Santa Monica’s StartEngine announced Friday it intends to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission to become a registered funding portal.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the funding portal will function in a similar fashion to stock exchanges where, starting in May, small companies will be able to sell shares directly to the masses.

Just like Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites, portals will, for a fee, list businesses looking to raise cash. However, while money given to a company through a Kickstarter campaign is a donation often rewarded with a company’s product, money given through an SEC-approved portal such as StartEngine buys the investor an ownership stake.

StartEngine is a tech company accelerator in Silicon Beach.