Kiwi equity crowdfunding site Snowball Effect started offering investments online this past August launching with crowd favorite Renaissance Brewing followed by film project The Patriarch and CarbonScape. Each crowdfunding campaign successfully surpassed its minimum funding target closing over-funded. The three investment offers raised in aggregate just under $ 2 million NZ. Following an auspicious launch, Snowball Effect has revealed the next two investment opportunities which will go live after the first of the year.
The New Year is expected to bring the launch of two new pitches. The first being Beyond the Story, a digital publishing company that has created a series of 3D interactive and immersive Apps and ebooks. The company has recently launched a new service designated as Publisher+, creating a new Software as a Service platform for authors to create their own 3D, interactive content. The new software is a set of tools that is described as the only service that facilitates custom publishing that incorporates audio, video, images and interactivity; exactly what is demanded in digital books today.
Beyond The Story was incorporated as an LLC in New Zealand in 2005 originally doing business as Trademobile, then changing its name to its present title in 2012. Since the company was created management has set up shop in London to expand its reach and market potential. In November 2014, Beyond The Story released an adaptation of Anne Frank as an enhanced storybook app targeting a global rollout of the international classic bringing the important historic story up to date using digital media.
Co-founder and CEO Jen Porter commented on the company last year;
“The disruption of precedents from other sectors is there to excite our thinking – look
at the business models of Netflix, iPlayer, Napster and Spotify … Media and publishing companies want to provide a whole new wave of content for their fans to extend their investment in content, using non-linear digital realities. This can be in the form of companion apps, original narratives and novelisations of film and TV shows, and integrating books and film and TV show content into one new asset.”
In 2013 Beyond the Story received a “major investment” from “The&Partnership” that helped to finance completion of the Publisher + platform. Beyond The Story claims clients such as Sony Pictures, Penguin Books and more.
New Zealand drone manufacturer Aeronavics Limited is the other offer queued up for early 2015 on Snowball Effect. Aeronavics, previously names Droidworx, is said to have started as a garage project and is now a global player in a market that is estimated to be growing exponentially. Aerovonics manufactures advanced multi-rotor airframes starting with solutions for the GoPro and going up from there. The company exports its products worldwide serving an expanding market in aerial robotic systems for photography, filmmaking and other service areas.
Aerovonics has seen their products used at the Monaco Grand Prix, by Animal Planet, the BBC, Dreamworks and many more well known companies.
Snowball Effect has also indicated its platform may be open to private offerings soon as well. A growing number of investment crowdfunding platforms are offering hybrid opportunities catering to a growing universe of investor classes as demand for online investment grows. The final details on the new service will be revealed in early 2015.
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