Crowdfunding models explained
Utilising the power of the collective to achieve challenging goals is not a new phenomenon, think the Longitude Prize in 1714 and the crowdsourced creation of the chronometer. However, in a contemporary sense, crowdfunding began gaining real traction in 2008/09 with the birth of reward-based platforms IndieGoGo and Kickstarter, the two US giants, in an industry that has raised more than £2 billion globally. This is a good place to start differentiating the platforms and six key business models I am choosing to focus on. These are reward-based, donation-based, micro-lending, peer-to-peer, peer-to-business and equity.