Abstract
Financing a new venture is a challenging task. Early-stage entrepreneurs have significant difficulties to raise enough money in today’s uncertain economic environment. Governments have less money to support new ventures, banks are recovering from the crisis and venture capitalists tend to invest in the less uncertain later stages rather than the risky early stages. Crowd funding is a new way of financing that could cover this funding gap. Crowd funding refers to the funding of a company by selling small amounts of equity to many investors. In this session we explain how it works, discuss the implications, advantages and disadvantages of crowd funding.
Speakers
Dr Magdalena Cholakova, Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurship, Rotterdam School of Management
Paul Higgins, Co-founder and COO, Crowd Valley (part of the Grow VC Group)
Thomas Davies, Investment Director, Seedrs
Amanda Boyle, CEO, Bloom VC