Sydney, Australia—Gadens Sydney (now Dentons) advised property developer Clearstate on its successful capital raising through VentureCrowd in Australia’s first online platform-based equity raise for a residential subdivision project.

Clearstate is the developer of a $13.4m property project in Riverstone East in Western Sydney and was looking for an innovative source of capital for the development.

VentureCrowd has raised almost $15m since 2014 through its online platform for various technology start-ups and the Clearstate capital raising was its first in the property development space.

“We believe this is the first online platform-based equity raise for a residential subdivision in Australia,” said Rob Nankivell, CEO of VentureCrowd. “Crowdfunding has raised an estimated $US2.5 billion for real estate globally and is only expected to grow substantially in the future".

Gadens Sydney (now Dentons) partner, Paul Brown, said: “Our property development clients are looking for alternative sources of capital. Crowd funding and online platforms are likely to be part of the capital funding mix in the future. We were excited to work with Clearstate and VentureCrowd on this ground-breaking project".

Clearstate Financial Controller, Tim Wrate said: “We use Gadens on our property development projects and their understanding of our business and the property development industry as well as their equity capital markets expertise provided valuable support to us throughout the equity raise".

The firm's legal team was led by corporate partner Paul Brown and solicitor Jane Kuo.

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