The Founder

Anthony (Tony) Puls

Anthony (Tony) Puls, has had over 40-years experience in raising funds for SMEs and holds a wealth of information on the subject. He is recognised as one of the founding fathers of crowdfunding globally. Tony was doing crowdfunding before the word ‘crowdfunding’ was even invented! See: SME Bonds launched.

Tony has always been a strong advocate for regional development through business growth. During the early 1990’s, Tony set up a consortium, that included Birss Consulting Group (Sydney) & the Hunter Technology Development Centre (based at Newcastle University). In 1991 the consortium lodged an application through the New South Wales Corporate Affairs Commission to the National Companies & Securities Commission (NCSC), before it became known as ASIC, with a view to creating a type of stock market that SME’s could use to cost-effectively raise start-up and early-stage capital.

Over the years, Tony has been involved in a number of studies including the Industries Commission study “Availability of Capital” commissioned by Paul Keating in 1991; Financing Growth 1995; Informal Equity Investment 1997; Investment Readiness Study 1997, Study of a Growth Equity Market for Australia 1997 as well as having been invited by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in 1997 to contribute comment to the final drafting of a Class Order which provided the exemptive relief (from the Corporations Act) necessary to making crowdfunding an easier and cheaper way for SME’s to raise capital.

To Washington & the SEC

In 2013 Tony was invited to Washington by the Securities and Exchange Commission & FINRA to help with the development of crowdfunding regulations as part of President Obama’s Jobs Act initiative. See World Bank report – pages 18 & 46 where it references ASSOB as being the World’s most successful equity crowdfunding platform.

ASSOB used many of the techniques used by listed companies to enable unlisted companies to raise between $250K and $5M in equity capital. ASSOB was a pioneer in this space in Australia and became known as one of the most innovative capital raising platforms for unlisted enterprises in the world.

Tony made popular the term ‘Initial Private Offer‘ (IPO) which is now used across the USA, Australia & Europe by SMEs looking to raise start-up or early-stage funding.

In 2016 Tony was granted life membership of the Crowdfunding Institute of Australia (CFIA).

The Tenant in Common Exchange

The advent of the ticX and how it came about. Tony had spent a lot of time in the early 1990’s working with the corporate regulator (the NCSC now the ASIC) to develop a type of stock exchange that would allow smaller companies (SMEs) to raise funds for business development and expansion. As well as Tony’s background in crowdfunding he had also been a licensed real estate agent since 1978. It was this unique background that led to the development, over 40-years, of the Tenant in Common Exchange.

The idea of establishing a trading exchange for tenant in common (TIC) shares in property was first mooted by Tony way back in 1984.

The biggest thing since Strata Title!

Although TIC ownership of real estate had been enshrined in property law for over 150-years, surprisingly, in all that time, no one had ever thought of creating a trading exchange for buyers and sellers of TIC shares until Tony launched the Tenant in Common Exchange (ticX) in late July 2022.

It had taken Tony about 40-years to work out how to create a legally compliant trading exchange for TIC shares in property. See Fin Rev article 2003 & Fin Rev article 2004 which first appeared around 20-years ago, before housing affordability was the issue it is today. TicX is the biggest thing to happen to the real estate market since Strata Title was introduced in 1961.

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