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CHART OF THE WEEK
By Brian Belley | Read
Investment crowdfunding is entering its second decade with enough history to start measuring what happened to the companies investors backed. Through August 3, Kingscrowd recorded 15 failures, down 57% from the same point in 2025. We also tracked 11 exits, down from 14 a year ago. The gap between exits and failures narrowed sharply—but mostly because failures fell, not because exits surged.
The mix beneath those totals may matter even more for investors. Eight of this year’s 11 exits were IPOs or direct listings, while only two came through M&A. Our cohort analysis also found that 10.9% of companies entering investment crowdfunding in 2018 recorded a failure within three years, compared with 3.7% of the 2022 cohort. And BOXABL’s (Ticker: BXBL) volatile public debut shows why the valuation and terms at which an investor entered can matter as much as picking the right company.
KINGSCROWD PODCAST
Is investment crowdfunding slowing down — or just concentrating?
This week on the Kingscrowd Podcast, Brian Belley and Scott Kitun break down Kingscrowd’s H1 2026 Investment Crowdfunding Report. They discuss why market volume has pulled back from 2025 but still looks stronger than 2023 and 2024, how major Reg A+ raises can distort the data, and why fewer Reg CF issuers may point to a more serious but more concentrated market. Plus, they dig into Robinhood-style venture funds, public/private market access, and Boxabl’s SPAC debut as a reminder that entry valuation matters.
PITCH REVIEW 💸
By Teddy Lyons \ Deal Report
Brief: TibaRay is a pre-revenue, Stanford-originated medtech company, rebuilding the linear accelerator at the core of radiotherapy machines. Its near-term product, Galactica, is a compact accelerator entering manufacturing for integration into Leo Cancer Care’s upright treatment platform, with a first installation planned at Mayo Clinic later in 2026. The company’s longer-term goal is PHASER, a FLASH radiotherapy system designed to deliver treatment in under a second using electronically steered beams and fewer moving parts.
Teddy’s Quick Take:
Over the years I have backed a handful of biopharma startups chasing a cure for one specific cancer, companies like Oncolyze in acute myeloid leukemia and Siren Biotechnology in brain cancer. I think of these as moonshots, a massive return or a zero, because that is the nature of biopharma investing. I am drawn to this corner of the market, not because I necessarily enjoy the longshot odds, but because it lets me put capital behind world-class teams trying to cure brutal diseases, with world changing upside baked in for patients first and investors second.
But when a cancer company has both that world changing upside and a credible path to near term revenue, it shoots to the top of my diligence list. That is what I think we have with TibaRay.
The company's long-term product is FLASH radiotherapy, which compresses an entire radiation treatment from minutes into a fraction of a second. More than a decade of animal work suggests that radiation delivered that fast does less damage to healthy tissue while killing the tumor just as well (though labs have struggled to replicate the effect consistently). And nobody has done it yet in a deep-seated tumor, because no commercial X-ray system can deliver that much dose that fast.
That's the gap TibaRay is built to fill. The company spent twelve years developing a new class of linear accelerator (the component that generates the radiation beam), built on technology exclusively licensed from Stanford and SLAC. It delivers radiation at three times the dose rate of the industry standard and is 2X more efficient The CEO says the second generation reaches 30X conventional output and eventually 100X. Four of those units fired as an array would put FLASH radiotherapy within reach, and that is TibaRay's long term vision.
In the meantime, TibaRay's accelerator sells on its own. Leo Cancer Care has placed a $2 million purchase order to implement TibaRay's linac into its Grace radiotherapy machine. TibaRay has also pulled in over $11 million in competitive SBIR awards from NIH and DOE, and taken a strategic investment from IHH Healthcare, one of the largest hospital operators in Asia.
Ever since TibaRay pitched at our demo day last week I have been intrigued, and after a call with CEO Thinh Tran I have decided to run a full diligence process to consider the company for Kingscrowd Capital. Here is what I am working through next:
Whether the Leo Cancer Care order contains binding commitments with real units and dollars behind them, or evaluations still to be proven out.
What justifies the $60M valuation at this stage, and whether we would be investing on the same terms as the institutional and strategic holders.
The FDA pathway for the FLASH claims specifically, and whether the near term LINAC clears on a standard predicate while FLASH needs its own clinical data.
How much of the core accelerator IP TibaRay owns outright versus licenses from Stanford, plus any strings attached to the federally funded work.
The near term LINAC revenue ramp across healthcare, infrastructure, and defense, with real pricing, margins, and a first revenue timeline.
Varian just received up to $83 million in federal money to put photon FLASH on the linacs hospitals already own. Whether retrofitting the installed base beats building a new machine.
Cash, burn, and runway, and the size and timing of the next institutional round after this one.
Want deeper analysis on every deal?
The Pitch Review you just read is a taste of what Kingscrowd Edge has to offer. Edge members get 5-star quantitative ratings, expert-reviewed analyst reports, and portfolio tracking across every active raise, plus access to Top Deals, our highest-conviction picks from the Kingscrowd analyst team. Only a select few raises earn that designation. If you're not already an Edge member, try it free for 7 days.
NEWS & NOTES
We’re proud to share that Kingscrowd has been named a PurposeBuilt100™ winner and will be featured throughout SuperCrowd26 featuring PurposeBuilt100™, taking place August 25–27.
Brian Belley will join the speaker lineup, while Léa Bouhelier-Gautreau will participate in a panel and serve as a judge for the event’s live pitch session.
This three-day virtual event brings together founders, investors, and crowdfunding leaders to celebrate innovation, impact, and growth across the private markets. We invite the entire Kingscrowd community to join us, connect with the broader ecosystem, and experience the PurposeBuilt100™ showcase live from anywhere.
STAFF PICKS 🌶️
By Léa Bouhelier-Gautreau
PopWheels has an ambitious goal: becoming the default battery-swapping network for e-bike riders, especially professionals doing urban delivery. This goal will only become reality if PopWheel reaches a high network density and cabinet utilization. This will require significant capital not only to deploy the infrastructure but also to get adopted by delivery riders. So, good bet or funding black hole?
By Léa Bouhelier-Gautreau
NAQI is building earbuds that let people control devices without their hands or voice. It is more discreet than cameras and headsets, and way less invasive than brain implants. The technology sounds like science fiction but it is real and working. Unfortunately, the valuation is also out of this world: $156 million for a company that has not generated revenue.
That's a wrap on this week's issue!
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