Editor's Note: The following comes to us from Jonathan Sandlund, a crowdfunding evangelist and founder of The Crowd Cafe and localinvestors.org. Sandlund writes in to discuss WeFunder's recent self-run, crowdfunded financing round, and looks at some of the other platforms that have done the same. The article originally appeared on the Crowd Cafe, and we are reposting it with the author's permission; make sure to follow Sandund on Twitter. 

Congratulations to the WeFunder team for successfully raising their seed round, on their own platform no less. From the email blast sent out last night:

So, we ate our own dog food. Using current state “blue sky” laws (which prohibited advertising), we raised $533,800 from 58 investors in amounts ranging from $100 to $100,000. Half of these investors were un-accredited.

For equity platforms, there are a number of benefits to raising capital via its own portal. A great story, great marketing opportunity, and an element of authenticity and concept-validation. WeFunder wasn’t the first to do it. In December 2011, CrowdCube, a UK-based platform, raised $511,000 from 162 investor in 12 days. Offering up 9% of the company, the round landed them a valuation of $5.6 million. FundersClub followed suit, raising part of its $529,000 pre-seed round on its own platform as well.

Here’s a list of others in the pure-play crowdfunding space that have raised capital. This is based only on public information, so by no means all-encompassing. Nor is it fully indicative of competitive position as (i) some players may be self-funding, (ii) others may choose not to disclose fundraising activity and (iii) it doesn’t speak to the vast number of periphery players who may choose to meaningfully move into the crowdfunding market. Additionally, I’ve heard of a few crowdfunding platforms that are priming follow-on rounds right now. I suspect we’ll see a few press releases in the coming months. I’m sure I missed a few, let me know in the comments!

CircleUp

• Seed Round: $1,500,000 (Source)
• Equity platform; San Francisco, CA

CommunityLeader

• Series A: $850,000 (Source)
• Equity platform + ancillary products (white labeling being one); Minneapolis, MN

CrowdCube

• Seed Round: ~$500,000 (Source)
• Equity platform; UK

Crowdfunder

• Seed Round: $400,000 (Source)
• Equity platform; Los Angeles, CA

EarlyShares

• Series A: $1,150,000 (Source)
• Equity platform; Miami, FL

FundersClub

• Pre-Seed: $529,000 (Source) 
• Seed Round: $6,000,000 (Source)
• Equity platform; San Francisco, CA

Invested.In

• Seed Round: $880,000 (Source)
• White labeling platform; Los Angeles, CA

SellanApp

• Seed Round: ~$193,000 (Source)
• Revenue-share; Netherlands
• Raised seed round on Symbid, crowdfunding platform based out of the Netherlands

SoMoLend

• Series A Round: $1.7M (Source)
• Debt platform; Cincinnati, OH

WeFunder

• Seed Round: $550,000 (Source)
• Equity platform; Cambridge, MA

For more on the WeFunder funding round, check out this recent story.