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Technology venture-capital has seen huge growth in the equity crowdfunding arena thanks to web sites like Angel List that connect startups with accredited angel investors. The trend has only been accelerated by the adoption among many of the tech world’s best known investors, from Tim Ferris to Jason Calacanis, whom are leading investment syndicates on the service.
The junior mining world has yet to see its own crowdfunding tool as entrepreneurs in the sector continue to favour public venture capital exchanges like the TSXV and CSE to finance their companies. Following a nearly four year long downturn in the mining capital markets, where the heavy costs associated with tapping public venture capital have come under scrutiny, investors and issuers alike have been searching for an alternative financing mechanism.
Toronto-based Klondike Strike aims to be the first mining centric equity crowdfunding portal, and on January 19th the company appointed a new CEO with strong ties to the mining industry. Chad Williams is the founder and president of Red Cloud Mining Capital, and is the former CEO of Victoria Gold Corp. He was also the head of investment banking at Blackmont Capital and was a top-ranked mining analyst at TD Bank and other Canadian brokerage firms. He holds both a Bachelors of Engineering (Mining) and an MBA from McGill University.
Literally the day Mr. Williams was appointed President and CEO, he was walking the halls of the Cambridge House Vancouver Resource Investment Conference and CEO.ca was able to interview him. Here’s what he said:
Chad Williams, CEO of Klondike Strike, Cambridge House transcript:
There is nothing else like Klondike Strike, period, full stop.
When that’s the case, we don’t have a model, and we have to develop things on our own. In essence, we have to create things from scratch.
Now, that being said, there are 540 equity crowdfunding portals in the world, doing deals every minute of every day. So we can copy some of the things they do, avoid some of the things they do, but at the end of the day, nobody’s ever done it for the mining industry.
We are not reinventing the wheel we are slightly modifying it.
We have several differentiating factors out of the gate. First of all, we are mining experts. I was a mining analyst for 13 years, some of our partners were also mining analysts for decades. We have fund managers.
Quality is going to be very, very important. We are not going to be just about gold. We are going to be about multiple commodities, companies at various stages of development. Some will be early stage exploration, some will have a resource and will be looking for money to build a mine, and some will actually be in production.
We are going to do bonds as well, we may even do royalties. We are going to do all kinds of investments. At the end of the day, it’s about quality of product and people making money. There is no other mining crowdfunding portal, there is nothing like Klondike Strike, we are the first, it is new, it is different.
Why that’s important, is it’s basically creating a brand new system for investors to invest.
Once Klondike Strike is in its full bloom it will completely transform the way mining companies raise money and for that reason its a very important thing.
