Crowdsourcing Week GlobalSingapore 2014

« Crowdfunding for the 21st Century »

Lionel Slusny - Loft SolutionsConsulting for Crowdfunding since 2006

Twitter : lslusny

www.LoftFi.com

We cannot connect the dots looking forward, we can only connect them looking backward

Why does crowdfunding exist ? Internet Economic and Social crisis

(imbalance of revenues, investment capabilities and investment returns)

Crowdsourcing Success stories : Kiva, Zopa, Lending

Club , … Prominent individuals embracing it

(Elon Musk, John Mack (CS former CEO), François Hollande (France Republic President),...)

More importantly, a combination of factors that makes it possible

Craving crowds for greater investment transparency

The Crowds crave for greater investment transparency : They want to know what they invest in and they want feedback

– E.g. crowdfunding replaces investments in « Sustainable » funds with only large caps (?!)

Crowdfunding is more than finance

Social connections Investment opportunities for companies Support & Professional services

 It is about people…  Role of Crowdsourcing

Crowdfunding platforms manage permanent imbalances

Role of Banks and financial markets

Investor’s Funding

Project opportunities

Trends in Crowdfunding are lightning bolt

Growth of specific crowdfunding types– Credit crowdfunding / p2p

lending (largest in terms of volumes)

Growth of specific crowdfunding industries– Real Estate crowdfunding– Gaming– Connected devices …

Crowdsourcing vs. Crowdfunding ?

Global vs. Local Crowdsourcing enables resources holders to connect globally to resources

requirers– The same is true for Crowdfunding

But knowledge and risk management are most important factors in Crowdfunding– Result is the vast majority of transactions happen locally or within close communities

(potentially online)

 Combined models yet need to emerge.

On the importance of IT and Data

Crowdfunding is heavily relying on IT

Transparency and investors information is only as good as the inputs provided by the platforms and entrepreneurs

APIs structures are key going forward

Crowdfunding is a challenge to the Nations

Too costly for single Nations to re-define entire regulations for the purpose of crowdfunding– And too costly in terms of cost of opportunity, since larger market and Nations

will quickly acquire a competitive advantage (e.g. UK, US, Singapore…), very difficult to catch up later on

In Europe, coordinated action is yet to be seen– Actions should include incentive for crowdfunding platforms and more generally

entrepreneurship finance support

Crowdfunding platform need to become the Facebooks of project investment

The crowdfunding platforms need more crowdsourcing, more input from the crowd

They need more services and partnerships from established network of partners They need innovative ways to raise money and to communicate about their 

investment opportunities They need new ways to tap into the crowd, not just for money but for their 

knowledge, social networks and intangible assets

Thank You !

Crowdfunding Solutions & Partners

Contacts

lslusny@loftfi.comcrowdfunding@loftfi.com

Phone : +33 9 70 46 70 90

www.LoftFi.com

Founding Member of the European Crowdfunding Network AISBL (Brussels) 

www.europecrowdfunding.orgCrowdfunding Solutions & Partners