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SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/16/13 -- MicroVentures, the only combined equity crowdfunding platform and broker-dealer in the US, announced today that accredited investors on their platform have invested $16M in startups. With investments in 34 companies, MicroVentures has now invested more with legal, accredited investors than any other equity based crowdfunding platform. MicroVentures employs a crowd-sourcing process that enables the power of the crowd to decide which startups will receive investments in an effort to provide a higher probability of successful outcomes. Further, MicroVentures has a dedicated due diligence team that screens out companies that may have potential growth inhibiting challenges.

"As we patiently wait for the SEC to enact rules around the JOBS Act, we are utilizing traditional securities laws to connect startups with great investors. This is only possible as a result of our being one of the only registered broker dealer in the space. This is the first time ever that accredited investors have had the ability to invest alongside VC's without taking major stakes and ending up with similarly diversified portfolios. However, we may find that the crowd does an even better job at picking winners," said Tim Sullivan, CEO of MicroVentures. "We've reached a milestone that proves that our platform doesn't just 'work' -- but that there is significant demand from smaller investors to take part in this asset class."

MicroVentures' platform invests primarily in seed stage startups, but will participate in follow on rounds alongside the VCs throughout the life of a company. For example, visual book publishing platform Graphicly (www.graphicly.com) and rich media advertisement platform Republic Project (www.republicproject.com) have both received multiple investments from MicroVentures as they have continued to gain traction and required additional capital to accelerate their growth. Other investments include SupplyHog (www.supplyhog.com), a Tennessee-based company that operates a platform that streamlines the process for buying building supplies and material online, along with Kickfolio (www.kickfolio.com), the first foreign management team, who have created a platform that enables developers to run iOS app demos in a standard web browser.

"Our platform has created the opportunity for our investors to invest in everything from seed stage startups to huge companies such as Twitter and Facebook through secondary transactions. We're giving investors the chance to participate and the transparency to make decisions in a way they have traditionally never been able to," said Sullivan.

About MicroVentures

Based in San Francisco, CA and Austin, TX, MicroVentures is a wholly-owned broker-dealer whose capital model allows accredited investors to fund start ups, which are typically inaccessible outside the traditional venture capital ecosystem. Using its online investment platform, MicroVentures enables accredited investors to aggregate smaller commitments, allowing them to create diversified portfolios comprised of crowd-sourced startups.