September’s Comeback: Capital Flows, Strategy Grows

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CHART OF THE WEEK 📈

By Chris Martin | Read

Chart of the Week: The Most-Searched Startups on Kingscrowd (2025)

After a slow summer, Reg CF campaigns raised $34.9M in September, their best showing since July, while Reg A+ added $27.3M, led by Pacaso’s $21M surge. Top performers included Mode Mobile ($4.5M) on DealMaker, AtomBeam ($2.3M) and Epilog ($1.1M) on StartEngine, and Firesale ($1.2M) on Wefunder. Smaller platforms like Honeycomb, PicMii, and Vicinity also crossed the million mark, signaling broader traction. Though Reg A+ totals dipped without August’s blockbuster raises, campaigns like Pacaso, Starfighters Space, and EnergyX kept the momentum alive. As Q4 begins, the market looks primed for a stronger, steadier finish to 2025.

See the more interactive charts and the takeaways →

Have a suggestion for a data story you’d like us to look into? Submit by replying to this email.

INSIDE STARTUP INVESTING

By Sam Fiske / Watch | Apple | Spotify

After record launches in Houston and Austin (with Austin turning profitable in six weeks), Citizens Coffee is proving its Australian-style café model works in Tier 1 and Tier 2 markets. Stores cost ~$500K to open, return payback in ~24 months, and average 21% four-wall EBITDA. The roadmap: 40 locations in five years, $120–$150M revenue, and a parallel rollout of CPG to extend brand reach and exit optionality. If you’re tracking premium coffee and breakfast growth stories with strong unit economics, Citizens belongs on your radar.

UPCOMING WEBINAR

New Webinar: Building Wealth with Franchise Investing

Join us on October 29th at 1pm ET for a live webinar with FranShares CEO Kenny Rose, who’s transforming how investors access franchise ownership. Learn how to earn passive income through diversified, SEC-registered franchise funds—and why this overlooked asset class offers strong regulation, stable returns, and long-term growth potential.

PITCH REVIEW 💸

By Teddy Lyons \ Deal Report

Brief: Atombeam is a California-based software company that has developed AI-powered “Compaction” technology that reduces IoT data sizes by up to 75%, boosting network efficiency and security. The platform enables faster, smaller, and encrypted data transfers—benefiting IoT manufacturers, telecom providers, and AI/cloud operators. With over 120 patents granted or pending, AtomBeam is positioning its software as a key solution for managing the explosion of machine-generated data.

Teddy’s Take: For those that have watched Silicon Valley on HBO, Atombeam may remind you of the notorious “Pied-Piper” compression algorithm developed by Richard Hendricks (played by Thomas Middleditch). Indeed, AtomBeam is also a data compression software designed to reduce the size of machine generated data and images. The company is an equity crowdfunding veteran, having raised nearly $28 million in prior StartEngine raises. Atombeam has already had serious traction on its new raise (over $4 million invested) and is a popular raise with Kingscrowd users. Therefore, I’d like today’s pitch review to be another educational opportunity for our readers, particularly around the fine print in offering circulars.

For context, Atombeam has three products: Neurpac (core product reducing IoT data by 75%), Neurcom (reduces size of sensor/satellite images by 2X), and Persistent Cognitive Machine (essentially an AI companion). All three of these products are very exciting, and if Atombeam gets them to market, the company could see massive growth. However, I’d like to highlight a couple concerning points from the company’s offering circular.

Firstly, with regards to Neurpac, the company states, “Achieving system-side utilization of Neurpac will require many years of development, capital, and expertise, but has been recognized as a possibility by Atombeam’s data scientists…For adoption in AI applications, AtomBeam will require the assistance of a large corporate partner, and has begun the process of seeking such a partner to augment the company’s limited research capabilities.”

In my opinion, the key to unlocking hyper-growth for this technology is in its AI applications. Needing a large corporate partner adds to the risk profile of this investment as these partnerships are extremely difficult to obtain. Additionally, Atombeam clearly states that scaling Neurpac will still require years of development and capital. Given that the company is burning over $1 million per month with limited runway, this is concerning.

Secondly, with regards to Neurcom, the circular states, “For other images, Neurcom has demonstrated significantly less reduction compared to standard compression”. This technology has immense potential as well given the data storage requirements for imaging/video. However, it seems this technology is quite far off from commercialization and will still require years of testing before getting to market.

To be clear, I still think Atombeam is an extremely compelling investment opportunity. However, without looking deep into the offering circular, you’d miss key considerations for the company’s commercialization strategy and testing results.

TL;DR: take advantage of the diligence materials that company’s provide via SEC filings.

THANK YOU FOR MAKING ICW A SUCCESS!

Thank you for making ICW25 incredible 🚀. Investment Crowdfunding Week brought together the full spectrum of our community—investors, founders, and industry pros—across 17 sessions packed with real playbooks, live pitches, and candid insights. More than 700 of you registered, showed up, asked sharp questions, and shared wisdom. We’re grateful to every speaker, partner, judge, and attendee who made this year special.

👉 Start here: watch day 1 sessions now — with more recordings publishing throughout the week.

STAFF PICKS 🌶️

BabyQuip

By Teddy Lyons

A former KC Capital investment, BabyQuip hit $6M in 2024 revenue with its baby gear rental platform. As the company launches its new partnership with Vrbo, is BabyQuip in a position for a follow-on investment from our fund?

StartEngine

By Teddy Lyons

The crowdfunding behemoth is raising at a $2 billion valuation. With the majority (57%) of its revenue coming from StartEngine Private (its accredited investor service), I remain concerned that StartEngine is moving away from the retail investor community long-term.

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