Push for crowd-funding growing

A group of Arizona lawyers and a congressman are growing impatient with federal regulators tasked with loosening restrictions on small-business investing, the group said Monday.

Two key provisions of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or JOBS Act, enacted in April 2012, would boost Arizona’s economy significantly if allowed to take effect, Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., said during a panel discussion Monday at Arizona State University’s SkySong in Scottsdale.

One provision of the 2012 law lifts a long-standing federal ban on general advertising for private-business investment opportunities. The other would allow startups and other small businesses to seek investors through crowd-funding sites on the Internet.

Thus far, crowd-funding via websites such as Kickstarter.com and Indiegogo.com has been limited to participants simply making donations or preordering products that a venture intends to produce if its fundraising drive is successful.

The JOBS Act allows what is commonly referred to as equity crowd-funding, in which the participants become equity shareholders in the venture.

Despite the law’s passage nearly a year ago, the provisions have not yet taken effect because the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission first must issue specific rules for their implementation.

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