Apple Invests USD 1 Billion in China-Based Ridesharing Company.

In a day where the legendary Warren Buffet invested in Apple there are two things we know now about Apple: First, the company is serious about cars. Second, it’s ready to start looking beyond the iPhone.

Apple and cars

While it has remained mum on just about every rumor about its ambitions to build a proprietary car, Apple made an unprecedented decision to invest $1 billion in the “Uber of China,” Didi Chuxing.

So why would Apple put a billion dollars into a non-tech, non-consumer electronics company? Autonomous vehicles.

China has moved surprisingly rapidly to get autonomous cars on the streets. The country’s government recently released a draft proposal that would allow driverless cars on the country’s highways in 2020 and on city streets by 2025. Since Apple wants to create its own driverless cars, where better to invest than the largest car market on earth, which also happens to be the most progressive market in terms of getting driverless cars on the streets?

Apple’s product slowdown

We’ve said it before. Apple invests and has finally reached a plateau in terms of innovation. Despite releasing several new products and services over the last few years — i.e. Apple Music, Beats Music, Apple Watch, Apple TV etc. — there hasn’t been anything compelling enough to turn into one of the company’s next big things. The trifecta of the iPhone, the iPad and the Mac is no longer what it once was. And the iPhone made up 65% of the company’s revenue during the latest quarter.

Considering Apple has never really invested in startups — if it sees something it likes, it just buys it to add it to its own fold — it sounds like Tim Cook is finally ready to admit that the Apple as we knew it is gone. Now it’s time for Apple to start using its cash to invest and hopefully insulate the company enough in case of an iPhone slowdown too.

Wooing China

Another potential reason for the investment is for Apple to get back on China’s good side. After all, why not just invest in Uber, which recently entered the Chinese market?

Apple has had some challenges in China recently. With smartphone sales for the company shrinking in the country, it lost an iPhone trademark dispute and has had some of its online entertainment services suspended following pressure from the Chinese government.

Of course, Apple’s not the only U.S.-based company struggling to cozy up to Chinese government officials. Dropbox, Google, Twitter and Facebook have all been banned from the country, likely due to the fact that they compete with Chinese tech companies.

Thus, one of Cook’s strategies could show that Apple is willing to get its own skin in the game in favor of China-based companies to show its dedication to the country’s own economic success. Whether that move makes a difference or not, of course, remains to be seen. As we’ve all seen before, the Chinese government is quite arbitrary in its decisions when it comes to U.S.-based tech companies.

One thing is for certain, however: Apple has entered a new frontier.

Mkt Adm

Equity crowdfunding, also known as crowd investing, is a growing and constantly evolving substitute for companies that would like to sell equity in small quantities to a larger number of investors via online platforms. It was ten years ago when equity funding was introduced in the US and is still a rather fresh crowdfunding alternative. The chief objectives of these and previous crowdfunding platforms was to aid charitable companies, NGOs and artists to finance their projects by making them known to other investors and stakeholders which is known as the (crowd), through online platforms.

Today we observe steady growth in crowdfunding, with major growth in specific industries.

Thus, there was this influx of online crowdfunding platforms which were set up in between 2000 and 2010, platforms like Kickstarter (2009) and ArtistShare (2000). Compared to the traditional contribution processes associated with crowdfunding, equity crowdfunding is still under the regulatory microscope and a number of barriers. This is mainly due to the fact that soliciting funding and investments from the general public is illegal. That is, unless there has been a prospectus filed with the concerned securities authorities.

In April 2012, US President Barack Obama made a conscious effort to smoothen the process of investing in the US by approving the JOBS Act legislation, which (a variety of different rules and regulations) permits equity crowdfunding platforms to crowdsource a year ago. And as a direct result, there have been a number of new and old platforms which have emerged strongly. Mentioned below are some of the top equity crowdfunding platforms you can use:

Crowd Cube

Crowd Cube was launched back in 2011 by a UK-based company. Crowd Cube is considered to be a strong platform and is used widely across Europe. The platform’s main developers are Luke Lang and Daren Westlake and since its advent, 30 enterprises have successfully been able to generate equity using Crowd Cube.

Grow VC

Grow VC, which stands for Grow Venture Community, is a worldwide crowdfunding online platform providing an active crowdfunding community amidst a number of entrepreneurs and investors. The main focus of the platform is to aid start-ups to create their teams and generate funds which can run up to $1 million.

Grow VC defines itself as an encompassing and expanding ecosystem nurturing entrepreneurs and allowing them to connect with other experts, new team players, funders and with new clients and partners. In the Grow VC community, clients and members are responsible for building their own profiles. However, whatever they do is tracked. Today, Grow VC has more than 50 employees with its headquarters situated in Hong Kong.

Kickstarter

Kickstarter is another equity crowdfunding platform which encourages creative projects to emerge via donations and funding. The project can be anything, for example there can be an art installation, an innovative watch or a music album. However, Kickstarter is not meant for business causes, charities, and personal financing. And over the years, the online platform has experienced tremendous growth.

Indiegogo

While Kickstarter focuses more on creative projects which have to be first approved on the website, Indiegogo encourages fundraising campaigns for almost everything, including music, personal finance, hobbyists and charities. However, it is not meant for investments and due to their heightened flexibility, they have progressed extremely well and grown considerably.

Crowdfunder

Crowdfunder is an excellent online platform for generating investments (no rewards) and is considered to have the largest number of investors of any platform. On top of that, it is a rapidly growing company. Gaining immense popularity, the company also featured on Fox News as a top-notch crowdfunding company primarily because a story pertaining to another company which exited Crowdfunder with $2 billion.

RocketHub

RocketHub operate a powerful donation-based crowdfunding platform for a number of creative and curative projects. The thing that is unique about this online crowdfunding platform is their FuelPad and LaunchPad programs which significantly aid campaign owners and marketing/ promotion partners to interconnect with each other, allowing them collaborate to form successful techniques for the promotion of the campaign.

Crowdrise

Crowdrise is another crowdfunding platform which solely operates for causes and charities. Moreover, they have managed to successful attract a number of community do-gooders to work towards inspiring needs and causes for the betterment of the world.

Somolend

Somolend is a website designed for small business lending. Based in the US, Somolend provides qualified small businesses with debt-based funding and investments cope with their operations and revenue. The equity funder has also teamed up with banks to give out loans as well being instrumental in providing help for businesses to employ their family members and friends. Having Midwest roots along with a driven and commanding founder who was also a strong participant in the JOBS Act legislation, the company had expanded into different cities and states in the US.

Appbackr

As the name suggests, this is a platform which encourages talented developers to come and get the funding they require to design and develop promising smartphone applications. They provide initial funding for developers to get their projects off the ground.

Invested.in 

In order to use the services of Invested.in, it is imperative that you create your own crowdfunding community to support the contributions based fund generating for a particular group or niche in the market. Based in Venice, California, Invested.in is a top-notch white label software tools provider to help you start and grow your own business.

So, these are some of the best equity crowdfunding platforms you can go to for fulfilling the requirements of your project or small business.

Market Place

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