But even more ambitious projects were launched in 2011. For example, iMakeRotterdam wants to raise 440,000 euros to build a pedestrian bridge in Rotterdam from Rotterdam Central to the Hofbogen. But especially among companies looking for financing, the amounts seem to be increasing rapidly. For example, Enviu raised 100,000 euros for sustainable projects and if we look abroad, £300,000 (€364,000) was raised in England by CrowdCube .
Growth of equity-based crowdfunding
In an earlier article I already described the different possible crowdfunding models ( donate, support, lend and invest ) and especially initiatives in the last two categories seem to grow fast in the last months. Platforms like Symbid and CrowdAboutNow have both raised between 200-250.000 euros for projects and have done this mainly in the last 6 months.
Platforms such as Symbid, CrowdAboutNow and Wekomenerwel.nl are crowdfunding platforms that give investors the opportunity to invest (often from a low amount) in start-ups or growing companies. CrowdAboutNow does this in the form of a loan and the other platforms in the form of shares (equity). The expectation is that a large number of other equity-based platforms will be launched in the near future to grab a piece of this fast-growing market.
Due to the rapid growth of these platforms, the AFM and DNB have been orienting themselves on regulations for some time now . In the US, people are also looking forward to the definitive regulations on crowdfunding. Even Obama has already pledged his support for this, but the decision has not yet been made definitively by Congress. However, it is expected that this will not take much longer and that in 2012 there will be clear regulations on crowdfunding. This will make the sector a bit more professional and it is expected that this will also offer more certainty and confidence to potential donors and investors.
Crowdsourcing
Now that existing organizations are also turning their attention to the possibilities benin phone number list of crowdfunding, you often see that this is expanded with crowdsourcing possibilities. Bart Lacroix , founder of the 1%CLUB – says about this: “You see more and more traditional organizations that are becoming interested in crowdfunding and crowdsourcing because they are looking for new financing models and new models to bind donors, customers, citizens or fans to them.” I will write a more extensive article about this later, but a good start to learn more about crowdsourcing is the article “ How to use crowdsourcing effectively and efficiently “.
Summary platforms in 2011 seems to continue in 2012. Perhaps not another 500% growth, but a doubling is certainly possible. The largest growth in turnover will probably come from platforms that focus on (business) financing. Also, more and more initiatives will set up a crowdfunding initiative themselves, separate from the existing platforms.
In addition, existing organisations will start their first pilot projects around crowdfunding in 2012. They will mainly do this in combination with crowdsourcing to bind customers, donors or fans more. Due to the knowledge present in the market, the good examples and the experiences that have been gained with crowdfunding in recent years, nothing stands in the way of other organisations also using crowdfunding.
Editor's note: Ronald Kleverlaan and his team have made a major contribution to crowdfunding revenues in the Netherlands, by raising over 1 million euros through WEBclusive's crowdfunding and crowdsourcing software.