Equity crowdfunding lets a large number of ordinary investors buy shares in your company through a regulated online platform. It is the only funding route where the public can legally back a private startup, and that is exactly why it is the most heavily regulated one. This guide covers what each route allows, what it demands of you, and where it fits next to the grants, debt and angel capital in your stack.

The short version

  • Equity crowdfunding is not one thing. In the US alone there are four distinct exemptions, and picking the wrong one costs you months.
  • The cap that matters in the US is $5M per 12 months under Regulation Crowdfunding. In the UK it is £5M, above which you need an authorised Public Offer Platform.
  • A public campaign and a private angel round are not alternatives. The strongest raises run both, and the private one comes first.
  • Campaigns are won in the pre-launch weeks, not on the platform. The single best predictor of success is how much capital is committed before the page goes live.

The three kinds of crowdfunding, and why founders confuse them

The word covers three unrelated things. Getting the vocabulary right saves you from researching the wrong regime for a fortnight.

Rewards crowdfunding

Kickstarter and Indiegogo. You pre-sell a product. No securities are issued, so no securities regulator is involved anywhere in the world. Zero dilution and a genuinely useful demand signal, but it funds a product, not a company. Fees and fulfilment typically consume 25% to 40% of the headline figure, and the money arrives with delivery obligations attached.

Equity crowdfunding

You issue real shares, or a convertible instrument such as a Crowd SAFE, to many investors at once through a licensed platform. This is what WeFunder, Republic, StartEngine, Crowdcube and Republic Europe do. It is the subject of most of this guide.

Debt crowdfunding

Many lenders fund one loan. No dilution, but you repay on a schedule regardless of how the business performs. If that is what you actually want, the cleaner instruments are covered in our debt financing guide: venture debt and revenue-based financing are usually faster and cheaper than a crowd loan.

What a campaign actually looks like from the inside

Founders picture a launch day. What actually happens is a long private phase followed by a short public one, and the private phase is where the outcome is decided.

1
4 to 12 weeks

Preparation

Company structure, cap table clean-up, and the paperwork the regime demands: a Form C in the US, platform due diligence and financial promotion approval in the UK. If your route needs reviewed or audited accounts, this is the phase that slips. Your deck and financial model are built here, and they are the same assets an angel round needs.

2
4 to 8 weeks

The private phase

You approach angels directly and collect soft commitments, or hard ones where the regime allows. Nothing is public yet. This is the phase that decides whether the campaign works, and it is the phase no platform runs for you.

3
2 to 4 weeks

Pre-launch and reservations

The platform opens a private or reservation page to your own audience and the committed investors from phase two. Platforms watch this number closely: it determines how much visibility you get on launch.

4
30 to 90 days

Public campaign

The page goes live. Campaigns that open with a meaningful share of the target already committed keep climbing. Campaigns that open at zero mostly stay near zero, because the crowd is looking for a signal that somebody with judgement already said yes.

5

Close and aftermath

Funds settle, shares or SAFEs are issued, and your reporting obligations begin. You also now have a list of engaged people who did not invest, which is the raw material for the follow-on round covered further down this page.

The pattern worth internalising: phases one and two take longer than the public campaign itself, and they are entirely your responsibility. The platform's job starts at phase three.
The Routes

Which Equity Crowdfunding Route Applies to You

Where your company is incorporated decides your options before anything else does. Reg CF is closed to non-US companies. UK platforms need a UK entity. Start here, then use the route chooser to narrow it down.

Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF)

Up to $5M per 12 months from accredited and non-accredited investors alike. US companies only, one registered portal per offering, Form C filed before launch.

The default US route below $5M

Regulation A+

The mini IPO. Tier 1 up to $20M, Tier 2 up to $75M. SEC qualification, audited accounts and ongoing reporting, so the cost only makes sense at scale.

When Reg CF has capped you out

Reg D 506(c)

Market a raise publicly, but sell only to verified accredited investors. No cap and no SEC pre-clearance. The natural side round to run next to a public campaign.

The most overlooked US route

Reg D 506(b)

The classic private round: unlimited accredited investors, up to 35 sophisticated non-accredited, self-certification allowed. No public marketing of any kind.

Where anchor commitments come from

UK equity crowdfunding

Crowdcube and Republic Europe, under FCA rules. Since 19 January 2026, offers of £5M or more must run on an authorised Public Offer Platform rather than a prospectus.

Pairs with SEIS and EIS relief

Rewards crowdfunding

Pre-sell the product instead of the company. No securities regulator, no dilution, and a funded campaign is hard proof of demand for the angels you approach next.

Validation that pays for itself

Already know which platform you want? Compare WeFunder, Republic, StartEngine, Crowdcube, Republic Europe, FrontFundr and Netcapital side by side

Interactive Tool

Find Your Crowdfunding Route in 30 Seconds

Where you are incorporated, how much you are raising, and who you already have lined up. Those three answers narrow nine routes down to the two or three that actually apply.

Equity crowdfunding route chooser

Choose your country, raise size and current position to see which routes are open to you

Not sure crowdfunding is the right instrument at all? Compare it against grants, debt financing, and a straight angel round

The Thing That Decides It

The Crowd Does Not Start the Fire

Every founder who has run a campaign says a version of the same sentence: the money that arrived in week one decided everything that followed. Nobody wants to be the first name on an empty page.

Platforms rank and feature campaigns that are already moving. Investors read a full progress bar as due diligence someone else has already done. Both effects compound, and both are set by the capital you bring with you.

What actually happens

A campaign is a distribution channel, not a source of conviction

  • Platforms surface campaigns with early traction, so the first days set your visibility for the rest of the raise
  • A named angel or a recognisable fund on the page is worth more than any amount of copywriting
  • Press will cover a raise that is working. It will not cover a raise that has just opened
  • None of that momentum is something the platform creates for you. You arrive with it, or you do not
Where that capital comes from

Angels you approached privately, weeks before launch

  • Search 120,000+ angels, VCs and family offices by sector, stage, geography and cheque size
  • Filter for the investors who actually back public raises, rather than emailing everyone
  • Run the sequences from your own inbox, so replies land with you and your sender reputation stays yours
  • Track every conversation in one pipeline through to the commitment that opens your campaign
Search Investors Free chevron-right
TargetAngels who back public raises
CommitPrivate conversations, weeks early
LaunchOpen with the bar already moving
CloseThe crowd follows a visible lead

The mechanics of that private phase are a discipline of their own. Read the full guide to finding and closing angel investors

The Round on the Side

The most common mistake in equity crowdfunding is treating the campaign as the whole raise. It rarely is. A campaign is very good at reaching many small cheques and building a public story, and quite bad at producing the single large cheque that sets your terms. The founders who do best run a private round in parallel, and the two feed each other.

Why the parallel round exists

  • The crowd rarely sets a valuation. A lead investor does, and the crowd then follows those terms.
  • Regimes are built for this. Reg D 506(c) in the US lets you market an accredited round publicly, on the same terms as your campaign.
  • In the UK, an SEIS or EIS angel round is often faster and cheaper than the campaign, and can run alongside it.
  • Campaign assets are angel-round assets. The deck, the model and the video are the same artefacts. Build once, use twice.

The same work, feeding two raises

Everything a campaign demands of you is something an angel expects anyway. Founders who understand that stop running two projects and start running one, with two outputs.

The deck and the story

The narrative that converts a stranger on a campaign page is the narrative that gets a reply to a cold email. Build it once, using the 12-slide template, and send it both ways.

The financial model

Platforms and regulators want numbers that hold up. So do angels, and so does any venture debt lender you approach afterwards. Our financial model template covers what each of them looks for.

The campaign video and traction

The video you produce for the platform is the best investor update asset you will ever have, and a genuinely effective warm-intro hook. Most founders shoot it, use it once, and forget it.

One pipeline, not two spreadsheets

Crowd backers, private angels and warm intros all belong in the same fundraising CRM. When the campaign closes, nothing has to be reconstructed from memory, and no warm investor has gone cold because you were busy launching.

The follow-on nobody plans for

A campaign that raises £400,000 from 600 people also produces something less obvious: a few hundred people who looked seriously, engaged, and did not invest. Some were too late. Some wanted more information. Some write much larger cheques than the campaign minimum and simply never got a direct conversation.

That list is the single warmest source of follow-on capital you will have, and it evaporates within weeks of the campaign closing if nobody works it. Founders running outreach sequences against near misses and engaged backers, from a pipeline that was already tracking them, convert a meaningful slice into a follow-on round at better terms than the campaign itself offered.

Plan the follow-on before you launch. Decide up front how you will capture and contact people who engage but do not convert. After the campaign closes, that window is measured in weeks.

Run the campaign and the private round from one place

Search 120,000+ angels, VCs and family offices, sequence them from your own inbox, and track the crowd and the private pipeline together. Free to start, no credit card.

Sign Up Free chevron-rightOr have our team run it for you

What It Actually Costs

Platform fee percentages are quoted everywhere and are the smallest part of the picture. The costs that catch founders out are the ones payable before a single pound or dollar is raised, and the marketing spend needed to drive traffic that the platform does not supply.

Cost
US Reg CF
UK equity crowdfunding
Platform success feeOnly on a successful raiseTypically 5% to 8%Typically 5% to 7% plus completion fees
AccountancyPayable up front, win or loseCPA review or audit, scaling with raise sizeFiled accounts, plus forecast preparation
LegalPayable up front, win or loseForm C preparation and securities counselArticles, shareholder agreement, SEIS and EIS advance assurance
Campaign marketingThe line founders forgetVideo, ads, PR and community workVideo, ads, PR and community work
Founder timeThe largest real cost3 to 6 months, largely full time at the peak3 to 5 months, largely full time at the peak
Ongoing obligationsAfter the money landsAnnual Form C-AR filingShareholder communications, Companies House filings

Exact figures move with your raise size, jurisdiction and platform, so treat the ranges above as shape rather than a quote, and get written quotes from your accountant and the platform before you commit. The point of the table is the pattern: a meaningful share of the cost is payable whether or not the campaign succeeds. That is the calculation to run before you start, and it is the reason many founders end up raising the first tranche privately and using the campaign for the second.

Compare against the alternative honestly. A private angel round has legal costs too, but no platform fee, no audit trigger and no public failure. If your raise is under a few hundred thousand and you have no existing audience, running the numbers usually favours a direct angel round, or grants and debt if you would rather not dilute at all. See the grants guide and the debt financing guide.

Six Mistakes That Kill Campaigns

Failed campaigns fail for a small number of repeated reasons. None of them are about the product.

1

Launching to nobody

The most common and the most fatal. A campaign opened at zero, with no committed investors and no audience, is asking strangers to go first. Almost nobody does. Everything in the momentum section above exists to prevent this one.

2

Discovering the accounting requirement in month two

In the US, a raise above the officer-certification threshold needs an independent CPA review or a full audit. That work takes weeks and must be finished before the Form C is filed. Founders routinely plan a launch date, then lose a month to it.

3

Breaking the solicitation rules by accident

Tweeting your terms, or emailing a list you bought, can compromise the exemption you are relying on. US Reg CF limits advertising to a short notice pointing at the portal, and Reg D 506(b) prohibits general solicitation entirely. In the UK, an unapproved financial promotion is a criminal offence. Check what you may say before you say it.

4

Wrecking the cap table

Hundreds of investors sitting directly on your register makes every future round slower and some institutional rounds impossible. Nominee structures exist to solve this. Decide before you launch, not when your Series A lead asks.

5

Treating the campaign as the whole raise

Campaigns are good at many small cheques and bad at the single large one that sets terms. Run the private round alongside, or accept that you may hit your minimum and still not have a round.

6

Letting the list go cold

The people who engaged and did not invest are the warmest follow-on capital you will ever have. Most founders never contact them. Plan that outreach before the campaign closes, and keep it in the same pipeline as everything else.

The Full Capital Stack

Crowdfunding Is One Layer, Not the Whole Stack

A campaign raises public money on the back of private conviction. The founders who fund best combine all four layers: non-dilutive grants, debt for runway, angel equity for conviction, and a campaign for reach.

Angels Partners is the only platform where a founder can work every capital pathway in one place: grants, debt, and 120,000+ equity investors.

Equity funding

120,000+ Equity Investors

The angels who anchor your campaign, and the leads who set your terms. Filter by sector, geography, stage and cheque size, with direct contact details. Free to search, no credit card.

  • Angels, micro-VCs, family offices and institutional funds
  • Sequence them from your own inbox, not a shared domain
  • One pipeline for the crowd and the private round
Find Equity Investors, Free Search chevron-right
Non-dilutive funding

Grants and Debt Financing

A campaign dilutes. Government grants, R&D tax credits, venture debt and revenue-based financing do not. Many founders cover the product milestone non-dilutively, then raise equity from a position of strength.

  • Innovate UK, SBIR, EIC and R&D tax credits
  • Venture debt and revenue-based financing for runway
  • UK founders: SEIS and EIS make your angel round cheaper
Explore Grants chevron-right Explore Debt Financing chevron-right
GrantsNon-dilutive
DebtRunway, no dilution
AngelsConviction and terms
The CrowdReach and momentum

Frequently Asked Questions FAQS

Can't find what you're looking for? Our team is available on live chat to answer any questions.

What is equity crowdfunding?

Equity crowdfunding is a regulated securities offering in which many investors, including ordinary members of the public, buy shares or a convertible instrument in a private company through a licensed online platform. It differs from rewards crowdfunding, where backers receive a product rather than a stake, and from debt crowdfunding, where they lend rather than invest. In the US it runs under SEC exemptions such as Regulation Crowdfunding; in the UK it runs on FCA-authorised platforms.

In the US, Regulation Crowdfunding allows up to $5 million in any 12 month period. Above that, Regulation A+ allows up to $20 million under Tier 1 and $75 million under Tier 2, and Reg D 506(c) has no cap but is restricted to verified accredited investors. In the UK there is no fixed crowdfunding cap, but since 19 January 2026 an offer of £5 million or more to a broad investor base must be made through an FCA-authorised Public Offer Platform.

No. Regulation Crowdfunding is only available to companies organised under the laws of a US state or territory with a principal place of business in the US. Non-US companies sometimes address this by incorporating a US holding company, but that is a significant structural decision with tax consequences and should not be done purely to access a funding platform. UK and EU founders have their own routes: see the UK guide.

It can, and this is the objection later investors raise most often. The fix is structural: most platforms offer a nominee arrangement in which one entity holds the shares on behalf of all crowd investors, so your register shows a single line rather than several hundred names. Decide this before you launch. A campaign that puts hundreds of individual holders directly on the register makes future rounds slower, and some institutional investors will decline outright.

They do different jobs, and the question is usually the wrong one. A campaign is good at reaching many small cheques, building a public story and turning customers into shareholders. Angels are good at writing the large cheque that sets your valuation, and at the introductions and credibility that follow. Most successful campaigns are anchored by angel money committed privately before launch, so in practice you want both. See running the round on the side.

How long does an equity crowdfunding campaign take?

Plan for three to six months end to end. The public campaign itself usually runs 30 to 90 days, but preparation takes four to twelve weeks before that, and the private phase where you gather commitments takes another four to eight. Accounting work is the most common cause of delay: if your raise size triggers an independent review or audit, that must be complete before you file.

Committed capital on day one, more than any other factor. Platforms give visibility to campaigns that are already moving, and investors treat a filling progress bar as evidence that someone with judgement has already looked. That opening money almost always comes from angels approached privately in the weeks beforehand. A campaign that opens at zero is asking strangers to go first, and most of them will not.

Yes, and it is the strongest way to run a raise, but the sequencing matters legally. In the US, Reg D 506(b) prohibits general solicitation, so a publicly marketed campaign running at the same time raises an integration question under Rule 152. Reg D 506(c) permits public marketing provided every purchaser is a verified accredited investor, which makes it the cleaner parallel route. Get the sequencing reviewed by counsel before you start marketing.

They are the warmest follow-on capital you will have, and most founders never contact them. A campaign that raises from several hundred people typically leaves several hundred more who looked closely and did not convert, some of whom write far larger cheques than the campaign minimum. Plan how you will capture and contact them before you launch, and keep them in the same pipeline as your private investors: that window closes within weeks of the campaign ending.

No. We are not a funding portal, a broker-dealer or an FCA-authorised firm, we do not host offerings, and we take no success fee on your raise. We do the part the platforms do not: finding and reaching the angels, VCs and family offices who anchor your campaign before launch, and tracking the private round alongside it in one CRM. You run the raise; we supply the database, the outreach and the pipeline.

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