- Leading equity crowdfunding platform Republic recently announced it acquired SheWorx, an event series empowering 20,000+ female entrepreneurs
Republic — a leading equity crowdfunding platform — recently announced it acquired SheWorx, a global platform and event series empowering 20,000+ female entrepreneurs to build and scale successful companies.
The unprecedented partnership is going to allow female entrepreneurs to not only access SheWorx’s internationally recognized events but also receive all of the platform benefits that Republic offers including access to equity crowdfunding and their VC arm Republic Labs.
Even though women receive less than 2.2% of VC funding, women actually outperform men by 30% in crowdfunding largely due to its community-oriented nature and the ability for non-accredited investors to invest as little as $10. Republic is known for funding underrepresented founders with 40% of all investments on the platform has gone towards female-founded startups.
So far, Republic’s crowdfunding investor base has funneled over $17 million into more than 100 startups while their institutional/accredited investor base has deployed over $150 million since 2018.
And SheWorx has organized over 300 events over the last four years. And it successfully helped women in the community raise over $50 million in cumulative funding.
With the SheWorx partnership, Republic is creating a more robust system by increasing the accessibility of equity crowdfunding to an already existing female entrepreneurial community. Going forward, SheWorx events will continue in NYC and San Francisco.
“We are very excited to bring the SheWorx community of 20K+ female entrepreneurs into the Republic family and begin giving women a more democratic way to access capital,” said Republic founder and CEO Kendrick Nguyen.
SheWorx founder Lisa Wang will remain an advisor at Republic, but she is also going to be launching a new venture this fall.
“This acquisition is a powerful way to usher in the future of funding and a new wave of inclusive and socially minded leadership. You can’t create change by following old ways of doing things and success should not center around a small group of homogenous venture capitalists,” added Wang.
As part of the partnership kickoff, Republic is also announcing the SheWorx Equity Crowdfunding Challenge to provide three selected female founders with comprehensive hands-on training and resources to launch their full investment campaign. The applications will be accepted now and will continue through August 15, 2019.
“We’re excited to carry on the SheWorx legacy and create a truly global movement that will enable female entrepreneurs to access funding regardless of their geography,” explained Republic’s Head of Partnerships Bianca Caban — who will become Managing Director of SheWorx. “We’re excited to carry on the SheWorx legacy and create a truly global movement that will enable female entrepreneurs to access funding regardless of their geography.”
Republic runs a family of businesses including an investment platform that provides retail investors around the world with compliant access to curated startups and blockchain projects. And Republic operates under U.S. equity crowdfunding regulations, and is under the supervision of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Recently, Republic expanded beyond crowd investing with the introduction of Radar — which is a platform that connects founders with noted venture firms. And there is a Republic syndicate on AngelList and a tokenization advisory service each set up as an independent business operation.
