Crowdfunding framework

• US 9,830,651 B1
• Filed: 01/29/2014
• Issued: 11/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Square Inc (Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.))
• Inventors: Brock, Zach
• Primary Examiner(s): Shrestha, Bijendra K
• Application Number:
  US14/167,931
• Time in Patent Office: 1,399 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis

Abstract

A computing device receives a request to establish a crowdfunding project for a business, the request describing an amount of funding being requested by the business, and terms and conditions for owning shares in the business. The computing device generates a crowdfunding interface for the crowdfunding project, the interface including the amount of funding being requested, the terms and conditions for owning shares in the business, a share price, and an option for purchasing shares. The computing device receives, from investors and through the crowdfunding interface, requests to purchase a specified number of shares in the business. The computing device allocates, to each investor, the respective number of shares purchased. The computing device determines that the amount of funding being requested by the business has been satisfied. The computing device determines that the business is able to pay dividends. The computing device provides a respective dividend payment to each investor.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by one or more processors of a crowdfunding and payment system, from a plurality of merchant computing devices, transaction data for a plurality of transactions corresponding to purchases by a plurality of customers from a plurality of merchants associated with the plurality of merchant computing devices, respectively, the transaction data including payment data to enable the one or more processors to process payments for each transaction;

receiving, by the one or more processors, from a first one of the merchant computing devices, a request to establish a crowdfunding project for a first business of a first one of the merchants, the request describing at least an amount of funding being requested by the first business, and terms and conditions for owning shares in the first business;

generating, by the one or more processors, based on the request, a crowdfunding interface for the crowdfunding project, the crowdfunding interface including at least the amount of funding being requested, the terms and conditions for owning shares in the first business, a share price, and an option for purchasing shares in the first business, wherein generating the crowdfunding interface further comprises;

determining at least one category and a geographic location for the first business;

evaluating, based at least partially on the received transaction data received from the plurality of merchant devices, financial data for other businesses that are associated with the at least one category and the geographic location; and

generating at least one projected return on investment metric for the first business based on the evaluating, wherein the at least one projected return on investment metric is included in the crowdfunding interface;

receiving, by the one or more processors, from an investor and through the crowdfunding interface, a request to purchase a specified number of shares in the first business;

receiving, by the one or more processors, payment for the specified number of shares in the first business from the investor, the investor operating a second business as one of the plurality of merchants using a payment transaction entity associated with the crowdfunding and payment system to process financial transactions of the plurality of financial transactions between customers of the plurality of customers and the second business, by;

withholding, by the one or more processors, a portion of revenue from financial transactions for the second business; and

transferring, by the one or more processors, the portion of revenue to an account of the first business as payment for the specified number of shares in the first business;

allocating, by the one or more processors, to the investor, the specified number of shares purchased by the investor;

determining, by the one or more processors, that the amount of funding being requested by the first business has been satisfied;

determining, by the one or more processors, based in part on the terms and conditions, that the first business is able to pay dividends;

processing, by the one or more processors, a plurality of subsequent financial transactions between customers and the first business, wherein the financial transactions are received from the first merchant computing device as a point-of-sale terminal;

allocating, by the one or more processors, a portion of each financial transaction in the plurality of financial transactions for dividend payments to investors; and

providing, by the one or more processors, from the allocated portion of each financial transaction, a respective dividend payment to each investor in the plurality of investors.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the terms and conditions further describe a number of shares in the first business that are available for purchase by investors and a specified percentage of the first business to which the number of shares correspond.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein providing the respective dividend payment to the investor further comprises:

determining the dividend payment based in part on revenue generated by the first business and on the specified number of shares in the first business that were allocated to the investor; and

providing the dividend payment to the investor electronically from a financial account that is associated with the first business to a financial account that is associated with the investor.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein providing the respective dividend payment to the investor further comprises:

determining, based on the terms and conditions, a percentage of the first business corresponding to a total number of shares purchased by a plurality of investors, wherein the percentage is specified by the user first business; and

generating, at a specified time interval, the dividend payment for each the investor based on (i) the specified number of shares in the first business that were purchased by the investor, (ii) the percentage of the first business corresponding to the total number of shares purchased by the plurality of investors, and on (iii) a total amount of funds generated by the first business at the specified time interval.

5. A computing system comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing system to perform operations, comprising;

receiving, from a plurality of merchant computing devices, transaction data for a plurality of financial transactions corresponding to purchases by a plurality of customers from a plurality of merchants associated with the plurality of merchant computing devices, respectively, the transaction data including payment data to enable the one or more processors to process payments for each financial transaction;

receiving, from an investor and through a crowdfunding interface for a first business, a purchase request, wherein the purchase request specifies a number of shares in the first business to purchase, wherein the crowdfunding interface is based at least partially on;

determining at least one category and a geographic location for the first business;

evaluating, based at least partially on the received transaction data received from the plurality of merchant devices, financial data for other businesses that are associated with the at least one category and the geographic location; and

generating at least one projected return on investment metric for the first business based on the evaluating, wherein the at least one projected return on investment metric is included in the crowdfunding interface;

processing financial transactions of the plurality of financial transaction between customers of the plurality of customers and a second business operated by the investor as one of the plurality of merchants;

withholding a portion of revenue from the financial transactions processed for the second business;

transferring the portion of revenue to an account of the first business as payment for the specified number of shares in the first business;

allocating, to the investor, the number of shares in the first business;

determining that the first business is able to pay dividends to the investor;

processing a plurality of subsequent financial transactions between customers and the first business, wherein the financial transactions are received from the first merchant computing device as a point-of-sale terminal;

determining an amount of remuneration for the investor from the revenue generated from the plurality of financial transactions; and

providing the remuneration as a dividend payment to the investor based on the number of shares.

6. The computing system of claim 5, wherein determining that the first business is able to pay dividends to the investor further comprises:

determining that an amount of funding being requested by the first business has been collected; and

determining that conditions specified by the first business have been satisfied.

7. The computing system of claim 6, wherein the conditions include at least one of the following:

determining that a vesting term specified by the first business is satisfied or determining that the first business has reached profitability.

8. The computing system of claim 6, wherein determining that an amount of funding being requested by the first business has been collected further comprises:

determining that a portion of the amount of funding being requested by the first business was collected through external sources.

9. The computing system of claim 5, wherein providing the dividend payment to the investor further comprises:

determining the dividend payment based in part on an amount of funds generated by the first business and on the number of shares in the first business that were allocated to the investor; and

providing the dividend payment to the investor electronically from a financial account that is associated with the first business to a financial account that is associated with the investor.

10. The computing system of claim 5, wherein providing the dividend payment to the investor further comprises:

determining a percentage of the first business corresponding to a total number of shares purchased by investors, wherein the percentage is specified by the first business; and

generating, at a specified time interval, the dividend payment for the investor based on (i) a number of shares in the first business that were purchased by the investor, (ii) the percentage of the first business corresponding to the total number of shares purchased by investors, and on (iii) a total amount of funds generated by the first business at the specified time interval.

11. The computing system of claim 5, the operations further comprising:

determining a first amount of funds that were generated by the first business for a particular time frame;

obtaining at least one tax document for the first business, the at least one tax document specifying a second amount of funds that were generated by the first business for the particular time frame;

determining, based on the second amount, that the first amount is inaccurate; and

generating one or more fraud alerts for the first business.

12. The computing system of claim 5, the operations further comprising:

determining a first amount of funds that were generated by the first business for a particular time frame;

evaluating one or more financial accounts associated with the first business to determine a second amount of funds that were generated by the first business for the particular time frame;

determining, based on the second amount, that the first amount is inaccurate; and

generating one or more fraud alerts for the first business.

13. The computing system of claim 5, the operations further comprising:

sending, to the investor at a specified time interval, correspondence providing the investor with a summary of earnings based in part on an amount of funds generated by the first business and on the specified number of shares in the first business that were purchased by the investor.