For investors
Three mechanisms, and how they fit together
A number that says how far the technology has actually been demonstrated. A ladder that hands over your money only as that gets proven. And a choice of regulatory exemption, so the paper fits the stage of the thing being financed. Everything else on this platform follows from those three.
The whole thing, in order
What actually happens, from opening an account to distributions
Six steps. Two of them are the differentiators and have their own sections below; the other four are the parts every platform has and most describe vaguely. What resale each exemption permits is in the table further down.
- 1
You open an account
Citizenship, residency and beneficial ownership come first, before anything you might want to buy. The Atomic Energy Act bars the NRC from licensing an entity owned, controlled or dominated by a foreign interest, so who is on a nuclear cap table is a licensing question rather than a marketing preference. Screening it at the door is the only honest place to do it.
- 2
Your limit is computed, and shown to you
Income and net worth produce a number rather than a verdict. Under Regulation Crowdfunding the annual cap is the greater of $2,500 or five percent of the lesser of the two, rising to ten percent once both exceed $124,000, and capped at $124,000 however wealthy you are. It aggregates across every crowdfunding platform you use, not just this one, which is the part that surprises people. We show the arithmetic on every offering rather than only the answer.
- 3
You pick a tier before you pick a reactor
TRL 6 is the dividing line. Below it you are funding engineering and the instruments are SAFEs, convertibles and preferred equity. At or above it you are lending against something that exists, and the instruments are notes, revenue share and municipal mini-bonds. The lower tier requires a risk acknowledgement, because a design that has never been built is genuinely capable of returning nothing.
- 4
You commit, and the money goes to an escrow agent
Committing and handing over are two different events. Capital sits with a third-party escrow agent, not with the issuer and not with us. The platform never takes custody of investor funds, which is a structural fact rather than a policy we could change.
- 5
It releases in tranches as milestones are certified
The issuer files evidence for a rung. An independent certifier who did not score the technology and has no economic interest in the release either signs it or declines it. Only then does that tranche close. This is the mechanism the rest of this page is about.
- 6
Distributions arrive according to the instrument
A note pays a coupon on a schedule. Revenue share pays against metered output. Equity pays nothing until there is something to pay, which for a reactor developer may be never. What you hold determines what you receive, and the offering documents say so in more detail than any summary can.
The score
How a technology readiness level is produced, and who signs it
TRL is a 1 to 9 scale the aerospace and energy sectors have used for forty years to describe how far a technology has been demonstrated rather than how promising it sounds. It is assessed here from primary documents, published with a confidence band and every citation, and signed by a named human before anyone sees it.
- 1
Collate
Primary documents: dockets, licenses, witnessed test reports, national lab results, executed supply contracts, published literature.
- 2
Assess
An engine proposes a level, a confidence band and a weighted citation for every input. The model identifier and methodology version are recorded with it.
- 3
Review
A qualified reviewer weighs the same evidence and may move the level or widen the band. Where they disagree with the engine, the disagreement is recorded rather than overwritten.
- 4
Sign
Name, credential and timestamp. Only then is the score visible, and the issuer sees it at the same moment you do rather than in advance.
The score decides the instrument, which is how it prices risk
A design at the bench cannot be sold to you as a fixed-rate note, and a station that has been generating electricity since the 1980s should not be sold as a SAFE. The ladder maps each level to the instruments it permits and the share of capital a milestone at that level can release, and the platform enforces the mapping: an offering whose instrument its TRL does not allow cannot be published. That refusal is the product. The forms are just how an issuer reaches it.
What the number does not do is tell you whether the deal is good. It measures demonstration, not construction cost, offtake or the price of the output. A design can reach TRL 8 and be unfinanceable on first-of-a-kind cost alone.
The full methodology: evidence weights, ceilings and confidence bandsThe release
Your money moves when the work does
Every crowdfunding platform takes a commitment. The question that matters is what stands between the commitment and the issuer's bank account. Here it is an escrow agent and a certifier who has to see evidence, in that order, on every rung.
- 1
The rung is defined before the raise opens
A milestone is a fact somebody outside the company can check: a license issued, an acceptance criterion closed, a qualification unit tested, a first megawatt-hour metered. What percentage of the raise each rung releases is fixed in the offering documents, not negotiated afterwards.
- 2
The issuer files evidence and asks for certification
From the issuer console. The request names the rung and attaches the artifacts. Nothing about the request moves capital.
- 3
An independent certifier signs or declines
A different person from the TRL reviewer, with no interest in the outcome. A reviewer who could also certify the milestones of a technology they had scored would make the whole mechanism decorative, so the consoles enforce the separation rather than trusting it.
- 4
Operations instructs the escrow agent
Structured as a staged closing rather than as proceeds withheld after one, because you generally cannot hold investor money back once a closing has happened. The distinction is legal rather than cosmetic and it is why the ladder is built this way.
What this protects you from, and what it does not
It means no investor is ever fully exposed to a design that has not been built, and that a project which stalls at rung two never receives the money for rungs three and four. It does not mean your capital is safe. Money already released against a certified milestone is spent, the project can still fail afterwards, and a certification is a statement that a specific thing happened rather than a prediction that the next thing will.
Every live offering shows its own ladder with the rungs that have released and the capital still held. That is the honest version of this explanation.
See a release ladder on a real offeringThe rails
Six ways to sell a security, and not one of them is ‘equity’
Regulation Crowdfunding and Regulation A are not equity rules. They are exemptions from registration. Equity, debt, convertibles, SAFEs, revenue share and royalty interests are all available under either, which is why an issuer here picks the instrument that suits its stage rather than having one shape imposed on it. Which rail an offering uses decides who may buy it, how much, and whether it can ever be resold.
| Rail | Ceiling / 12 mo | Who can buy | Resale | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reg CFRegulation Crowdfunding | $5M / 12 mo | All investors, subject to individual caps | Restricted 12 months | Developer and supplier seed rounds |
| Reg A+Regulation A+ Tier 2 | $75M / 12 mo | All investors, 10% of income or net worth | Freely tradable | Flagship project vehicles |
| Reg D 506(c)Regulation D, Rule 506(c)Accredited only | Unlimited | Verified accredited investors only | Restricted | Institutional co-investment tranche |
| Rule 147ARule 147A intrastate | Set by state limits | Residents of a single state | Governed by state rules | Host community tranche |
| MunicipalMunicipal securities, Section 3(a)(2) | Unlimited | All investors | Freely tradable | Public power offtaker |
| Reg SRegulation SNot offered yet | Unlimited | Non-US persons | Offshore | Deferred pending foreign ownership analysis |
Concurrent offerings are permitted
Rule 152 allows an issuer to run 506(c) to institutions and Regulation Crowdfunding to its host community at the same time. That is what makes a multi-rail platform viable rather than a choose-one decision, and it is why one project here can back two offerings with different eligibility.
Municipal is the overlooked rail
Municipal securities are exempt from Securities Act registration entirely. No ceiling, no per-investor cap, freely tradable, and retail mini-bonds in $500 denominations are a proven instrument. Where a public power agency owns or offtakes, the arithmetic problem that constrains every other rail simply does not arise.
Why Regulation S is not offered
The Atomic Energy Act bars the NRC from licensing an entity owned, controlled or dominated by a foreign interest. An open global retail cap table can be read as alien control and put the license itself at risk. Offshore distribution stays closed until that analysis is complete, because it has to be designed into the first cap table rather than patched later.
Where to go next
The mechanism is easier to believe when you watch it run
Every offering page carries its signed score, the evidence behind it and its release ladder. If you would rather see the score being argued over and the capital being let out, both of those happen in the consoles, and the guide is the shortest route to them.