Crowdfunding – The Scottish Perspective

This morning a report, commissioned by the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, was released at a breakfast event in Society M in Glasgow. Called “Crowdfunding – The Scottish Perspective” the report was produced by twintangibles and sets out the findings of a comprehensive review of the Scottish business communities awareness of, and attitude to, crowdfunding and how well it might fit the finance shortfall that persists post the financial and economic crisis of 2008

Amongst its key findings is that there is an ongoing need for finance particularly in the SME sector. This will come a no surprise to even a casual observer of the UK wide business environment. But what is much more interesting is that the size of funding typically sought, and the purpose to which it will be put, both fit well with crowdfunding.

Firms in the survey sought a range of sums which averaged at c.£50,000 and in many cases the funds were sought for innovation and new product or service development. Crowdfunding in its many forms is well able to provide this  sort of sum for a well managed project, and the crowdvalidation element of a crowdfunding project can bring considerable benefit to those developing innovative and new products or service.

However, it is also apparent that Scotland is significantly under utilising the opportunity presented by crowdfunding, and there is no simple answer as to why this is.

It does seem that the awareness and deeper understanding of the potential for crowdfunding needs to be more widely embedded in the business community to build the confidence to turn an interest in crowdfunding into active engagement.

We believe the commissioning of the report and its release today was a far sighted act by the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce and we hope that it marks the beginning of a process that we hope will lead to Scotland taking up a greater share of the crowdfunding opportunity available.

You can find much more detail and food for thought in the complete survey and, best of all, its free!

Source: Twintangibles