This document provides visions and perspectives on the future of crowdfunding in Europe from the publishers and crowdfunding platforms. The publishers envision civic crowdfunding becoming more prominent and a harmonized regulatory framework being established at the European level. The platforms foresee crowdfunding becoming a mainstream source of financing, more reliable crowdfunding data and market analysis being available, and crowdfunding growing into a new model for nonprofit fundraising. Overall the document discusses the continued growth and increasing importance of crowdfunding in Europe.

2. This publication has been produced by four frontrunners from the field of crowdfunding in
Europe: Daniela Castrataro, Fabien Risterucci, Gijsbert Koren and Karsten Wenzlaff.
This publication was made possible by Epirot Ludvik Nekaj (organizer Crowdsourcing
Week), Wolfgang Gumpelmaier (Gumpelmedia/ikosom), Nina Passerelli (student) and all
crowdfunding platforms that contributed by sharing their visions.
This publication is a follow-up for two European conferences on Crowdfunding:
Crowdfunding Day (Amsterdam, April 15th 2013) and The Future of Crowdfunding (Berlin,
April 17th 2013)
The views expressed in this publication are those of their respective authors and do not
necessarily reflect the position of the producers of this publication.
Creative Commons
This publication is released under the following license: CC BY NC SA 3.0. Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

3. About the publishers
Daniela Castrataro
Daniela is co-founder and
director of twintangibles,
a Scottish-Italian research
and advisory firm that helps
organisations create value
from the application of
social technologies. She
is co-founder of the Italian
Crowdfunding Network.
twintangibles, together with
nois3lab, are the founders
of crowdfuture – The Future
of Crowdfunding, the first
crowdfunding conference in
Italy.
Fabien Risterucci
As a consultant (FR
Prospektiv) Fabien facilitates
the international business
development of innovative
business concepts in high-
growth areas. He has been
conducting research on
crowdfunding for the last
three years, co-launched
the discussion group
Crowdfunding for Europe
and has been an active
member of the French
crowdfunding professional
association, Financement
Participatif France.
Passionate about disruptive
innovation, entrepreneurship
and development finance,
Fabien has a background
in economic development,
investment attraction and
international business
development in Europe
and Asia. He was trained
in Political Sciences,
Business Administration,
Competitive Intelligence,
and in Microfinance. Fabien
is based in Paris and is
frequently in Germany.
Gijsbert Koren
Gijsbert is a creative
entrepreneur and
crowdfunding addict. He
found out the hard way that
funding from a bank or one
investor could be hard to
attain, even if (potential)
users were interested.
Hacking the system, by
getting money directly
from consumers to fund a
product, seemed to be an
interesting alternative.
Gijsbert is managing
partner at Douw&Koren
Crowdfunding Consultancy
and advises companies,
governments and other
organizations on using
crowdfunding.
Karsten Wenzlaff
Karsten is one of the
co-founders of ikosom –
Institut für Kommunikation
in sozialen Medien, a
private research-center
based in Berlin. He has
conducted research
on crowdfunding since
2011 – having published
the first crowdfunding
survey in Germany. He is
also co-author of the first
Crowdsourcing Report in
Germany. He has a BA in
Philosophy & Economics
and a MPhil (cantab) from
the University of Cambridge.

4. Introduction
Crowdfunding is a source
of finance for projects
and businesses, with the
specific characteristic
that the capital is raised
by the crowd: a group of
individuals donate or invest
relatively small amounts of
money. The main types of
crowdfunding are: donation
based, reward based (pre-
sales/non-financial return),
loan based and equity
based. Besides capital,
crowdfunding also results in
gaining more visibility for a
project or company, as well
as generating involvement
and support from a large
group of people.
Crowdfunding is changing
the way we think about
finance. But what will the
future of crowdfunding look
like? With this publication,
we share our views and
the ones of European
crowdfunding platforms on
the future of crowdfunding.
Crowdfunding has been
used as well to finance
this publication. We would
like to thank all early
supporters who believed in
the importance of sharing
visions on the future of
crowdfunding in Europe.
The main goals of this
publication are:
1. Sharing visions
It provides researchers,
politicians, entrepreneurs,
investors and government
officials with visions
regarding the impact of
crowdfunding in Europe.
2. Initiating discussions
It helps to initiate a
discussion about future
trends and developments
in crowdfunding and
crowdinvesting.
With this publication, we
hope to contribute to the
further development and
growth of crowdfunding in
Europe.
- Daniela, Fabien, Gijsbert
and Karsten
November 2013

5. Visions
of the publishers

6. Civic Crowdfunding
During the last few years,
crowdfunding has become a
far wider and more complex
phenomenon, having
developed into many trends
and models. In my opinion,
one of the most interesting
ones is civic crowdfunding.
Civic crowdfunding seems
to be a solution to the
lack of funds in local
governments, much like
crowdfunding in a wider
sense presents itself as a
solution to the lack of capital
on the market.
Whereas crowdfunding in a
general sense is based on a
potentially global audience,
local crowdfunding looks for
funds in a geographically
small area, which implies a
small community in terms
of numbers. In fact, local
communities seem to be
a suitable environment in
which civic crowdfunding
can flourish, as this aims at
financing local works and
projects. Therefore, we are
talking about relationship
capital here, rather than
social capital, i.e. few but
strong relations that form
tightly bound communities,
rather than large networks
with weak ties between
them.
The development of a strong
bond between citizens
and their territory, the
citizens’ active involvement
in discussing and giving
their feedback, their
willingness to cooperate
directly or indirectly with
the local administration
on choices aimed at the
local community would
find in civic crowdfunding
a perfect tool. The process
would both address the
scarcity of capital in local
administrations and bring
citizens closer to institutions,
thus increasing people’s
respect for public assets
and implementing a model
of active citizenship and
collective and sustainable
innovation.
The key point seems to
be both to facilitate digital
cooperation and to build
offline relationships. In
fact, the real power of the
crowd does not lie with
people randomly connecting
on the web. The future of
this technology seems to
be pointing towards local
online environments that
promote strong interactions
both online and offline. As
I see it, this is the future of
crowdfunding, and civic
crowdfunding is the future.
- Daniela Castrataro

7. The sums collected by
Europe-based internet
crowdfunding platforms
register an exponential
progression. This could
be of quite a different
importance, and especially
have a greater economic
impact, if platforms
benefited from a European
regulatory framework
adapted to the nature
and potential risks which
engenders their activity.
So far the lead action has
been situated at the national
level. The key players of
the European crowdfunding
sector already compelled
themselves to greater
transparency by creating
national professional
associations and by
working on their respective
self-imposed Code of
Conduct, which are codes
of best practice committing
platforms to provide services
with full transparency, safety,
assistance, ethics, and
respecting the laws and
regulations.
Several national
governments, such as the
United Kingdom, Italy and
Austria have been dealing
with the regulation of
crowdfunding. Portugal has
seen some interesting local
initiatives recently as well.
France is about to facilitate
the multiple forms of
crowdfunding and discusses
the creation of a special
status of Crowdfunding
Service Provider (“conseiller
en investissement
participatif”). But for now,
the laws are very different
from one country to another.
This could represent
an impediment to the
development of internet
platforms in the short to
medium-term as by the
nature of their business,
they cannot know national
boundaries of their market.
An initiative at European
level is also under way
with the European
Crowdfunding Network and
the determination of the
crowdfunding sector that
rallies in Europe.
Moreover, the different
workshops organized
by the EESC, the SME
Assembly, DG Connect,
and DG Internal Market and
Services of the European
Commission in the
presence of Commissioner
Michel Barnier to review
the opportunities and
risk reduction related to
crowdfunding, confirm the
direction taken towards
a likely forward evolution
of the European texts.
To remedy disparate
national level legislation,
the European Commission
has taken over the case
and has launched a public
consultation so a project can
start to be developed from
next year.
So, after months of
exchanges and raising
awareness in small
committees on the
benefits offered by
crowdfunding, proposing
a special European level
status of Crowdfunding
Service Provider, this
synchronization between
administrations denotes
a real commitment of the
authorities towards concrete
action on the subject.
Having spent a few years
analyzing microfinance and
crowdfunding (also called
collaborative funding) and
what I call “community
funding”, it is fascinating to
measure how much it allows
to aggregate entrepreneurs,
creators, the financial
sector, governments,
local governments,
economic development
stakeholders and above all
us all European citizens and
citizens of the world whom
we are.
Nobody knows today what
will happen to crowdfunding
in the next couple of years.
What is certain is that it will
become a real alternative for
start-up and seed capital.
I hope that the dynamism
and creativity of European
entrepreneurs will be
enhanced by a new
regulatory framework at
the European level. At
the same time bold, this
Crowdfunding regulation at European level

8. framework should be
non-discriminatory, fully
complementary with other
sources of funding and
ensure the professionalism
of this emerging industry.
Allowing the multiple forms
of crowdfunding platforms
to operate freely across
boundaries would be for
the European Union the
sign of a will to continue
the deepening of the Single
Market.
- Fabien Risterucci

9. Growing Crowdfunding
Innovation and the start
and growth of new projects
and companies are an
important engine of our
economy. It is therefore
of great importance to
provide these projects and
companies with access to
capital. Crowdfunding can
contribute in providing better
access.
The crowdfunding market
is growing fast
In Europe, there are a
few hundred operational
crowdfunding platforms,
making it possible for
projects and companies
to (added all together)
raise hundreds of millions
of euros in 2012. The
market is expected to
keep on growing very fast.
Crowdfunding will grow into
an important alternative to
other sources of finance for
projects and companies.
However big the potential
impact, I think there are
some obstacles that have
to be addressed in order to
realise this potential.
1. Many people, projects
and companies are not
familiar with crowdfunding
yet
Although crowdfunding
could be an alternative
source of finance, many
people are still ignorant
about the existence and high
potential of crowdfunding.
Besides that, not all
government bodies and
authorities fully acknowledge
crowdfunding for being a
relevant source of finance.
Moreover, knowledge about
how to make best use of
crowdfunding is still not
widely spread, resulting
in people, projects and
companies not considering
or using crowdfunding yet.
Via directed communication,
more awareness can be
raised for crowdfunding.
Communication can be
specifically targeted at high
potential funders, projects
and companies. To integrate
crowdfunding into financial
planning, business advisors,
bankers and accountants
can also be important
partners.
2. A roadmap for
legislation and
professionalization
With growth, comes
professionalization.
In several countries,
crowdfunding platforms
are formulating a Code
of Conduct to create a
common set of quality
standards. Next to self-
regulation, legislation is
of importance to protect
investors and companies. In
relation to crowdfunding, it
is often unclear for platform
owners, funders, projects
and companies which
legislation applies and what
that effectively means at
an operational level. An
on-going dialogue between
crowdfunding platforms, the
government and financial
authorities is essential
to overcome barriers in
legislation and react in a
timely manner on undesired
developments.
3. Financing the growth of
platforms
A high growth potential
puts pressure on cash flow.
Crowdfunding platforms are
(besides a few exceptions)
relatively small companies.
This results in the challenge
of finding enough capital
to finance growth. It is
important to support
crowdfunding platforms in
realising growth to reach
a scale at which they can
contribute substantially
to providing access to
capital for projects, starting
companies and SME’s. Both
governments and venture
capital funds could prove
to be an essential partner
for financing the growth of
crowdfunding.
- Gijsbert Koren

10. Crowdfunding on the
internet is a fairly new
phenomenon. Although
established as a cultural
practice for centuries, digital
crowdfunding which we
have seen emerge in Europe
and in the US has brought
new models, fascinating
projects and new standards.
Along with these
developments, a wide range
of institutions have tried to
quantify this market – and
thus set standards for its
analysis. The differentiation
of equity-based, reward-
based, lending-based and
donation-based platforms,
as blurry as it is, came with
the desire to cluster the
platforms and make them
comparable.
The next step for the
industry will be to have
reliable data about the
market. I predict that we
will have institutions which
provide market data,
platform comparisons,
success statistics and
comparisons between
platforms. Right now,
with some 500+ platforms
worldwide, such an overview
for investors, donors and
project-owners is absolutely
necessary to simplify the
access to crowdfunding. It
will also give institutional
investors a way to use
crowdfunding as an asset
class, alongside traditional
forms of investments like
corporate bonds, equity
and government debt. It
will also allow the media
to distinguish trends from
hypes and make evaluations
based on real market-data.
At crowddata.eu we will
provide a lot of data for the
European market and make
it accessible for a wide
range of audiences. This
will be done in a constant
dialogue with the platforms
and other stakeholders.
- Karsten Wenzlaff
Crowdfunding Data

11. Visions
of European crowdfunding
platforms and service
providers

12. Crowdfunding is about citizen banking.
- Arnaud Poissonnier, President at Babyloan
Babyloan is a French social micro-lending platform
www.babyloan.fr
“

13. As more platforms become regulated, more investors
will see equity crowdfunding as a trusted, mainstream
avenue to grow their capital.
- Alysia Wanczyk, Marketing Director at Seedrs
Seedrs is an English equity based crowdfunding platform
www.seedrs.com
“

14. Crowdfunding is going to be a new and attractive
financing model in Europe and a serious alternative for
the financing of startups.
- Dana Melanie Schramm, Corporate
Communications at Seedmatch
Seedmatch is a German equity based crowdfunding
platform
www.seedmatch.de
“

15. In our information oriented world donors find it
increasingly important to know how their donations are
used. Donors prefer to give to projects where they feel
to be part of a bigger goal. Crowdfunding supports
these trends by clearly defined projects and goals with
the possibility to empower a large group of supporters.
Crowdfunding also brings the fun in fundraising by the
rewards an organization gives supporters back for their
donations.
Non-profit organizations now start to include
crowdfunding as an integrated part of their “online friend
and fundraising” strategy. In this strategy successful
non-profits will engage supporters and facilitate them
to contribute to the goals of the organization in the way
each individual supporter prefers.
- Marc Schoutens, Director at Mobillion
Mobillion creates crowdfunding software
www.mobillion.nl
“

16. A new way to see ideas come to reality. For the US and
European countries, crowdfunding is a real opportunity
to overcome the crisis.
- Fabio Simonelli, Project Manager at Eppela
Eppela is an Italian reward based crowdfunding platform
www.eppela.com
“

17. We are just at the very begining in Europe. More and
more internet users become aware of what crowdfunding
is and how it works. Europe does not have much million
EUR projects at this stage, but that number will grow
quite soon. Politicians will begin to understand that
they should promote crowdfunding, and Europe will
have its own crowdfunding act. With the act in place,
it will be possible to fund even bigger projects through
crowdfunding.
- Arnaud Burgot, CFO at Ulule
Ulule is a reward based crowdfunding platform for all
European countries
www.ulule.com
“

18. Crowdfunding is a tool for society to allocate financial
resources to the projects and ideas they believe in. It
enables the society to shape the society without usage of
intermediates like the state or banks.
- Christin Friedrich, Director at Innovestment
Innovestment is a German equity based crowdfunding
platform
www.innovestment.de
“

19. Pan-European equity based crowdfunding for investors
of all backgrounds will be the future of crowdfunding,
with no limits to funding amount.
- Philipp Steinberger, CEO at c-crowd
c-crowd is a Swiss equity based crowdfunding platform
www.c-crowd.com
“

20. This is only the start of crowdfunding. More is to
come, particularly in the field of governance and public
infrastructure as well as at the level of local decision-
making.
- Gregory Vincent, founder at Sponsume
Sponsume is a reward based crowdfunding platform
from the UK
www.sponsume.com
“

21. Facebook “likes” and crowdfunding donations are both
PR tools. However, people will be more attached through
funding.
- Konrad Lauten, CEO at Inkubato
Inkubato is an Austrian/German reward based
crowdfunding platform
www.inkubato.com
“

22. The global crowdfunding market will be 1000 billion
euros by 2020.
- Thierry Merquiol, CEO at WiSEED
WiSEED is an French equity based crowdfunding
platform
www.wiseed.fr
“

23. Equity based crowdfunding will grow strongly in the
coming years, given the high level of start-ups seeking
between € 100,000 and € 1 million.
However, the high risk nature of the proposed
transactions may result in the closure of many
platforms that will not have enough good projects
selected upstream. Indeed, if investors want to live an
entrepreneurial adventure, they also want to earn money.
Reward based crowdfunding will also grow strongly,
particularly for projects before creation (to test new
business).
- Anne Saint Léger, CEO at Finance Utile
Finance Utile is a French equity based crowdfunding
platform
www.financeutile.fr
“

24. Crowdfunding is and will be an essential tool to raise
money for every kind of activity, matching entrepreneurial
and social principles, practices and visions.
- Claudio Calveri, Senior Content Manager at DeRev
DeRev is an Italian donation and reward based
crowdfunding platform
www.derev.it
“

25. We believe that crowdfunding is a great tool that
can be applied to many different sectors. Platforms
promoting itself as non-specialised, will naturally become
specialised in the end, as communities will stick and give
colour to a platform.
- Alexandre Laing and Stéphane Vromman, founders
at Bulb in Town
Bulb in Town is a French crowdfunding platform for local
initiatives
www.bulbintown.com
“

26. Using mobile platforms and cyber currencies will be a
next step for crowdfunding.
- Angelo Rindone, founder at Produzioni dal Basso
Produzioni dal Basso is an Italian donation based
crowdfunding platform
www.produzionidalbasso.com
“

27. The future of equity-based crowdfunding will be
dominated by local investing platforms. Here’s why:
some people are interested in investing in specific
sectors (e.g. clean energy), whereas others want to
support specific individuals (e.g. African entrepreneurs,
female-led startups). However, everyone wants to
support their local economy. As such, we believe ‘local’
is going to be the major force that will drive equity-based
crowdfunding into the mainstream.
- Kristian de Groot, founder at Investeer Lokaal
Investeer Lokaal is a Dutch equity based crowdfunding
service
www.investeerlokaal.nl
“

28. Crowdfunding will bring news ways for Europeans to
exchange, relate, and exercise a collective force that
will reinforce European identity. In the field of energy,
crowdfunding will be a change maker that will empower
citizens and reveal the relevancy of regional solidarity. I
strongly believe that community-based financing is an
effective tool for European citizens to join forces for the
transition towards renewable energies.
- Alex Raguet, Cofounder and President at Lumo
Lumo is a French crowdfunding platform for renewable
energy projects
www.lumo-france.com
“

29. Crowdfunding is just part of the deeper peer-to-peer
revolution, that will empower citizens and give them back
control on their everyday life!
- Fabrice Carrega, CEO at Arizuka
Arizuka is a French reward-based platform
www.arizuka.com
“

30. Crowdfunding will make sure that every European citizen
will get a chance to become part of The Next Big Thing,
while more ideas and companies are put to the market.
- Daniel Daboczy, CEO at FundedByMe
FundedByMe is a European equity based crowdfunding
platform
www.fundedbyme.com
“

31. Reward based crowdfunding will be a democratization
of people’s chances, to support artists and startups they
belive in. No more curation by so-called experts - the
‘crowd’ decides with their money and entrepreneurs
have a new source of funding.
- Michael Eis, Founder at Booomerang
Booomerang is a Danish crowdfunding platform
www.booomerang.dk
“

32. In a few years, crowdfunding will be an established and
well-known financing tool for the film-industry worldwide.
But more importantly, it will be also embedded in the
overall communication strategies, as it supports the
filmmakers, the producers, the cast to be in touch with
their audience and get direct feedback in all “stages”
of the production and distribution process. This direct
link to the people will be crucial, not only in terms of
financing, but also marketing a movie. Hopefully there
will also be specialized film-crowdfunding platforms that
address all groups, filmmakers and moviegoers, and
will represent all their needs within one platform, from
communicating the idea of a film, financing of that idea
and then distributing the finished movie.
- Wolfgang Gumpelmaier, CEO at Gumpelmedia
Gumpelmedia has expertise on crowdfunding for the film
industry
www.gumpelmaier.net
“

33. Real money for realy projects.
- Reinhard Willfort, founder at 1000x1000
1000x1000 is an Austrian crowdfunding platform
www.1000x1000.at
“

34. Crowdsourcing and crowdfunding are transitioning us
into a more open, connected, and socially productive
society. At Crowdsourcing Week, our big, ambitious
goal is to get everyone thinking about collaborating with
their stakeholders to create shared value. Companies,
government and social enterprises can now interact with
their communities on a completely new level - through
more than just social media interactions. Imagine social
media turning into purpose-driven social productivity
- crowdsourcing and crowdfunding are driving this
revolution.
- Epirot Ludvik Nekaj, founder at Crowdsourcing
Week
Crowdsourcing Week organizes crowdsourcing events
around the world
www.crowdsourcingweek.com
“

35. Crowdfunding unleashes creativity.
- Vincent Ricordeau, co-founder and President at
KissKissBankBank
KissKissBankBank is a French crowdfunding platform
www.kisskissbankbank.com
“