TheCorporateCounsel.net

November 30, 2021

The SEC’s Capital-Raising Navigator

I often lament that one day the robots will be coming for my job (perhaps I watched a little too much Westworld), and we may just be a little bit closer with the SEC’s new exempt offering navigator. The Staff in the Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation has been doing a great job of expanding the resources available to small business seeking capital, and the navigator is one part of that effort. The capital-raising landscape for smaller companies can be daunting, with the patchwork of exempt offering alternatives making it difficult to figure out which exemption works best for a company’s needs. What the Staff has done with the navigator is to steer companies to the most relevant resources, based on answers to a series of straightforward questions.

The navigator pages are careful to note that the information provided is neither a legal interpretation nor a statement of SEC policy, and that if someone has questions, they should consult with an attorney who specializes in securities law. I think this sort of tool can be very helpful to inform entrepreneurs about their potential capital-raising paths so that they can have informed conversations with their lawyers when deciding how to raise capital. I encourage everyone to take a spin through the navigator today!

– Dave Lynn