Rise of crowdfunding in the numbers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crowdfunding raised almost £1.8 billion in 2012 for tens of thousands of ventures. This is set to
approach almost £3.5 billion, (Massolution 2013, Reuters 2013) – nearly 100% year on year
growth for the past 3 years. Since 2009 there have been an estimated £6.8 billion raised through
CF platforms worldwide (Massolution 2013.) In 2009 the global crowdfunding sector was
estimated to be £335 million. In 2010, the sector grew 61% to £540 million and again growing in
2011 by 72% to £930 million (Massolution, 2012.) In 2012 this growth accelerated to around
£1775 million and is expected to total £3.23 billion this year – an increase of over 50% on 2012,
(Massolution 2013.)
The European Crowdfunding market is said to have more than doubled in value between 2011
and 2012 reaching a value of around EUR 1 billion in value in 2012 alone – a figure to be taken
as indicative rather than absolute (European Crowdfunding Network, 2012, p.5.) Bloomberg
New Energy Finance (2012) estimated that as much as £57 billion could be available for
crowdfunding clean energy projects alone never mind all the other potential applications of CF.
Debt-loan based crowdfunding which is also referred to as peer-to-peer lending is fast becoming the
largest crowdfunding model. In the UK alone, the largest peer-to-peer lenders; Zopa, Ratesetter
and Funding Circle have raised a total of around £500 million to date. Donation, reward and
equity crowdfunding models in the UK are still relatively small by comparison.
Clearly the CF sector is demonstrating substantial growth potential which will have an impact on
many sectors of the economy and society – something which has a great deal of potential ahead.

 

Kieran Garvey @Microwdfinance