MicroVentures Investor Challenge is a Facebook game that pits real-world companies like Etsy and Pinterest against each other for players' fake investment money and offers weekly prizes for the best investors.
A Facebook game about online investment is offering real-world cash prizes to players who have the most "Microbucks" at the end of each week.
MicroVentures Investor Challenge is a Facebook game that pits real-world companies like Etsy and Pinterest against each other for players' fake investment money and offers weekly prizes for the best investors.
In each round, players use "MicroBucks" to invest in startups, which are pitted against each other in tournament brackets. The winners of each round will advance to the next, culminating in a final four that begins August 27th.
Though MicroVentures Investor Challenge doesn't require money to play, the player with the most "MicroBucks" each week will win $250 of actual money. In September, the winningest investor will receive a Macbook Air.
"We wanted to turn the current buzz about startups into a fun online investing experience," said MicroVentures Founder and CEO Bill Clark. "The passage of the federal JOBS Act means there's a brand new category of early stage investment opportunities coming online and this is an entertaining way to get exposure to the space."
Based in Austin, MicroVentures Marketplace pairs startups and small businesses with investors who contribute small amounts of capital in exchange for equity. It partnered with Zobee, a "gamification" company that helps businesses create games, to bring MicroVentures Investor Challenge to Facebook.
Just as players invest relatively small amounts of money in Investor Challenge, MicroVentures Marketplace intends to use the provisions in the JOBS Act, which is intended to allow "emerging growth companies" to more easily raise capital, to more easily pair its investors with companies.