truCrowd is one of first equity crowdfunding platform launched in Texas, USA. It is a web based platform that allows startups, entrepreneurs and emerging businesses to acquire capital from non-accredited investors. Thanks to the Regulation Crowdfunding and Intrastate Crowdfunding exemptions, non-accredited investors can, for the first time in 80 years, invest in startups they like, in exchange for equity. We have built a platform where both parties can connect, interact in real time, exchange documents and securely build a business together. Click here to visit their website.
Our client was a FinTECH startup. They wanted to develop an equity crowdfunding platform (also called a funding portal) and partnered with HyperSense Software for the project. The goal was to build the first Equity Funding portal in the USA based on the JOBS Act and other Intrastate Crowdfunding exemptions that were under public review at that time. To cope with the possible changes of the law and with new knowledge regarding what the user wants, we have adopted the AGILE SCRUM framework.
The project was challenging due to its complexity and also because of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, FINRA and State level security regulations. It also implied building military grade system security in order to allow the users to exchange funds and private information (patents, business strategy, etc.) in a safe manner. For file sharing we have built a custom made secure file storage and sharing system used to exchange legal and financial documents between the users that are involved in funding or managing the business (a vault or data room). To aid entrepreneurs in generating more leads and connecting to more potential investors truCrowd has a complex social engagement and sharing system that encompasses all the main social networks commonly used in the USA.
The portal and all its systems are deployed on the AWS network. The servers are deployed behind a load balancer and they can automatically scale based on the load. For fast delivery of the content we are using the AWS CloudFront system. The database used by the truCrowd system is MS SQL. The system has a fully automated deployment system, continuous integration, it is auto-scalable and fully redundant. Every component of the system is fully monitored and notifications are sent to the administrators warning them in real-time of any potential threats.
Today truCrowd is a already registered under Texas State Securities Board and it is waiting for approval from the Illinois Secretary of State to become an Illinois Crowdfunding Internet Portal, and it just submitted the final forms to FINRA to become a funding portal under Regulation Crowdfunding. It is worth mentioning that even if truCrowd started with Texas only, they are now able to scale to provide Intrastate Crowdfunding within any state they want and at the Federal level, by using the same crowdfunding engine created by HyperSense Software.
