AngelList Raises $24 Million as Ban on General Solicitation Lifts The online platform where investors and startups connect has reportedly raised $24 million in an investment round.
By Catherine Clifford •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
AngelList, a popular online platform where investors and startups connect, has reportedly raised $24 million at a valuation of approximately $150 million.
The funding, initially reported by Fortune.com's Dan Primack, came from more than a hundred investors, an intentional move by AngelList to prevent any one investor from having too much say in its business operations and development. Reputable firms Atlas Venture and Google Ventures led the round and other well-known names in Silicon Valley, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Marc Andreessen and Max Levchin, were also part of the round, Primack reports.
Related: How to See Your Startup Through the Eyes of Investors
San Francisco-based AngelList did not immediately respond to Entrepreneur.com's request for comment.
The news comes as the Securities and Exchange Commission's ban on general solicitation officially lifts. Before today, it was illegal for any startup to publicly advertise that it was seeking to raise money. With the lift on the 80-year-old ban, it's legal for an entrepreneur to shout it from the rooftop, Tweet about it, email about it or post on Facebook.
The law change is being embraced cautiously by the startup community, as there is considerable apprehension about how the change will be regulated. If Form D regulatory papers need to be filed too frequently, some say the benefits of lifting the ban will be minimized.
Last month, the CEO of AngelList, Naval Ravikant, wrote a strongly-worded letter to the SEC voicing these concerns, in particular. "We are concerned that the newly proposed Form D filing rules could create disastrous unintended consequences for the startup community," Ravikant wrote. "The proposed rules appear to be tailored to how Wall Street raises funds, not the startup community."
Related: What You Need to Know About the New Equity-Crowdfunding Model
