By James de Rin - Crowd Source Capital © – February10th 2014
Meet Matthew McGrath the dynamic CEO of Canadian based Optimize Capital Markets, a new equity crowd funding platform for projects, looking for a capital requirement from $3 - $5 million. With a drill down background in high net worth
& private wealth management from his years at Bank of Canada his vision is
to build over the next 3 years, the leading “equity crowd funding platform” on
Canadian soil.
With the
help of due diligence, and proven business models his pre-selected projects for
funding are not pipedreams, pre-orders or legal begging. For your minimum investment of $25,000 and in
this particular instance aimed mainly at institutional investors you will receive stock in the company for a minimum investment of $250,000.
While
Kickstarter and Indiegogo have conquered the rewards space of crowd funding,
the equity crowd funding space is still up for grabs! There is a global race on
to conquer “the financial disruption” of raising money for companies, through
crowd funding in return for stock. Crowdcube has done well in the UK using a
membership loop-hole for equity ownership through a crowd fund.
But in the
US and Canada, crowd funding markets dwarf the UK. There they have paved the
way for the culture of crowd funding which is success centric for your idea or
project!
One such project
that went live on December 11th 2013 on OCM’s platform was Prairie
Paper Ventures, Inc. It comes with good credentials, a Hollywood star, who has
put his money where his mouth is. One, Woody Harrelson who is currently on HBO
in True Detective and recently on our cinema screens in Hunger Games: Catching
fire and in edgy films like Rampart. What you might not know about him is that
he is an advocate for the environment. Not only is he a vegan but he is
passionate about recycling and saving the planet. So much so that he started a
company to do just that. After 15 years in business and now in profit, PPV Inc is
looking for expansion capital.
OCM’s
platform is looking to raise $5,000,000 for a 20% equity stake which values the
company at $25,000,000.
Is it profitable and
how did OCM get involved?
Well with a
presentation by Woody Harrelson, Jeff Golfman (see picture) a leading eco titan and Clayton
Manness, a former provincial Minister of Finance for Canada to lend credibility
and after careful due diligence by Matthew McGrath’s team they agreed that with
PPV Inc’s track record, expansion capital was a good investment for the platform. It’s only early days, but the response is
positive. With contracts in place with companies like Staples and Unisource and
a product made from waste straw into paper they are on track to raise
their required capital.
It’s ironic! On December 11th 2013, the LA Times had an Op Ed by Nicholas A. Basbanes on the paperless society how we were supposed to not use paper anymore...Yet as the LA Times said there are 20,000 identifiable uses of paper and International Paper has just increased their sales by $1.8 Billion to $27.8 Billion for 2012. The average American uses more than 748 pounds of paper a year.
What does Prairie Paper Ventures Inc do?
A private company based in Winnipeg and in business for 15 years. It makes paper from wheat straw 80% and 20% from recycled wood fiber. The paper's brand name is Step Forward Paper. It is produced in India because there is no eco mill in North America and Europe available. So PPV outsources production and acts as a distribution company for now. The business plan is to build a 100% tree free mill on the Prairies which will be eco friendly, without chlorine and eco friendly taking advantage of farm waste's millions of tonnes of wheat straw.
So with a timely launch and a disruptive business model Matthew McGrath aims to raise $5,000,000 from a minimum of 20 high net individuals. It’s an exciting time for raising finance through the crowd.
