the new hot
companies are those taking the data collected from these devices and turning it
into a meaningful database and products that customers can use.
In much the
same way, aggregating a lot of little pieces to form value may be the future of
investing in tech startups. Onevest, which presented at DEMO’s Traction startup conference in San Francisco
on Wednesday, seeks to do just that by making seed-fund investing in startups
available to retail investors who normally wouldn’t have the funds or access to
do so. It’s crowdfunding — but with equity.
Crowdfunding
sites like Kickstarter have gained in popularity as a way for people to invest
in companies they believe in and products they want to see come to market. But
a major criticism of the Kickstarter model is that backers get some sort of
token appreciation for their support, rather than equity in the investment. One
of the biggest gripes from Kickstarter “investors” in Oculus Rift was that they pledged money to the company to help bring a virtual
reality headset to market, only for the company to get acquired by Facebook Inc. FB, +0.59% for $2 billion.
“We’re giving people the possibility to invest in
companies instead of buying T-shirts,” said Alejandro Cremades, co-founder of
Onevest, in an interview.
Another thing
that sets Onevest apart from other crowdfunding sites is they’re getting
involved with building the startups themselves. Last year, Onevest acquired
CoFoundersLab, essentially an entrepreneur matchmaking service aimed at
bringing together compatible startup teams. One CoFoundersLab success story wassmart-home
gadget startup Revolv, which was
acquired by Google Inc.GOOG, +2.99% in
October.
For now, only “accredited investors,” meaning
households that make at least $200,000 a year or have $1 million in assets, in
the U.S. can invest in startups, Cremades said. That’s slated to change soon
with implementation of Securities and Exchange Commission regulations under the
JOBS Act, which would allow investors who fall below those conditions to invest
in startups.
“I believe
the next-generation data center, the world of aggregation and connectivity of
lots of little pieces connected together, will be the future of computing,”
said Peter Levine, general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz,
at the DEMO conference.
This outlook raises the stakes for data-analytics
companies, which have to parse huge amounts of data and make it meaningful for
applications; security companies, to ensure the data doesn’t fall into the
wrong hands; and software developers, which will create the new apps and
services based on all that data.
Wearable computers, which are about where
smartphones were back around the iPhone’s introduction in 2007, are expected to
dramatically hike the volume of data available for companies to reap for
profit.
Erick Schonfeld, executive producer of DEMO,
likened wearable devices to human odometers.
“We’re becoming endpoints ourselves, we’re creating data exhaust from
our own bodies,” Schonfeld said. Case in point, companies like Oscar Insurance Corp. are already offering customers discounts on health insurance if
they wear a fitness tracking device, he said.
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