Grow VC is trying to create venture capital 2.0. They launched a web application in private beta with the aim of bringing the first truly transparent, international, community-based approach to early stage funding.
If you are looking for a funding round in the range of $10,000 – $1M, or if you are looking to provide such funding, Grow VC will help you to find and connect with other parties.
Grow VC is answering the problem of traditional venture capital being locally-focused, difficult to obtain, uninterested in smaller investments and structured by a rigid model for many web and mobile startups.
“We call it ‘venture capital 2.0’ because it’s the first service with a live, continuous, interactive, open approach to funding,” said Loikkanen. “Anyone who is passionate about finding and growing the Internet’s next big thing can benefit from joining Grow VC. We are growing a quality, vetted, and respected community and sustainable business model to support the Web’s next rock stars by giving power to the people. Any startup who has become frustrated with the one-sided VC process, as well as any investor who needs one place to find new innovative companies, now have a community to call home.”
“Our aim is to make Grow VC the place to go for funding, in a shared ecosystem where members gain from other members’ success. Through this approach the funding industry can become a more level playing field. The most compelling reason for a startup to join now is the very real issue of early stage funding not being available as VCs move to bigger deals. For investors, Grow VC offers a place to diversify his or her risk globally as well as a place to unearth the web’s most exciting new companies,” concluded Jouko Ahvenainen, Grow VC’s co-founder and chairman.
The public launch of Grow VC will include more innovative investment methods that will be revealed later in 2009. During the private beta, Grow VC is also launching a certified partner program, where local or regional startup enablers (incubators, event organisers, law firms, etc.) can get involved to become the primary local access points for members of their community interested in Grow VC.
You can try it out for free, be sure to enter the “TS50″ invitation code.
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It will helpful to better fund raising. I will check it out soon.