Equity crowdfunding continues to grow in popularity with private investors flocking to invest in startups and other high growth companies. Barely five years old, the equity crowdfunding sector is growing at an annual rate of more than 100 per cent in many countries, while changes to regulations — most notably in the US — promise to open up even more opportunities for private investors.

With so many exciting companies raising funding we decided to select our favourite current global opportunities, tapping into our live feed from crowdfunding aggregator OFF3R. You can find out more about the companies in the profiles below.

Planetary Resources

Planetary Resources’ ultimate aim is to develop and deploy technologies for asteroid prospecting and mining. In the short term however the company is planning to use the same sensor technologies it is developing for prospecting asteroids to serve data and information needs for a number of markets on Earth.

To achieve this, Planetary Resources has created Ceres, an advanced Earth imaging system using the company’s Arkyd 100 spacecraft. The company says that while typical satellite imagery provides only a picture, Ceres delivers actionable data with higher spectral resolutions – going beyond what the human eye can see. Ceres provides daily monitoring of natural resources on Earth and delivers actionable, information-rich data to global industries such as agriculture, oil and gas and finance.

Planetary Resources is currently raising funding on AngelList.

Screach Interactive

Screach helps venues such as retail shops and pubs to provide their customers a better experience, which the company says is proven to increase sales. Screach in effect gives the venue their own TV channels to control what they show. The platform comes with pre-loaded content to draw attention to the screens, which is interspersed with bespoke venue adverts that promote anything from live sports events to the venues special offers and promotions.

The company says that the UK opportunity alone is around 500k venues, and a new contract with BT has generated 1,100 installations in just 90 days. The cloud based platform works globally, generating revenues from subscriptions and advertising.

Screach Interactive is currently raising funding on Crowdcube.

PromoRepublic

For many large companies social media marketing is one of the main channels in their marketing strategy. However, many SMEs do not have the budget to hire an agency, or the knowledge to do it themselves. The founders of PromoRepublic previously worked in digital agencies as employees and founders and saw this problem first hand.

PromoRepublic wants to help the owners of these small companies to become “marketing gurus”. The service is based on a large template library which is used for generating content and posting to social networks, and the company says it already has 6,000 entrepreneurs from Russia to Brazil on board.

Planetary Resources is currently raising funding on Invesdor.

LivBlends

The LivBlends machine is a smart, self-cleaning blender for smoothies. Customers place a pre-packed cup of flash frozen fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts into the LivBlends machine, press blend and less than one minute later have a healthy filling smoothie ready to drink.

The company is initially addressing the office market, and is already making $1.3M in recurring revenue in beta, with 150 customers including Palantir, Uber, Dropbox, and Sephora. The company says once their machines are in every office, hotel, and gym lobby in the country, they’ll target consumer kitchen’s, following the model of their inspiration – the Keurig.

LivBlends is currently raising funding on Wefunder.

Harry Bromptons

Harry Brompton’s is the world’s first premium alcoholic Ice Tea. Launched in 2013 the company has sold almost 1,000,000 bottles across 11 countries and is stocked in leading retailers including Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Ocado, Whole Foods and Harrods.

The company was awarded the 2015 Virgin Foodpreneur prize by Sir Richard Branson and aims to make Harry Brompton’s the world’s leading brand in premium ready to drink (RTD).

Harry Bromptons is currently raising funding on Crowdcube.

Memic Innovative Surgery

Memic Innovative Surgery is developing an innovative surgical robot based on a new design that enables a novel and intuitive surgical approach for laparoscopic procedures.

The laparoscopic approach is intended to minimize post-operative pain and speed up recovery times. Due to improved patient outcomes, in the last two decades, laparoscopic surgery has been adopted by various surgical sub-specialties such as gastrointestinal surgery, urogynecology, urology and nephrology. The company says that the Memic minimally invasive surgery system is the next development stage of the laparoscopic approach.

Memic Innovative Surgery is currently raising funding on OurCrowd.

You can also search for 100s of previously crowdfunded companies on VentureRadar, or download the OFF3R mobile crowdfunding aggregator App to keep track of the latest live deals on your mobile.

Disclaimer: The information here does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest in any of the companies mentioned. A prospective investor should consult with their own investment, accounting, legal and tax advisers to evaluate independently the risks, consequences and suitability of that investment.