Obama Signs JOBS Act Into Law

BOSTON — President Obama on Thursday signed the JOBS Act into law.

And some local companies have already launched bids to take advantage of the new market for equity fundraising.

Under the law, entrepreneurs will now be able to use crowdfunding to raise large amounts of equity capital. But the first companies to gain from the new law are the ones sprouting up to act as financial intermediaries between start-ups and their many small investors.

"We started talking about this in January," said Mike Norman, a co-founder of a Cambridge hopeful called Wefunder. "All this has come together in two months of work."

Norman was at the signing ceremony at the White House on Thursday afternoon.

The new law requires that businesses be vetted before they can raise capital from many small investors.