Social Venture Exchange
Description
By Anne Field:
a Toronto-based platform aiming to launch in 2012: "It links via an online platform accredited investors with Ontario-based social enterprises of anywhere from $100,000-$25 million in revenues looking to raise $25,000-$10 million. To be included on the exchange, interested companies first have to go through an exhaustive vetting process that's largely done off-line to make sure they're not only viable enterprises, but also are the real McCoy, that is, companies with a serious social mission at their core. Then, they're listed on the platform, with the relevant information of interest to potential investors. After that, it functions much like any online dating service, according to Spence, with prospective investors reading over company profiles and then contacting them. Ultimately, transactions are conducted off-line. That's only the beginning, according to Spence. With backing from TMX Group, which runs the Toronto Stock Exchange, among others, he aims ultimately to create a fully regulated public social stock market for Ontario for retail investors that would be conducted online." (http://newsroom.cisco.com/feature-content?type=webcontent&articleId=675997)