S.C. businesses have new financing option - SC Small Business Chamber of Commerce

For more information about this story, contact Frank Knapp at sbchamber@scsbc.org or 803-252-5733.

GSA Business
July 31, 2013

The S.C. Small Business Chamber of Commerce has joined a Mission Markets online crowd-funding portal that gives businesses access to financing and donation-based investment resources.

Chamber President Frank Knapp said the portal gives businesses and non-profits conducting a business enterprise another avenue to gain access to capital.

The portal, called “Invest in a New Economy,” is a partnership between the Small Business Chamber, American Sustainable Business Council and Mission Markets Inc., a New York-based securities firm. Applications are being accepted and the portal is expected to go live by the end of August.

“Any business in this state or nonprofit conducting a business enterprise will be able to use this portal,” Knapp said Wednesday.

He said there will be an applicationfee of about $100 and applicants will automatically become members of the chamber.

The portal allows S.C. businesses to seek capital through donation crowd-funding, which involves asking the public to make donations toward a project or business activity. Financing options also are available through private placements that involve high-income individuals investing in a business for an equity position; and — if approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission — through individuals who make relatively small investments in a business for an equity position.

Knapp’s posting on the chamber website said the Mission Markets crowd-funding portal is another option to seek capital “for the entrepreneurs and small business owners who just don’t have the equity or capital assets a financial institution needs for a loan or a line of credit.”

He said the Columbia-based chamber, with more than 5,000 members, is working with Mission Markets “because of its mission to do good, its technology to enable these proprietary blended portal networks and its goal of reaching across organizations.”

“By offering small businesses access to equity from accredited investors, and donation-based crowd financing, we are helping local communities to thrive in a socially responsible manner,” Knapp said.

https://www.gsabusiness.com/news/48446-s-c-businesses-have-new-financing-option