Popsmith, the Los Angeles popcorn company behind a stovetop popcorn popper, has passed $1 million in its equity crowdfunding campaign on StartEngine. The round closes November 16, 2026, and is expected to be its last. The boost followed an X ad in which founder and chief executive officer Tal Moore recreated Elizabeth Holmes' famous Theranos portrait. Moore holds a single piece of popcorn instead of a vial of blood, with the caption: "I started a popcorn company. Things got a little out of hand." The ad drew hundreds of thousands of impressions. "We wanted to do something unexpected that would make people stop scrolling," Moore said. Popsmith has made more than $20 million in lifetime sales and served over 100,000 customers.

Crowdfunding weekly digest: October 26-november 1, 2026. Co-founder of CrowdSpace Top articles. The SEC's chairman signaled a review of Regulation Crowdfunding, and the industry answered within days with specific asks on the offering cap, investor limits, and disclosure. StartEngine's quarter showed why the review matters: its Reg CF revenue fell on lower issuer activity. A €61 million freeze tied to Mintos and a Danish loan study kept attention on how well investors can see risk. Lead story. Chairman Paul Atkins said the SEC plans to review Regulation Crowdfunding to reduce compliance burdens and attract more issuers and investors, as the agency's advisory committee met on October 27. He named reporting, filer status, and communications rules as areas under consideration, and noted that more than 9,800 crowdfunding offerings have been conducted since the rule was adopted in 2015. Why it matters: the review is at an early stage, and the list Atkins gave targets compliance cost, not the $5 million offering cap the industry has asked to lift to $20 million. Before any draft exists, comment letters are the main way to shape which of those changes make it in. For platforms, the review also speaks to a business problem: fewer issuers launching means less volume to earn on, and lighter rules are one of the few levers that could change that. Success stories. The Wildlife Trusts raised about £30 million through crowdfunding to buy the Rothbury Estate - the 3,800-hectare Northumberland estate will become a wildlife sanctuary and biodiversity corridor after a two-year campaign backed by David Attenborough, with further support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the UK environment department. Sword World RPG's English localization topped $2 million on BackerKit in its first day - Mugen Gaming's campaign funds the localization, design, and printing of the 2.5 Core Rules; it ends November 20, with products expected to ship by December 2027. Arrowmax's Arrowspace S1 AI screwdriver raised more than $164,000 on Kickstarter - against an original target of just under $11,500; shipping is expected to begin in April 2027. Campaign news. * Venduni is raising on Wefunder with a $50,000 minimum and a $1.235 million maximum; the round opened on June 11, 2025, closes on February 26, 2027, and has drawn $67,900 in commitments, according to KingsCrowd. * TECROWD closed a ¥1.3 billion property fund focused on Mongolia, with a target yield of 16.5%. * New Court Inn (UK) in Usk raised more than £20,000 in the first week of a campaign backing Noddfa Bars Ltd's lease-to-buy takeover of the pub; a £30,000 stretch target remains open, alongside traditional investment and a flat sale. Stay tuned! Platform updates & tech. * StartEngine posted third-quarter revenue of $38.64 million, up 71% year over year - it recorded a net loss of $3.14 million; growth in StartEngine Private and the addition of Vinovest offset declines in several core services, while Regulation Crowdfunding, Regulation A, and Premium revenue fell amid lower issuer activity. * IPX plans milestone-based escrow for crowdfunding and sponsorship payouts - funds would sit in USDC smart contracts and be released only after verified KPIs, with Chainlink planned for verification; the feature is slated for the platform's launch on November 15, 2026. * HealthCommons (USA) launched a crowdfunding platform for public health causes - nonprofits, clinics, schools, researchers, and community groups can raise money for food security, mental health, clean water, and housing, and campaigns are manually reviewed, usually within 24 hours. Trends & market data. * Morocco-linked crowdfunding campaigns raised 7.62 million dirhams in 2025 - the barometer, produced by HAPPY SMALA with IDinsight, counts 12,161 contributors, with Moroccan platforms raising 3.15 million dirhams, and includes first-time data from Kiwi Collecte and Akkan Crowdfunding plus the first crowdlending transaction under law 15.18. * A study of more than 2,400 loans on Danish platform MyC4 found financial data improves risk assessment - researchers at King's College London and Copenhagen Business School found that access to borrower financials helped lenders spot risky loans, while social-purpose projects reduced the crowd's ability to tell good loans from bad. * A €61 million payment freeze tied to Nera Capital is pushing businesses to rethink P2P notes as cash reserves - Mintos investors had more than €61 million exposed, with payments delayed since late March 2026 and a principal payment missed on May 20; Nera and another lender were suspended, and recovery exposure reached about 29% of the platform's portfolio. Key takeaway: last week's data was about visibility into risk: Morocco published its first platform-level figures, a Danish study showed that financial data sharpens lender judgment, and the Mintos freeze showed what concentrated exposure costs when it goes wrong. * Morocco is building its baseline. Moroccan platforms captured 3.15 million of the 7.62 million dirhams, about 41%, and the first crowdlending deal under law 15.18 shows the legal framework is starting to produce transactions. * Data helps, unless the story gets in the way. Financial information improved risk assessment, but social-purpose framing blunted it, so how a platform presents a project shapes how well its crowd judges the risk. * Concentrated exposure turns delays into freezes. With about 29% of the portfolio in recovery exposure, trouble at two lenders touches a large share of what investors hold, and the missed principal payment on May 20 followed months of delays. For platforms, publishing risk and concentration figures upfront costs far less than explaining a freeze afterward. Regulation. * CfPA presented four proposals to modernize Regulation Crowdfunding at the SEC advisory committee meeting, including a higher offering cap, simpler investor limits, and clearer disclosure rules. * Devin Thorpe of The Super Crowd backed raising the Reg CF cap from $5 million to $20 million - his comment letter also urges simpler financial statements for offerings up to $500,000. * Wefunder asked the SEC for three changes to Regulation Crowdfunding, adding the September leader by Reg CF committed dollars to the filings. Key takeaway: last week's filings moved the Reg CF debate from whether to change the rules to which changes come first. * The cap is the common ask. CfPA and Thorpe both point to a higher offering limit, and the $20 million figure is the reference point. * Disclosure pulls two ways. CfPA wants clearer disclosure rules while Thorpe wants simpler financial statements for raises up to $500,000, so "clearer" and "lighter" will have to be reconciled. * Platforms are weighing in. Wefunder's request puts a platform with the most to gain or lose from any change on record before the SEC has drafted anything. For platforms, comment letters are the only lever before a proposal exists, and the filings so far agree more on direction than on detail. What this means for the industry. Last week's common thread is that the rules and the business are being rebuilt at the same time. The SEC said it wants to reduce compliance burdens and attract more issuers and investors, and StartEngine's quarter shows why: its Reg CF, Reg A, and Premium revenue fell on lower issuer activity, while growth came from private-market and acquired lines. The Nera Capital freeze and the MyC4 study point to the other condition for growth, which is that investors can see and price risk. For platform operators: the review is a chance to shape the rules before they are drafted, and StartEngine's revenue mix shows the second lever, which is earning from more than issuer volume alone. For investors: proposals to simplify financial statements for small raises could leave you with less to go on, and the MyC4 study found that financial information is what lets lenders tell good loans from bad. Look for the data an issuer or borrower shares, and for how concentrated a platform's exposure is before a delay turns into a freeze. Track the industry beyond the weekly digest Would you recommend this post?