Communiqué On Equity Crowdfunding Is Officially Published

By way of background, in January 2019, the Capital Markets Board ("CMB") had issued an announcement on its website on the Draft Communiqué on Equity Crowdfunding¹. The CMB has now officially published the Communiqué on Crowdfunding No. III-35/A ("Communiqué"), on October 3, 2019. The Communiqué entered into force as of October 3, 2019.

The Communique appears to be in line with its draft, and addresses several main topics such as, (i) crowdfunding platforms, (ii) activities of crowdfunding platforms, (iii) subscription to crowdfunding platforms and the campaign process and (iv) areas for the use of the funds and venture capital firms.

The Communique requires crowdfunding platforms to apply to CMB for listing and to comply with specific requirements. For instance, a crowdfunding platform must be established as a joint stock company with a fully paid minimum capital of TL 1,000,000 and must include "Crowdfunding Platform" in its trade name. Per the Communiqué,