AU2021107378A4 - System, Program, and Method for Executing Capital Raise Transactions - Google Patents

Abstract

Capital Raise ABSTRACT A system program and method for transacting listed stocks. Including: maintaining a user registry of user accounts, the system providing remote access to each user account via an 5 authentication process, via which remote access a user of the user account accesses functionality including purchasing and trading listed stocks, wherein, the user registry includes a user history for each user account, detailing at least a value, date, and listed stock identifier, for historical listed stock purchases and listed stock trades by the user account; maintaining a capital raiser registry of capital raiser accounts, the system providing remote access to each .0 capital raiser account via an authentication process, via which remote access a capital raiser of the capital raiser account accesses functionality including submitting a bid to the system to raise capital funds via a sale of a particular listed stock via the system to the users of the user registry. The system further comprising receiving plural bids to raise capital funds via a sale of a respective particular listed stock or stocks from the capital raiser accounts of the capital .5 raiser registry, each bid detailing at least a total value of the particular listed stock to sell via the sale, a price per stock at which the particular listed stock is to be sold, an expiration date of the sale, and a commission to be paid to an operator of the system on condition of sale of the total value of the particular listed stock to the users of the system via the system by the expiration date; executing a ranking algorithm to rank the plural bids based on the bid details o including one or more from among: the commission; the total value, the price per stock relative to a listed price for the stock, and the expiration date, to determine a top-ranked bid or bids from among the plural bids. For each top-ranked bid: executing a selection algorithm to select, based on the user histories included in the user registry and based on the bid, a subset of the users of the user registry to which to broadcast an offer to purchase the particular listed stock 25 according to terms including the price per stock and the expiration date; broadcasting the offer to the selected subset of users; receiving, from the selected subset of the users and before the expiration date of the top-ranked bid, responses to purchase the particular listed stock according to the terms of the broadcast offer; and executing transactions to transfer the particular listed stock from the capital raiser of the capital raiser account from which the top 30 ranked bid was received, to the respective user accounts according to the responses and up to a total value of the top-ranked bid. [FIGURE 1] 37 '2/4 Maintaining user registry S201 Maintaining capital raiser registry S202 Receiving plural bids to sell particular listed stock S203 Executing a ranking algorithm to rank the plural bids S204 Executing a selection algorithm S205 Broadcasting the offer to selected subset S206 Receiving responses to purchase S207 Executing transactions of the particular listed stock S208 FIGURE 2

Description

'2/4

Maintaining user registry S201

Maintaining capital raiser registry S202

Receiving plural bids to sell particular listed stock S203

Executing a ranking algorithm to rank the plural bids S204

Executing a selection algorithm S205

Broadcasting the offer to selected subset S206

Receiving responses to purchase S207

Executing transactions of the particular listed stock S208 FIGURE 2

535257 Capital Raise

System, Program, and Method for Executing Capital Raise Transactions

FIELD OF INVENTION

The invention lies in the field of transaction technology and, in particular relates to technology

for executing capital raises.

BACKGROUND

Capital raising is a process of selling more shares in a listed company to raise more money

(capital) for the company. The shares may be sold at a discount from the contemporaneous

.0 market share price at the time in order to encourage and hasten new investment.

A capital raiser may be a company itself, or more often, is a brokerage or advisor who raises

funds on behalf of the listed company. The capital raiser depends heavily on its existing

relationships with potential investors or client book, effectively acting as a gatekeeper between

.5 the company and the potential investors.

Conventional capital raising methods rely on an individual or a plurality of brokerages

depending on the size of the capital raise and manual activity on the part of the brokerages to

contact its client book of potential investors to generate interest in the capital raise and to sell

the shares. Potential investors that do not have a pre-existing relationship with the broker or

advisor generally do not have an opportunity to bid for stock due to time and informational

constraints. Accordingly, there is typically a high level of market concentration and hence

market power in most major markets amongst the largest brokers who undertake capital

raisings on behalf of clients.

The costs associated with the capital raise are both a function of the gatekeeper status of the

brokerage as well as the reliance on high-cost, high-touch manual efforts involved in raising

capital. Inefficiencies in the capital raising process also factor into the costs of raising capital.

535257 Capital Raise

Accordingly due to the high overhead nature of capital raising, smaller capital raises come at

far higher proportionate cost than larger capital raises. For example, a small capital raise of

$X may attract a charge of 6% of funds raised by a broker; whereas a much larger raise of $Y

may attract only a charge of 2% of funds raised. This means that smaller companies which

generally undertake smaller capital raises are unduly penalized by the gatekeepers of capital

purely as a function of their size.

The manual activity pushes up the costs associated with the capital raise which results in

worse value for the listed company and worse value for the investors.

-0

The need to have a pre-existing relationship with a gatekeeper for a capital raise is a point of

frustration for potential investors that may have an interest in the company. Due to the fact

that capital raises, such as placements, are generally conducted over the space of only 2-3

days at maximum; there is a major impediment involved in opening an account with the said

.5 gatekeeper within the timeframe due to the due diligence requirements involved in the

process. This creates an information barrier, as the gatekeeper is technically unable to release

even high level, key details to non-clients; thereby largely killing off any possibility that a

potential investor with no relationship with the gatekeeper can participate in the raise. In

addition, a brokerage is incentivized to seek aggregate bids in excess of the amount being

raised, with the implicit expectation that some bidding investors do not complete the

transaction. However, in reality, bidding investors are generally under-allocated if the capital

raise is oversubscribed, thereby incentivizing over-bidding and resulting in frustration for those

who do not over-bid.

The lack of transparency results in frustration for potential investors that missed out on the

capital raise.

535257 Capital Raise

Within a gatekeeper's client book, there is also the difficulty of identifying clients who would

be interested in a capital raising offer for a specific company. As mentioned, this process is

highly manual and is not necessarily data driven. For example, a gatekeeper has no

information on when a client has sufficient cash holdings to participate in a capital raise. At

best they can only make inferences and estimates of investor interest based on the visibility

they have around their clients individual portfolio holdings and their trading activities that are

conducted or managed via the brokerage itself.

In addition to these issues, a company generally prefers to allocate shares under the capital

.0 raise to those investors who will be long-term holders. Whilst the brokerage can provide

anecdotal information regarding the investment style of individual holders, there is no

transparent, empirical evidence that is available on potential investors. Indeed, there may even

be a conflict as potential investors who possess a good client relationship with the brokerage

may be put forth as preferred investors to the company despite being of an investment style

.5 not conducive to the benefit of the company.

In the conventional approach, identifying potential investors is done on an ad-hoc basis.

It is desirable to at least partially address one or more issues with the conventional approach

to capital raises.

SUMMARY

Embodiments include a system for transacting listed stocks, the system comprising processor

hardware and memory hardware, the memory hardware storing processing instructions which

when executed by the processor hardware cause the processor hardware to execute a method

comprising: maintaining a user registry of user accounts, the system providing remote access

to each user account via an authentication process, via which remote access a user of the

user account accesses functionality including purchasing and trading listed stocks, wherein,

535257 Capital Raise

the user registry includes a user history for each user account, detailing at least a value, date,

and listed stock identifier, for historical listed stock purchases and listed stock trades by the

user account; maintaining a capital raiser registry of capital raiser accounts, the system

providing remote access to each capital raiser account via an authentication process, via

which remote access a capital raiser of the capital raiser account accesses functionality

including submitting a bid to the system to raise capital funds via a sale of a particular listed

stock via the system to the users of the user registry; receiving plural bids to raise capital funds

via a sale of a respective particular listed stock or stocks from the capital raiser accounts of

the capital raiser registry, each bid detailing at least a total value of the particular listed stock

.0 to sell via the sale, a price per stock at which the particular listed stock is to be sold, an

expiration date of the sale, and a commission to be paid to an operator of the system on

condition of sale of the total value of the particular listed stock to the users of the system via

the system by the expiration date; executing a ranking algorithm to rank the plural bids based

on the bid details including one or more from among: the commission; the total value, the price

.5 per stock relative to a listed price for the stock, and the expiration date, to determine a top

ranked bid or bids from among the plural bids. The method further comprises, for each top

ranked bid: executing a selection algorithm to select, based on the user histories included in

the user registry and based on the bid, a subset of the users of the user registry to which to

broadcast an offer to purchase the particular listed stock according to terms including the price

per stock and the expiration date; broadcasting the offer to the selected subset of users;

receiving, from the selected subset of the users and before the expiration date of the top

ranked bid, responses to purchase the particular listed stock according to the terms of the

broadcast offer; and executing transactions to transfer the particular listed stock from the

capital raiser of the capital raiser account from which the top-ranked bid was received, to the

respective user accounts according to the responses and up to a total value of the top-ranked

bid.

535257 Capital Raise

Optionally, the selection algorithm is configured to select the subset of the users by

determining whether or not each user history satisfies one or more conditions, and selecting

the respective user for the subset if a predefined proportion of the one or more conditions is

satisfied, the one or more conditions including: holding stock issued by the issuer of the

particular listed stock in the past or in a past most recent predefined time period; and presently

holding stock issued by the issuer of the particular listed stock.

Optionally, the one or more conditions further include: whether the particular listed stock and

an aggregation of all listed stocks, or the most recent n listed stocks, purchased by the

.0 respective user account are determined to be similar, based on a similarity metric aggregating

similarity of factors including one or more from among: industry sector, market size, rate of

change of stock price, wherein n is a positive integer >1.

Optionally, the one or more conditions further comprise: for all listed stocks purchased by the

.5 respective user or for the most recent m listed stocks purchased by the respective user,

whether an average stock holding time is above a predefined threshold, the average stock

holding time being an average, across the purchases, of time elapsed between purchasing

the listed stock and selling the listed stock, or where the listed stock is yet to be sold, time

elapsed since the purchase.

Optionally, the user history includes a broadcast record per user of the offers broadcast to the

user and the respective terms, and an indication of whether or not the user responded by

purchasing the respective listed stock according to the offer, and the selection algorithm

includes a machine learning model configured, based on the broadcast record per user and

the respective terms, and based on the terms of the top-ranked bid, to generate a score

predicting likelihood of the user responding to a broadcast offer according to the terms of the

top-ranked bid by purchasing stock, and the one or more conditions include the score being

above a predefined threshold or being in a top predefined proportion of scores across all users.

535257 Capital Raise

Optionally, the responses to the broadcast offer are processed on a first-come-first-served

basis until the total value of the top-ranked bid is sold.

Optionally, the method further comprises, following determination of the top-ranked bid,

inviting the capital raisers of the capital raiser accounts from which the bids other than the top

ranked bid were received to submit new bids for the same particular listed stock for sale

following completion of the sale according to the top-ranked bid.

.0 Optionally, a particular user is selected in the subset of the users to which to broadcast an

offer to purchase the particular listed stock according to the terms of the bid, for a plurality of

top-ranked bids within a time window; the method further comprises: at the end of the time

window, transmitting a communication to the particular user presenting the plurality of top

ranked bids in an order determined by one or more characteristics of each of the plurality of

.5 top-ranked bids, and the presence or absence of purchases of listed stocks having

characteristics in common with the plurality of top-ranked bids in the user history of the

particular user in the user registry.

Optionally, the method further comprises: recording, in the user history, user preferences for

particular values or ranges of a characteristic are explicitly in a survey or questionnaire, and

recorded in the user history, wherein the order in which to present the plurality of top-ranked

bids is further determined by the recorded user preferences of the particular user.

Optionally, the method further comprises: immediately following the broadcast offer or at a

defined temporal delay after the broadcast offer, presenting the offer on a web page, the web

page being displayed within a user interface as part of a web application, web site, or

application, accessible to users of the user registry upon completing the authentication

535257 Capital Raise

process, and processing responses to the web page offer and responses to the broadcast

offer on a first-come first-served basis until the total value of the top-ranked bid is sold.

Optionally, the plural bids are for the same particular listed stock.

Optionally, the system is a distributed computing system comprising plural computing devices

each comprising memory hardware, processor hardware, and network interface, the plural

computing systems being configured to perform the method collectively using respective

processor hardware and memory hardware and exchanging data via the respective network

.0 interfaces.

Optionally, the system is a cloud computing system.

Embodiments include a computer-implemented method for transacting listed stocks, the

.5 method comprising: maintaining a user registry of user accounts, providing remote access to

each user account via an authentication process, via which remote access a user of the user

account accesses functionality including purchasing and trading listed stocks, wherein, the

user registry includes a user history for each user account, detailing at least a value, date, and

listed stock identifier, for historical listed stock purchases and listed stock trades by the user

account; maintaining a capital raiser registry of capital raiser accounts, providing remote

access to each capital raiser account via an authentication process, via which remote access

a capital raiser of the capital raiser account accesses functionality including submitting a bid

to the system to raise capital funds via a sale of a particular listed stock via the system to the

users of the user registry; receiving plural bids to raise capital funds via a sale of a respective

particular listed stock or stocks from the capital raiser accounts of the capital raiser registry,

each bid detailing at least a total value of the particular listed stock to sell via the sale, a price

per stock at which the particular listed stock is to be sold, an expiration date of the sale, and

a commission to be paid to an operator of the system on condition of sale of the total value of

535257 Capital Raise

the particular listed stock to the users of the system via the system by the expiration date;

executing a ranking algorithm to rank the plural bids based on the bid details including one or

more from among: the commission; the total value, the price per stock relative to a listed price

for the stock, and the expiration date, to determine a top-ranked bid or bids from among the

plural bids. The computer-implemented method further comprises, for each top-ranked bid:

executing a selection algorithm to select, based on the user histories included in the user

registry and based on the bid, a subset of the users of the user registry to which to broadcast

an offer to purchase the particular listed stock according to terms including the price per stock

and the expiration date; broadcasting the offer to the selected subset of users; receiving, from

.0 the selected subset of the users and before the expiration date of the top-ranked bid,

responses to purchase the particular listed stock according to the terms of the broadcast offer;

and executing transactions to transfer the particular listed stock from the capital raiser of the

capital raiser account from which the top-ranked bid was received, to the respective user

accounts according to the responses and up to a total value of the top-ranked bid.

-5

Embodiments include a computer program or suite of computer programs which, when

executed, cause the executing computer device or devices to perform a computer

implemented method disclosed herein, or to operate as a system disclosed herein.

A capital raise is a raising of capital for a company by selling new shares representing

ownership of the company to investors.

Embodiments provide an automated capital raise transaction technology that targets offers to

contextually selected users of the system.

Embodiments provide an aspect of competition by ranking bids against one another in order

to encourage capital raisers to offer stocks on the best terms.

535257 Capital Raise

Embodiments provide a single system that serves plural capital raisers (i.e. brokerages) so

that a broad user base is reachable rather than a limited client book of a single brokerage.

Embodiments evaluate bids contextually and finds users best-matched to the bid to which to

broadcast the offer, for example users that already own or have owned the stock in their

portfolio as well as targeting those users who have the stock on their watchlist. By dynamically

engaging users in this way the probability of an offer leading to a purchase are improved.

Furthermore manual activity associated with making the offer are zero or minimal compared

with conventional manual methods.

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Capital raisers (ie brokerages) are able to access a wider user base than their own client book.

There is a simplification in committing to terms of a bid and thus having a fixed distribution

price for the stock. Low manual activity compared with conventional manual methods results

in a significant cost saving. The offers are targeted via the selection algorithm which leads to

.5 a high conversion rate. Companies raising capital can have more confidence in successfully

raising capital and for a lower cost. Motivation to heavily discount the new stock is reduced as

interested and qualified users can be found easily.

Users of the system benefit from dynamic engagement from favoured companies. Users are

not subject to ad-hoc approaches from brokerages but are presented with dynamically ranked

offers via the system. Opt-in to capital raises is seamless and fairer. The system is able to

quickly notify a user if their opt-in is successful which is preferable to significant latency in

conventional methods.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments are described below, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 illustrates a hardware architecture of an embodiment;

Figure 2 illustrates a flow of processing in an embodiment;

535257 Capital Raise

Figure 3 illustrates a flow of processing in an embodiment; and

Figure 4 illustrates a computing apparatus of an embodiment.

Figure 1 illustrates a hardware architecture. Figures 2 and 3 illustrate flows of processing in a

method carried out on a hardware architecture such as that illustrated in Figure 1. A system

10 for executing capital raises comprises, for example, an HTTP layer 12, a messaging layer

14, and an application layer 16. The individual layers and their respective functionality and

interactions are discussed in more detail below.

.0 The system 10 may be implemented by a server such as a web server. The server may be

virtualized and operating on one or more physical servers. The system 10 maintains a capital

raiser registry 70 and a user registry 80. The capital raiser registry 70 and the user registry 80

may be registries stored on the same computing devices or on separate computing devices.

The computing devices on which the capital raiser registry 70 and the user registry 80 are

.5 stored may be the server implementing the system 10 or may be remote from the system 10

and accessible by the system 10. Capital raisers 90 and users 100 register for capital raiser

accounts and user accounts, respectively, with the system 10. The accounts provide

functionality within the system to holders or operators of the accounts upon satisfaction of an

authentication process. For example, accounts may be protected by passwords, biometrics,

and/or dynamic authentication code.

The system 10 may provide user interfaces for communication with the users 100 and capital

raisers 90, for example to enable input of biometric data and to enable interaction with the

system functionality provided to the account operators. The system 10 and the capital raiser

90 are in two-way data communication with one another, such as via a user interface 91

provided by the system 10. The user interface 91 may be provided as part of a web page, web

application, or client:server application. Said web page, web application, or client:server

application may be served by the system 10 or by one or more servers operated by or on

535257 Capital Raise

behalf of the system 10. Furthermore, the system 10 and the users 100 are in two-way data

communication with one another, such as via a user interface 101 provided by the system 10.

The user interface 101 may be provided as part of a web page, web application, or client:server

application. Said web page, web application, or client:server application may be served by the

system 10 or by one or more servers operated by or on behalf of the system 10. The capital

raisers 90 may be listed companies or brokers acting on behalf of listed companies 60.

The system provides remote access to each user account via an authentication process. The

user interface 91 includes a graphical user interface, via which graphical user interface the

.0 system presents interactive representations of investment products (such as offers to

participate in capital raise) to users, users interact with the interactive representations of

investment products to access functionality comprising trading, including purchasing, selling,

and bidding to purchase, instances of investment products. The user interface also provides

a broadcast interface, which is one or more mechanisms for broadcasting content (such as

.5 offers to participate in capital raise) to the user population 100 and receiving interactions with

the broadcast content. It is noted that the broadcast content may link to relevant pages of the

graphical user interface, and the act of following the link from the broadcast is considered an

interaction with the interactive representation of the investment product. Further information

regarding the investment product may be provided in the graphical user interface, which the

user may interact with further, for example purchasing an instance thereof, or making a

preliminary or formal offer to purchase an instance thereof.

The capital raisers 90 and users 100 are illustrated as computers since the computers provide

a mechanism to communicate with the system 10 and provide any inputs, such as bids,

requests, approvals, responses, transaction authorities, authentication details, required to

participate in the capital raise transactions. However, alternative devices such as

smartphones, tablets, or server type computers may be used by the capital raisers 90 and

users 100 to interact with the system 10.

535257 Capital Raise

The system 10 is implemented by a computing apparatus which may be a distributed

computing system, with an architecture comprising a set of functional layers as illustrated by

the system 10 of Figure 1 comprising an HTTP layer 12, a messaging layer 14, and an

application layer 16, that work cooperatively to perform the methods and messaging protocols

illustrated by Figures 2 to 4. The HTTP layer 12 may be a manifestation of a user interface

such as a graphical user interface provided by the system 10.

The system includes an application layer 16 which is the implementation of the rules

.0 necessary for the initiation, validation and execution of the capital raises between the capital

raisers 90 and users 100. The layers (or modules) interpret a bid semantically from the capital

raisers 90 to perform a series of steps which will result in the creation/update or retrieval of

data from the user histories in the user registry 80 and the creation of an offer that will be

transmitted (i.e. broadcast) by the messaging layer 14 to a subset of the users 100. The

.5 messaging layer 14 is the interface to the functionality to the other layers.

A messaging layer 14 acts as the interface to the proprietary systems of the capital raising

entity 90. The messaging layer 14 receives messages, parses them and extracts valid values

from various fields. It then determines the appropriate software component in the application

layer 16 that handles the relevant stage of the process and interacts with that software

component to perform the necessary function. Conversely, the application layer 16 uses the

functionality provided by the messaging layer 14 to construct valid messages and send them

to the intended recipients.

The HTTP layer 12 is a mechanism for receiving user interactions and may be interacted with

via a user interface. A user in this context is a user, as in an investor user 100, or a capital

raising user 90. A user interface 91 is provided by the system 10 for capital raisers 90, and a

user interface 101 is provided by the system 10 for investor users 100. Each user interface

535257 Capital Raise

may be implemented as a web-based interface. Capital raising entities 90 and investor users

100 interact with the system 10 by navigating through user interface screens in a web-browser

application navigated to the user interface which inputs requests to the HTTP layer 12. Each

user action results in one or more HTTP requests that are sent to a web server of the system

10 and reach the HTTP layer 12. The HTTP layer 12 receives requests made by the user

through the web browser, parses and validates them and interacts with the application layer

16 to perform associated functionality.

Communication between the capital raisers 90 and the system 10 may be over a network such

.0 as a local area network, or a distributed network. Communication between capital raisers 90

and the system 10 may be over the internet.

Communication between the users 100 and the system 10 may be over a network such as a

local area network, or a distributed network. Communication between the users 100 and the

.5 system 10 may be over the internet.

The user registry 80 is a secure data store such as a server or servers operated by or

otherwise accessible to the system 10 (i.e. the brokerage as trading entity). The user registry

80 stores data representing investor user accounts for investor entities 100. The user registry

80 is definitive in terms of reflecting the legal entities registered as investor user entities in the

system 10. Data stored by the user registry 80, which may be referred to as the investor user

registry, is encrypted and not accessible by parties other than the system operator, and

investor user entities 100 accessing their own accounts. For example, data stored by the user

registry 80 is accessible by the system 10 (and optionally also by other computers operated

by or on behalf of the system operator) but is not accessible by third parties. Access may be,

for example, via biometrics and/or temporally dynamic authentication code.

535257 Capital Raise

At S201, the system maintains the user registry 80. The processing for maintaining and

updating the user registry 80 is ongoing regardless of activity relating to particular capital

raises. Thus, though illustrated as a distinct step in the flowchart of Figure 2, the maintaining

S201 the user registry 80 is an ongoing and continual process performed in parallel to steps

S203 to S208, which steps can be considered a capital raise process. Maintaining steps S201

and S202 are precursors to the capital raise process insofar as the registries store data and

provide access to functionality required to perform the capital raise process.

The maintaining the user registry S201 may include keeping information such as trade history

.0 information up to date when capital raise bids are submitted to the system from corresponding

user accounts. In particular, the user history includes a broadcast record per user account of

the offers broadcast to the user and the respective terms, and an indication of whether or not

the user responded by purchasing the respective listed stock according to the offer. The user

history also includes a value, date, and listed stock identifier, for historical listed stock

.5 purchases and listed stock trades by the user account.

The maintaining the user registry S201 may further comprise maintaining a secure data

environment for the user registry 80 by encrypting the capital raiser registry data and restricting

decryption to parties providing, for example, biometric information satisfying an authentication

process and/or a time dynamic authentication code satisfying an authentication process.

The user registry 80 is effectively a mechanism to associate real life investor user entities with

user accounts in the system 10. By signing in to the respective user account, an investor user

entity accesses functionality provided by the system to participate in a capital raise process.

Step S201 includes the system 10 maintaining a user registry 80 of user accounts, the system

providing remote access to each user account via an authentication process, via which remote

access a user 100 of the user account 80 accesses functionality including purchasing and

535257 Capital Raise

trading listed stocks offered by the system, wherein, the user registry includes a user history

for each user account, detailing at least a value, date, and listed stock identifier, for historical

listed stock purchases and listed stock trades by the user.

The capital raiser registry 70 is a secure data store such as a server or servers operated by

or otherwise accessible to the system 10 (i.e. the brokerage as trading entity). The capital

raiser registry 70 stores data representing capital raiser accounts for capital raiser entities 90.

The capital raiser registry 70 is definitive in terms of reflecting the legal entities registered as

capital raiser entities in the system. Data stored by the capital raiser registry 70 is encrypted

.0 and not accessible by parties other than the system operator, and capital raiser entities 90

accessing their own accounts. For example, data stored by the capital raiser registry 70 is

accessible by the system 10 (and optionally also by other computers operated by or on behalf

of the system operator) but is not accessible by third parties. Access may be, for example, via

biometrics and/or temporally dynamic authentication code.

-5

At S202, the system maintains the capital raiser registry 70. The processing for maintaining

and updating the capital raiser registry is ongoing regardless of activity relating to particular

capital raises. Thus, though illustrated as a distinct step in the flowchart of Figure 2, the

maintaining S202 the capital raiser registry 90 is an ongoing and continual process performed

in parallel to steps S203 to S208, which steps can be considered a capital raise process.

The maintaining the capital raiser registry S202 may include keeping information such as bid

history information up to date when capital raise bids are submitted to the system from capital

raiser accounts.

The maintaining the capital raiser registry S202 may further comprise maintaining a secure

data environment for the capital raiser registry 70 by encrypting the capital raiser registry data

and restricting decryption to parties providing, for example, biometric information satisfying an

535257 Capital Raise

authentication process and/or a time dynamic authentication code satisfying an authentication

process.

The capital raiser registry 70 is effectively a mechanism to associate real life capital raiser

entities with capital raiser accounts in the system. By signing in to the respective capital raiser

account, a capital raiser entity accesses functionality provided by the system to participate in

a capital raise process.

Step S202 includes the system 10 providing remote access to each capital raiser account via

.0 an authentication process, via which remote access a capital raiser entity 90 of the capital

raiser account accesses functionality including submitting a bid to the system 10 to raise

capital funds via a sale of a particular listed stock via the system 10 to the users 100 of the

user registry 80.

.5 At S203 a plurality of the capital raiser entities 90 submit to the system 10 bids to sell

respective particular listed stock or stocks. For example, the bids may be submitted via a

capital raiser user interface 91 provided by the system 10 to capital raiser entities 90 logging

onto to their respective capital raiser accounts as facilitated by the capital raiser registry 70.

For example, the system 10 may set periodical bid submission deadlines or bid submission

periods, wherein bids received by the system 10 in time for the bid submission deadline and

since the preceding such bid submission deadline, or during the bid submission period, are

grouped as the plural bids in S203 and ranked in S204.

S203 includes receiving plural bids to raise capital funds via a sale of a respective particular

listed stock from the capital raiser accounts of the capital raiser registry 90, each bid detailing

at least a total value of the particular listed stock to sell via the sale, a price per stock at which

the particular listed stock is to be sold, an expiration date of the sale, and a commission to be

paid to an operator of the system on condition of sale of the total value of the particular listed

535257 Capital Raise

stock to the users 80 of the system 10 via the system by the expiration date. The bids may be

for the same or different particular listed stocks.

Capital raisers 70 are motivated to use the system 10 because it is automated and provides

access to a broad user base, that is, to a great number of potential investors. Furthermore,

the system 10 actively targets an offer corresponding to the bid to users with a high likelihood

of engagement, based on their user history. So the capital raisers 70 obtain value for the

commission they pledge to the system operator. The system operator ranks the bids at S204

using a ranking algorithm. The system operator.

-0

The ranking at S204 may be of all bids received in the relevant period, or the bids may be

grouped according to a characteristic, such as total value of raise, expiration date, or some

other parameter, and the ranking takes place per group, so that a spread of bids across the

said characteristic achieve top ranking. The grouping may be according to the identity of the

.5 particular listed stock to be sold, so that the ranking is between bids to sell the same particular

listed stock.

Effectively, the system 10 provides a technological platform for capital raises, and by

maintaining a registry of plural capital raising entities 70, provides a platform for competition

among the capital raising entities 70, via the bid system. The users 100 are potential investors

and are motivated to join the system by access to capital raises on a first-come-first-served

basis, access to capital raises that may otherwise be inaccessible to them due to not being in

the client book of the correct brokerage, access to capital raises via a fast transaction platform

which increases certainty around their investment, and also access to capital raises that are

good value by virtue of the competition among capital raising entities 70 introduced by the bid

system.

535257 Capital Raise

At S204, the system 10 executes a ranking algorithm to rank the plural bids based on the bid

details including one or more from among: the commission, the total value, the price per stock

relative to a listed price for the stock, and the expiration date, to determine a top-ranked bid

or bids from among the plural bids.

In a first ranking algorithm, the system 10 ranks multiple bids from capital raisers 70. The first

ranking algorithm generates a first score for each of the multiple bids. The first score may be,

for example, a score from 0 to 10, from 0 to 100, or from 0 to 1000. The first score is calculated

by the first ranking algorithm by aggregating component scores for each of a plurality of

.0 components, including one or more from among: total value of the capital raise (there may be

a predefined optimum value wherein the score measures closeness to the optimum value);

price per stock relative to a listed price for the stock (wherein largest discount relative to listed

price scores highest); expiration date (wherein there may be a predefined optimum value

wherein the score measures closeness to the optimum value; or wherein the system may

.5 attribute higher scores to later expiration dates); the commission (wherein the system may

attribute higher scores to higher commission rates). The component scores may be weighted

by the algorithm. One or other of the component scores may be binary and based on whether

or not they meet a threshold. The weightings may be manually predefined by a system

administrator. Alternatively a neural network may be used to determine the weightings. For

example, the neural network is input a set of training bids, and a ground truth being a manually

defined ranking for the set of training bids, and the neural network is configured to adjust the

weightings to achieve the manually defined ranking (or to minimize aggregate distance

between algorithm-generated ranking and manually defined ranking over a plurality of sets of

bids).

The system 10 may utilize data from market data live feeds 40 to keep the real time values of

stocks up to date in order to score the bids (in instances wherein bid stock price relative to

listed stock price is a component).

535257 Capital Raise

Offers are broadcast to users according to the ranking established at S204. So, capital raisers

70 are motivated to submit competitive bids in order to be included in the broadcast offer. The

broadcast offer at S206 may be only the one top ranking bid, may be the n top ranking bids,

or may be one or n top ranking bids per group (in instances in which received bids are grouped

by the system 10). Depending on the implementation by the system operator, non top-ranking

bids may still be made available to users 100 of the user registry 80, for example via an

interface 101 which they login to gain access to, but non-top ranking bids are not actively

broadcast (i.e. via push notification, email, etc). On any such interface 101, bids (or

.0 specifically, offers in accordance with the bids) are, by default, ordered according to their

ranking by the ranking algorithm (noting that the user may be provided with sorting and filtering

mechanisms in the interface 101 to, per session, change from the default ordering.

The system 10 may operate a series of time windows, with bids received during a time window

.5 being ranked at the end of the time window. There may be more than one top-ranked bid from

the time window, so that a particular user is selected in the subset of the users 100 to which

to broadcast an offer to purchase the particular listed stock according to the terms of the bid,

for a plurality of top-ranked bids within the time window. The system 10 is configured to present

the offers corresponding to the bids in a dynamic order depending on the user history and

preferences of the user. For example, at the end of the time window, a communication is

transmitted to the particular user presenting the plurality of top-ranked bids in an order

determined by one or more characteristics of each of the plurality of top-ranked bids, and the

presence or absence of purchases of listed stocks having characteristics in common with the

plurality of top-ranked bids in the user history of the particular user in the user registry.

Characteristics may be variability in price, market sector, identity of the stock. Furthermore,

user preferences for particular values or ranges of a characteristic may be recorded explicitly

in a survey or questionnaire and recorded in the user history.

535257 Capital Raise

An offer corresponds to a bid insofar as a bid is a bid to raise funds via the system, and the

offer is the mechanism to i) communicate the terms or parameters of the bid to users (as

potential investors) and ii) provide an outgoing message from the system 10 to the user 100

to which the user can respond to indicate willingness to invest in one or more offers.

Offers are not unilateral. At S205, the system 10 is configured to select a subset of the user

population 100 to which to broadcast the offer (which may be referred to as a capital raise

offer). The selection is based on the terms or parameters of the bid, and characteristics of the

users according to the respective user history maintained by the system 10. Optionally, the

.0 selection may also take into account survey results or questionnaire results submitted by the

user in response to questions assessing likelihood of interest in offers having certain

characteristics, which results are also stored in the respective user history.

At S205, the system 10 executes a selection algorithm to select, based on the user histories

.5 included in the user registry 80 and based on the bid, a subset of the users 100 of the user

registry 80 to which to broadcast an offer to purchase the particular listed stock according to

terms including the price per stock and the expiration date. The selection at S205 is based on

the bid at least to the extent that the particular listed stock being offered for sale is

characterised, and users 100 are assessed to predict likelihood of interest or engagement or

investment (shortened to likelihood of engagement elsewhere) in stocks characterised

accordingly.

The selection algorithm at S205 may be considered a second ranking algorithm, since users

are ranked for likelihood of engagement with the offer for a capital raise defined by the bid or

bids selected as top-ranking at S204.

At step S205, the system 10 ranks users according to predicted engagement with the bid (or

the capital raise terms defined thereby). The second ranking algorithm may generate a second

535257 Capital Raise

score, being a score for each user, each user being represented by the respective user

account. The second score may be, for example, high, medium, or low, so that the second

ranking algorithm is effectively a classification algorithm. Alternatively, the second score may

be a numerical value from 0 to 10, from 0 to 100, or from 0 to 1000. The second score may

be high, medium, or low, and determined by calculating a numerical score from 0 to 10, from

0 to 100, or from 0 to 1000, wherein ranges of numerical values correspond to each of high,

medium, and low. The second score may be an aggregate of a plurality of components,

including one or more from among: tendency to hold stocks (according to user history),

tendency to engage with offers for capital raises having characteristics in common with present

.0 capital raise (characteristics being, for example, price per stock, price volatility, market sector

of the stock, company ID of the stock, etc). Alternatively or additionally, there may be one or

more conditions which, if satisfied, either result in a corresponding score (e.g if conditions 1

and 2 satisfied, score is high; if condition 1 or 2 but not 1 and 2 satisfied, score is medium;

else score is low), or add a predetermined numerical value to the score (e.g. if condition 1

.5 satisfied, add 100 to score; if condition 2 satisfied, add 100 to score). The numerical value

may be a weighted aggregate (or weighted average) of plural components (as mentioned

above). The weightings, and optionally also the numerical values corresponding to high,

medium, and low, may be configurable by a neural network, trained on sample users (i.e. user

histories) labelled with high/medium, or low, as ground truth.

The selection algorithm can be considered to be a filter that filters out users (i.e. potential

investors) that, based on their user history, are considered not to have at least a threshold

likelihood of wishing to invest in the particular listed stock according to the terms of the offer.

In this way, resources associated with the broadcast are suppressed. Furthermore, user

engagement per offer is improved, which overcomes issues relating to offers being simply

ignored by recipient users.

At S206, the offer is broadcast to the subset of users selected by the selection algorithm at

535257 Capital Raise

S205. The system 10 broadcasts the offer using contact details for users 100 stored by the

user registry 80. The system may also broadcast the offer as a push notification to user

devices, the devices being identified per user by using an application installed thereon to login

to the respective user account.

Each received bid defines one or more terms or parameters for a capital raise, such as a

particular listed stock (i.e. stock identifier), price per stock, and expiration date (and optionally

additional information forming part of the bid such as a commission rate). The top-ranked bid

or bids are translated to offers, which offer the defined terms or parameters for the capital

.0 raise to users 100 selected by the selection algorithm at S205. At S207, responses to the offer

are received, which responses are effectively purchase pledges. The offer may link to a user

interface 101 provided by the system 10 by which a logged in user can respond to the offer by

pledging to purchase a specified quantity of stocks according to the terms of the offer. In

instances in which the offer communication comprised plural offers (i.e. plural capital raises)

.5 there may be plural links to a user interface page or section per offer. Step S207 comprises

receiving, from the selected subset of the users and before the expiration date of the top

ranked bid, responses to purchase the particular listed stock according to the terms of the

broadcast offer.

For example, the responses are time-stamped, since there is a finite amount of the listed stock

to sell, and so that a first-come first-served mechanism is implemented to determine which

responses are further processed at S208 as transactions.

At S208, the total value of stock offered is transacted to users on a first-come first-served

basis. In other words, the system 10 segregates funds from the user accounts of users

responding to the offer in exchange for the stock, which is transferred into ownership of the

user account, as reflected in the user history and also, for example, in an investment registry

maintained by the system 10. In responding positively to the offer, users indicate an amount

535257 Capital Raise

of the stock that they wish to purchase. The system 10 can thereby determine, in accordance

with the time stamps applied to the responses, which user responses have been successful

in securing an allocation of the stock.

The investment registry is a secure data store such as a server or servers operated by or

otherwise accessible to the system 10 (i.e. the trading entity and loan originator). The

investment registry stores data representing investment product instances traded by or

purchased via the trading entity. The investment registry is definitive in terms of reflecting the

legal owners of investment product instances and the real time values thereof, which real time

.0 values are updated by the system 10, or otherwise by or on behalf of the trading entity, using

data from the market data live feeds. Data stored by the investment registry is encrypted and

not accessible by parties other than the trading entity (i.e. the system operator). For example,

data stored by the investment registry is accessible by the system 10 (and optionally also by

other computers operated by or on behalf of the trading entity) but is not accessible by third

.5 parties. Access may be, for example, via biometrics and/or temporally dynamic authentication

code. The investment registry may include a capital holding account linked to each user

account of the system 10. Investment product instances assigned to ownership of a user

account, plus capital held by the respectively linked capital holding account, compose the net

worth of a user in the context of the system 10.

In this document, the term investment product is used to refer to a generic product offered or

otherwise traded by a brokerage, including funds, stocks, bonds, options, derivatives, other

financial instruments, assets and other marketable securities (including cryptocurrencies and

other emerging alternative assets). The term investment product instance is used to refer to a

specific investment in an investment product made by an investor and therefore being an

actual property owned by or on behalf of the investor and having an actual value/price. The

term trading entity refers to the brokerage or equivalent that packages, transacts and sells

investment products to investors. The trading entity runs the system 10, that is, the system 10

535257 Capital Raise

is operated for or on behalf of the trading entity. For example, the trading entity is a legal entity

executing transactions including stock transactions, which are considered secondary market

trading of stock that is already issued; and primary market stock issuances such as new share

subscriptions for a listed company.

In this document, the term broadcast is used to denote that the same payload or content is

being transmitted to all recipients. However, the specific mode of communication may be

different. That is, a single broadcast may comprise push notifications and emails, all containing

consistent information in terms of the offer details.

-0

Figure 3 illustrates a flow of processing in a worked example of a capital raise using the system

10. At S301 alisted company 60 issues a mandate to a brokerage to raise capital on its behalf.

In the context of the process of Figure 3 the brokerage becomes the capital raising entity 90.

.5 At S302 the brokerage 90 inputs their bid for distribution by the system 10 with a fixed time

horizon as a term of the bid. The bid is submitted via a capital raiser user interface 91.

At S303 the system 10 receives multiple bids from such capital raising entities and ranks the

bids, such as disclosed above with reference to S203 and S204.

At S304, the system 10 selects a subset of users 100 to which to offer stocks according to the

terms of the bid, such as disclosed above with reference to S205. The system 10 via the user

interface 101 presents the offer to the subset of users 100 dynamically and contextually

according to their preferences and user history, such as disclosed above with reference to

S206.

At S305 the user 100 opts in to the capital raise, or one of the capital raises, presented to the

user, with a request for $X worth of the stock, such as disclosed above with reference to S207.

535257 Capital Raise

At S306 the system 10 sorts the responses (that is, the requests). For example, the system

10 may allocate stocks to users on a first-come first-served basis. The system 10 time stamps

the responses and establishes a queue of requests for each capital raise. Funds are

segregated from the respective user accounts, so that they cannot be double-pledged. S307

is an optional step at which the capital raising entity 90 is notified that the capital raise has

been successful and required to accept, that is, to indicate to proceed with the transactions.

As a further option, at S307 the capital raising entity 90 may be presented with an anonymized

representation of the requests in the queue, which may indicate, based on user history, a

.0 tendency of each user in the queue to hold stock. The capital raiser 90 is able to set a threshold

for said tendency (which may be measured by average length of time stocks are held

according to the respective user history) leading to acceptance and rejection of certain

requests in the queue.

.5 At S308, accepted requests are processed as transactions. The segregated funds from the

user accounts are released to the capital raising entity 90 and the stocks are transferred to

ownership of the users 100 of the accepted requests, such as disclosed above with reference

to S208.

At S309 the user trades the stock. S309 is an optional step. The system 10 may provide a

mechanism for listed stocks to be traded.

Figure 4 is a schematic illustration of a hardware arrangement of a computing apparatus. The

capital raising entity 90 may interact with the system 10 by an apparatus having an

arrangement such as illustrated in Figure 4. The user 100 may interact with the system 10 by

an apparatus having an arrangement such as illustrated in Figure 4. The system 10 may be

implemented by a computing apparatus having an arrangement such as illustrated in Figure

4. The system 10 may be implemented by a distributed computing system comprising a

535257 Capital Raise

plurality of computing apparatus having an arrangement such as illustrated in Figure 4

cooperating with one another to perform methods including those illustrated in Figures 2 and

3. The user registry 80 may be implemented by a computing apparatus having an arrangement

such as illustrated in Figure 4. The capital raiser registry 70 may be implemented by a

computing apparatus having an arrangement such as illustrated in Figure 4.

The computing apparatus comprises a plurality of components interconnected by a bus

connection. The bus connection is an exemplary form of data and/or power connection. Direct

connections between components for transfer of power and/or data may be provided in

.0 addition or as alternative to the bus connection.

The computing apparatus comprises memory hardware 991 and processing hardware 993,

which components are essential regardless of implementation. Further components are

context-dependent, including a network interface 995, input devices 997, and a display unit

-5 999.

The memory hardware 991 stores processing instructions for execution by the processing

hardware 993. The memory hardware 991 may include volatile and/or non-volatile memory.

The memory hardware 991 may store data pending processing by the processing hardware

993 and may store data resulting from processing by the processing hardware 993.

The processing hardware 993 comprises one or a plurality of interconnected and cooperative

CPUs for processing data according to processing instructions stored by the memory

hardware 991.

Implementations may comprise one computing device according to the hardware arrangement

of Figure 4, or a plurality of such devices operating in cooperation with one another. For

535257 Capital Raise

example, a plurality of such devices operating in cooperation increases potential rate of data

throughput.

A network interface 995 provides an interface for transmitting and receiving data over a

network. Connectivity to one or more networks is provided. For example, a local area network

and/or the internet. Connectivity may be wired and/or wireless.

Input devices 997 provide a mechanism to receive inputs from a user. For example, such

devices may include one or more from among a mouse, a touchpad, a keyboard, an eye-gaze

.0 system, and a touch interface of a touchscreen. Inputs may be received over a network

connection. For example, in the case of server computers, a user may connect to the server

over a connection to another computing apparatus and provide inputs to the server using the

input devices of the another computing apparatus.

.5 A display unit 999 provides a mechanism to display data visually to a user. The display unit

999 may display graphical user interfaces by which certain locations of the display unit become

functional as buttons or other means allowing for interaction with data via an input mechanism

such as a mouse. A server may connect to a display unit 999 over a network.

Claims (27)

535257 Capital Raise CLAIMS

1. A system for transacting listed stocks, the system comprising processor hardware and

memory hardware, the memory hardware storing processing instructions which when

executed by the processor hardware cause the processor hardware to execute a method

comprising:

maintaining a user registry of user accounts, the system providing remote access to

each user account via an authentication process, via which remote access a user of the user

account accesses functionality including purchasing and trading listed stocks, wherein, the

.0 user registry includes a user history for each user account, detailing at least a value, date, and

listed stock identifier, for historical listed stock purchases and listed stock trades by the user

account;

maintaining a capital raiser registry of capital raiser accounts, the system providing

remote access to each capital raiser account via an authentication process, via which remote

.5 access a capital raiser of the capital raiser account accesses functionality including submitting

a bid to the system to raise capital funds via a sale of a particular listed stock via the system

to the users of the user registry;

receiving plural bids to raise capital funds via a sale of a respective particular listed stock

or stocks from the capital raiser accounts of the capital raiser registry, each bid detailing at

least a total value of the particular listed stock to sell via the sale, a price per stock at which

the particular listed stock is to be sold, an expiration date of the sale, and a commission to be

paid to an operator of the system on condition of sale of the total value of the particular listed

stock to the users of the system via the system by the expiration date;

executing a ranking algorithm to rank the plural bids based on the bid details including

one or more from among: the commission; the total value, the price per stock relative to a

listed price for the stock, and the expiration date, to determine a top-ranked bid or bids from

among the plural bids;

for each top-ranked bid:

535257 Capital Raise

executing a selection algorithm to select, based on the user histories included in the

user registry and based on the bid, a subset of the users of the user registry to which to

broadcast an offer to purchase the particular listed stock according to terms including the price

per stock and the expiration date;

broadcasting the offer to the selected subset of users;

receiving, from the selected subset of the users and before the expiration date of the

top-ranked bid, responses to purchase the particular listed stock according to the terms of the

broadcast offer; and

executing transactions to transfer the particular listed stock from the capital raiser of the

.0 capital raiser account from which the top-ranked bid was received, to the respective user

accounts according to the responses and up to a total value of the top-ranked bid.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the selection algorithm is configured to

select the subset of the users by determining whether or not each user history satisfies one or

.5 more conditions, and selecting the respective user for the subset if a predefined proportion of

the one or more conditions is satisfied, the one or more conditions including:

holding stock issued by the issuer of the particular listed stock in the past or in a past

most recent predefined time period; and

presently holding stock issued by the issuer of the particular listed stock.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the one or more conditions further include:

whether the particular listed stock and an aggregation of all listed stocks, or the most

recent n listed stocks, purchased by the respective user account are determined to be similar,

based on a similarity metric aggregating similarity of factors including one or more from

among: industry sector, market size, rate of change of stock price, wherein n is a positive

integer >1.

535257 Capital Raise

4. The system according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the one or more conditions further

comprise:

for all listed stocks purchased by the respective user or for the most recent m listed

stocks purchased by the respective user, whether an average stock holding time is above a

predefined threshold, the average stock holding time being an average, across the purchases,

of time elapsed between purchasing the listed stock and selling the listed stock, or where the

listed stock is yet to be sold, time elapsed since the purchase.

5. The system according to any of claims 2-4, wherein the user history includes a

.0 broadcast record per user of the offers broadcast to the user and the respective terms, and

an indication of whether or not the user responded by purchasing the respective listed stock

according to the offer, and the selection algorithm includes a machine learning model

configured, based on the broadcast record per user and the respective terms, and based on

the terms of the top-ranked bid, to generate a score predicting likelihood of the user

.5 responding to a broadcast offer according to the terms of the top-ranked bid by purchasing

stock, and the one or more conditions include the score being above a predefined threshold

or being in a top predefined proportion of scores across all users.

6. The system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the responses to the

broadcast offer are processed on a first-come-first-served basis until the total value of the top

ranked bid is sold.

7. The system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the method further

comprises, following determination of the top-ranked bid, inviting the capital raisers of the

capital raiser accounts from which the bids other than the top-ranked bid were received to

submit new bids for the same particular listed stock for sale following completion of the sale

according to the top-ranked bid.

535257 Capital Raise

8. The system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein

a particular user is selected in the subset of the users to which to broadcast an offer to

purchase the particular listed stock according to the terms of the bid, for a plurality of top

ranked bids within a time window;

the method further comprises:

at the end of the time window, transmitting a communication to the particular user

presenting the plurality of top-ranked bids in an order determined by one or more

characteristics of each of the plurality of top-ranked bids, and the presence or absence of

.0 purchases of listed stocks having characteristics in common with the plurality of top-ranked

bids in the user history of the particular user in the user registry.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

recording, in the user history, user preferences for particular values or ranges of a

.5 characteristic are explicitly in a survey or questionnaire, and recorded in the user history,

wherein

the order in which to present the plurality of top-ranked bids is further determined by the

recorded user preferences of the particular user.

10. The system according to any of the preceding claims, the method further comprising:

immediately following the broadcast offer or at a defined temporal delay after the

broadcast offer, presenting the offer on a web page, the web page being displayed within a

user interface as part of a web application, web site, or application, accessible to users of the

user registry upon completing the authentication process, and processing responses to the

web page offer and responses to the broadcast offer on a first-come first-served basis until

the total value of the top-ranked bid is sold.

535257 Capital Raise

11. The system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the plural bids are for

the same particular listed stock.

12. The system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein:

the system is a distributed computing system comprising plural computing devices each

comprising memory hardware, processor hardware, and network interface, the plural

computing systems being configured to perform the method collectively using respective

processor hardware and memory hardware and exchanging data via the respective network

interfaces.

-0

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein the system is a cloud computing system.

14. A computer-implemented method for transacting listed stocks, the method comprising:

maintaining a user registry of user accounts, providing remote access to each user

.5 account via an authentication process, via which remote access a user of the user account

accesses functionality including purchasing and trading listed stocks, wherein, the user

registry includes a user history for each user account, detailing at least a value, date, and

listed stock identifier, for historical listed stock purchases and listed stock trades by the user

account;

maintaining a capital raiser registry of capital raiser accounts, providing remote access

to each capital raiser account via an authentication process, via which remote access a capital

raiser of the capital raiser account accesses functionality including submitting a bid to the

system to raise capital funds via a sale of a particular listed stock via the system to the users

of the user registry;

receiving plural bids to raise capital funds via a sale of a respective particular listed stock

or stocks from the capital raiser accounts of the capital raiser registry, each bid detailing at

least a total value of the particular listed stock to sell via the sale, a price per stock at which

the particular listed stock is to be sold, an expiration date of the sale, and a commission to be

535257 Capital Raise

paid to an operator of the system on condition of sale of the total value of the particular listed

stock to the users of the system via the system by the expiration date;

executing a ranking algorithm to rank the plural bids based on the bid details including

one or more from among: the commission; the total value, the price per stock relative to a

listed price for the stock, and the expiration date, to determine a top-ranked bid or bids from

among the plural bids;

for each top-ranked bid:

executing a selection algorithm to select, based on the user histories included in the

user registry and based on the bid, a subset of the users of the user registry to which to

.0 broadcast an offer to purchase the particular listed stock according to terms including the price

per stock and the expiration date;

broadcasting the offer to the selected subset of users;

receiving, from the selected subset of the users and before the expiration date of the

top-ranked bid, responses to purchase the particular listed stock according to the terms of the

.5 broadcast offer; and

executing transactions to transfer the particular listed stock from the capital raiser of the

capital raiser account from which the top-ranked bid was received, to the respective user

accounts according to the responses and up to a total value of the top-ranked bid.

15. The computer-implemented method according to claim 14, wherein the selection

algorithm is configured to select the subset of the users by determining whether or not each

user history satisfies one or more conditions, and selecting the respective user for the subset

if a predefined proportion of the one or more conditions is satisfied, the one or more conditions

including:

holding stock issued by the issuer of the particular listed stock in the past or in a past

most recent predefined time period; and

presently holding stock issued by the issuer of the particular listed stock.

535257 Capital Raise

16. The computer-implemented method according to claim 15, wherein the one or more

conditions further include:

whether the particular listed stock and an aggregation of all listed stocks, or the most

recent n listed stocks, purchased by the respective user account are determined to be similar,

based on a similarity metric aggregating similarity of factors including one or more from

among: industry sector, market size, rate of change of stock price, wherein n is a positive

integer >1.

17. The computer-implemented method according to claim 15 or 16, wherein the one or

.0 more conditions further comprise:

for all listed stocks purchased by the respective user or for the most recent m listed

stocks purchased by the respective user, whether an average stock holding time is above a

predefined threshold, the average stock holding time being an average, across the purchases,

of time elapsed between purchasing the listed stock and selling the listed stock, or where the

.5 listed stock is yet to be sold, time elapsed since the purchase.

18. The computer-implemented method according to any of claims 14 to 16, wherein the

user history includes a broadcast record per user of the offers broadcast to the user and the

respective terms, and an indication of whether or not the user responded by purchasing the

respective listed stock according to the offer, and the selection algorithm includes a machine

learning model configured, based on the broadcast record per user and the respective terms,

and based on the terms of the top-ranked bid, to generate a score predicting likelihood of the

user responding to a broadcast offer according to the terms of the top-ranked bid by

purchasing stock, and the one or more conditions include the score being above a predefined

threshold or being in a top predefined proportion of scores across all users.

535257 Capital Raise

19. The computer-implemented method according to any of claims 14 to 18, wherein the

responses to the broadcast offer are processed on a first-come-first-served basis until the total

value of the top-ranked bid is sold.

20. The computer-implemented method according to any of claims 14 to 19, wherein the

method further comprises, following determination of the top-ranked bid, inviting the capital

raisers of the capital raiser accounts from which the bids other than the top-ranked bid were

received to submit new bids for the same particular listed stock for sale following completion

of the sale according to the top-ranked bid.

-0

21. The computer-implemented method according to any of claims 14 to 20, wherein

a particular user is selected in the subset of the users to which to broadcast an offer to

purchase the particular listed stock according to the terms of the bid, for a plurality of top

ranked bids within a time window;

.5 the method further comprises:

at the end of the time window, transmitting a communication to the particular user

presenting the plurality of top-ranked bids in an order determined by one or more

characteristics of each of the plurality of top-ranked bids, and the presence or absence of

purchases of listed stocks having characteristics in common with the plurality of top-ranked

bids in the user history of the particular user in the user registry.

22. The computer-implemented method according to claim 20, wherein the method

further comprises:

recording, in the user history, user preferences for particular values or ranges of a

characteristic are explicitly in a survey or questionnaire, and recorded in the user history,

wherein

the order in which to present the plurality of top-ranked bids is further determined by the

recorded user preferences of the particular user.

535257 Capital Raise

23. The computer-implemented method according to any of claims 14 to 22, the method

further comprising:

immediately following the broadcast offer or at a defined temporal delay after the

broadcast offer, presenting the offer on a web page, the web page being displayed within a

user interface as part of a web application, web site, or application, accessible to users of the

user registry upon completing the authentication process, and processing responses to the

web page offer and responses to the broadcast offer on a first-come first-served basis until

the total value of the top-ranked bid is sold.

-0

24. The computer-implemented method according to any of claims 14 to 23, wherein the

plural bids are for the same particular listed stock.

25. The computer-implemented method according to any of claims 14 to 24,

.5 wherein:

the computer implementing the method is a distributed computing system comprising

plural computing devices each comprising memory hardware, processor hardware, and

network interface, the plural computing systems being configured to perform the method

collectively using respective processor hardware and memory hardware and exchanging data

via the respective network interfaces.

26. The computer-implemented method according to claim 25, wherein the system

is a cloud computing system.

27. A computer program which, when executed by a computing apparatus

comprising processor hardware and memory hardware, causes the computing apparatus to

perform the computer-implemented method of any of claims 14 to 26.