Crowdfunding as a source of finance. Crowdsupporting, Crowdinvesting, Crowdlending, Crowddonating (PDF)

Academic Paper from the year 2016 in the subject Business economics - Accounting and Taxes, grade: 1,7, University of applied sciences Frankfurt a. M., course: IFRS - International Finance & Accounting, language: English, abstract: A good idea for a product or service is often not enough to start a business. Especially at the beginning of starting a business financial resources are needed to invest into the necessary equipment and materials.

But not only new companies, so called startups, but also small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are in need of new capital for expanding their product range or for new product developments which cannot always be obtained from the bank or from the stock market.

Bank financing plays an important role in Germany. However, in 2008 about 35% of German companies complain about problems in credit financing and access to credits, especially small enterprises with an annual turnover to EUR 1 million and large enterprises of more than EUR 50 million.

The decline in lending can also be seen from the fact that banks are increasingly taking more money for loan repayments from companies than to forgive new loans.

This indicates that lending is difficult. Companies therefore have to seek alternative sources of funding. One of several financing alternatives is crowdfunding. This type of financing is subject to this term paper.

Crowdfunding is a project-based form of financing the above mentioned case examples, by which capital from a plurality of donors within a predetermined period of time is raised.