Reg CF: Investor Count Drops But Commitments Jump By 9% In August
The Reg CF securities exemption has had a choppy 2026 so far. The smallest exemption for issuers raising funds online, the numbers are off versus their peak but activity continues to generate funds for smaller, private firms in need of growth capital.
Crowdfund Capital Advisors (CCA) has shared their August numbers which indicate that the number of investors have dropped by half but for those backing issuers the commitments have increased by 9% during the month.
According to CCA’s data, Reg CF issuers raised $27.4 million in August 2026, up 9.4% from $25.1 million in July and down 20.9% against the $34.7 million committed in August 2025.
During the month there were 303 offerings compared to 316 in the month of July, a decrease of 4.1%. On average, issuers raised $90,536 per offering an increase of 14.1% compared to July. It is important to note that issuers typically run a sale of securities form multiple months.
Issuers filing new Form C were down by 19.7% to 57 compared to July when 71 issuers filed to raise funds under the exemption.
Of the 74 offerings that concluded during the month, 49 raised at least their minimum, a 66.2% hit rate against 59.0% in July.
These deals raised $19.7 million across their full offering periods. Five of them cleared $1 million, against two in July, and the average funded raise was $403,000 against $262,000.
The $27.4 million raised during August came from 8,835 investor commitments, down 40.5% from 14,852 in July and down 49.8% from 17,594 in August 2025.
The average check rose to $3,105, up 83.9% month over month and up 57.5% from roughly $1,972 a year ago. Dollars fell about a fifth year over year while the number of investors fell by half.
Firms that have raised funds from VCs or angel investors were 35.1% of August’s new filings.
Median pre-money valuation for new offerings hit $16.5 million, up 50.0% from July and up 22.2% year over year, while median revenue among new issuers fell to about $7,000 from roughly $77,000 in July.
Pre-revenue issuers went from a median $11.0 million to $21.8 million valuation and companies under three years old from $9.0 million to $12.1 million, and post-revenue issuers from $13.0 million to $15.8 million, while established issuers held near $27.8 million.
The top platforms in regard to Reg CF activity included Wefunder 53.7% of August’s committed dollars, followed by StartEngine at 16.7% and Dealmaker at 16.5%, with Climatize Earth at 4.0% and Gigastar Market at 3.8%.
Fourteen platforms filed new offerings during the month, down from 15 in July.
Debt offerings were 21.1% of August’s new filings, down from 40.8% in July, with a median stated rate of 11.63% against 11.0%.
Sherwood Neiss, Principle at CCA said:
“August is a participation story, not a capital story. Dollars were down about a fifth from a year ago, but the number of investors was down by half, and that gap is the thing worth watching. The crowd is thinning while the checks get bigger, which is the opposite of what this market was built to do. The deals that reached a conclusion actually performed better than July, with two thirds of them hitting their minimum against 59% a month earlier, so fewer offerings are getting done and a higher share of them are working. What concerns me is pricing. Median pre-money valuation rose 50% in a single month, and it rose inside every cohort, including pre-revenue issuers. Fewer investors paying higher prices is not a healthy combination, and if it holds through the fall it will show up in outcomes two years from now.”
The SEC has been considering updates to the various securities exemptions that enable online capital formation and 2026 could be the year when the funding cap is raised for Reg CF from its current $5 million amount to a level that could appeal to more mature firms. At the same time, a change in the definition of an Accredited Investor, could drive the entire sector in a different direction.
