Have a business idea but no capital to invest in it? Small and medium-sized enterprises in Switzerland discover the benefits of crowdfunding. (SRF, swissinfo.ch)
Crowdfunding is a method of raising capital for a project or venture through the collective efforts of a large number of people. Getting small amounts of money from a large number of people is usually facilitated by a crowdfunding website.
Once the domain mainly of the creative industry, more traditional Swiss business ventures are embracing the concept of crowdlending.
Researchers at the University of Lucerne analysed the data from 31 crowdfunding internet platforms. Their study, published in May, shows that the crowdfunding market is growing fast in Switzerland. The volume of brokered deposits in 2015 increased to CHF27.3 million ($28.3 million), marking a 73% increase over the previous year. The authors of the study expect the volume of business done through crowdfunding platforms to increase to CHF65 million in 2016.
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.