Support Australia's most exciting ventures
Your opportunity to invest
Crowd-sourced funding is your chance to support the early-stage growth of companies with big ideas and big growth ambitions. For as little as $250 you can invest in your favourite companies and fast-scaling startups, and be part of the change that you want to see in the world.
Investment Stages
Birchal campaigns have two key stages – the Expression of Interest (EOI) Campaign and the Offer Campaign – to help you get to know the company and its goals, chat to founders, and learn about the terms of the investment. Stage three - Settlement - is then when you receive your shares and officially become an owner in the company.
Stage 1 • EOI
Expressing Interest
An EOI is a non-binding expression of interest to invest in the company.
During the EOI Campaign you can deep dive into the business, check out the company’s profile, pitch video and hear from the founder. By expressing interest at this stage, you benefit from:
- Priority access to the offer when it opens for investors
- Live founder updates
- Invitation to investor Q&A webinar
- Direct messaging to founders
It also helps reduce your chance of missing out on fast-moving deals that can reach their max funding targets during the priority access period!
Stage 2 • The Offer
Becoming an Investor
Now is your chance to invest. Once the EOI is closed, the company moves to Offer stage. Here, you can review the key terms of the offer in the crowd-sourced funding offer document, and apply for shares in the company.
Once a company hits its minimum funding target, the campaign is now ‘funded’. The company will continue to accept applications for shares until reaching its maximum target, or until the set close date of the campaign (whichever comes first).
Always consider the general CSF risk warning and offer document before investing.
Stage 3 • Settlement
Getting your shares
Once the offer closes and the company has met its minimum subscription amount, all approved investments will be processed and we will commence the settlement process. This is when:
- we will collect payment for your investment applications
- the company will issue the shares (and share certificates) to you, as an investor, usually via an online share registry.
Congratulations, you're officially a shareholder!
As a shareholder, you will be kept updated directly by the company in their shareholder updates and the Annual Financial Report & Directors' Report.
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We're excited to have you on board!
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Review all the the latest crowd-sourced funding campaigns on our Birchal platform, including company activity and updates.
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Get Started!Frequently asked questions
Birchal is a licensed crowd-sourced funding platform, that enables businesses to offer shares to a crowd of investors. As a licensed intermediary regulated by ASIC, our roles and responsibilities are prescribed by law, including as a ‘gatekeeper’ for our platform. Other roles include:
- ensuring a company is eligible to make an offer under the CSF regime
- operating an online platform through which a company offers shares and investors invest money in exchange for shares
- ensuring company crowd-sourced funding offer documents meet certain minimum content requirements and are presented in a 'clear, concise and effective' manner
- holding investor money and passing it to the company when the offer is complete
- performing checks on the issuing company and its directors and senior managers
- implementing certain investor protections.
For more information, please check out our guide on "What is the role of the crowd-sourced funding intermediary?"
People over the age of 18 years can invest from as little as $100, depending on the terms of the offer. To invest over $10k, you need to be a wholesale investor. Find more information in our guide "What is the difference between a retail and wholesale investor".
Under the Australian CSF regime, eligible private and unlisted public companies can raise up to $5 million per year through licensed crowd-sourced funding platforms, like Birchal. A huge range of businesses now use crowd-sourced funding, with popular sectors including Food & Beverage, Sustainability & Impact brands, Financial Services and Consumer Goods. Get the latest industry report CSF Yearbook for more insights.https://www.birchal.com/content/campaigns/funded-report)
You can begin reviewing investment opportunities on Birchal’s Browse Companies page When you’re ready to invest, you’ll need to sign up to create a Birchal account if you haven’t already. If you'd like a step-by-step guide to how to make an investment, please see our guide here.
Yes, it is possible however you should seek independent advice on whether it is permissible for your SMSF to invest in crowd-sourced funding offers. Learn more here!
Once the offer closes and the company has met its minimum subscription amount, the "settlement process” will begin. You will receive your share certificate (legal evidence of your ownership of the shares) as soon as the company issues your shares to you. For more details on how to access your share certificate, see our guide here.
Many companies that make a CSF offer are new, early stage or rapidly growing ventures. Companies in the early stages of the business usually have many years of hard work ahead of them in order to grow the business and execute on its strategy. This is what your investment money will be spent on.
There may be various events or ways for you to receive a return on your investment. For example:
- the company undertakes an IPO and lists on a securities exchange
- the company undertakes an exit event, like a sale of the company
- you transfer your shares to a third party and a price for the shares is agreed
- the company declares dividends (see — Will I receive dividends from the company I invested in?)
- the company undertakes a share-buy back- the company participates in a trade facility, like Birchal Trade
The crowd-sourced funding (CSF) offer document is a regulated disclosure document. This means all companies seeking to raise funds under the CSF regime must prepare a CSF offer document & publish it on a CSF platform.It is intended to give potential investors enough information to make an assessment on whether or not to invest in the company. You can read more about what the CSF offer document is, and when it will be made available on a campaign, here.
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