A dash through the history of crowdfunding followed by a quick overview of the three main types: rewards, debt, equity

2. IRISH LOAN FUND
CREDIT UNION
1700
1852
‘A credit union is a member-owned financial cooperative,
democratically controlled by its members, and operated for the
purpose of promoting thrift, providing credit at competitive
rates, and providing other financial services to its members.’
Modern credit unions are attributed to Franz Hermann Shulze-
Delitzsch, who established the first one in 1852 in Eilenburg.
Started by Jonathan Swift in the 1700s, the fund provided loans
to low-income families in rural areas who had no experience
with credit and held little collateral but could still be considered
creditworthy. By the 1800s, more than 300 programs
throughout Ireland and at it's peak 20% of all households used
the programme.

3. THE GRAMEEN BANK
MARRILION
1976
1997
British Rock band Marillion raised $60,000 from fans to finance
their US tour.
They called it a tour fund and without meaning to created the
blueprint for future sites, included ArtistShare (which launched
in 2003) to follow.
What started with $27 loaned to 42 women by Dr Mohammad
Yunus as part of a research project to give banking
opportunities to low-income people evolved in just five years to
a programme with more than 30,000 members. The programme
transformed into Grameen Bank and has now lent to more than
eight million borrowers.

4. JUST GIVING
KIVA
2000
2005
Kiva.org launched and became the first microlending website to
connect lenders with low-income/underserved entrepreneurs
and students.
As of 2013 Kiva had facilitated more than one million loans at
value in excess of $500 million lent.
Donate? No, I’m JustGiving. British company JustGiving was
founded by Zarine Kharas and Anne-Marie Huby to provide
online tools and processing services to enable the collection of
charitable donations.
Many copycats would follow soon after though JustGiving would
remain the largest. It claims to have helped individuals and
companies raise more than £1 billion for charity.

5. PROSPER
CROWDFUNDING
2006
2006
The first recorded use of the term ‘Crowdfunding’ comes from
Michael Sullivan in fundavlog in August 2006.
Prosper.com launched the first peer-to-peer lending site in the
US. This was the first time this type of loan existed outside of
developing economies. Prosper formally registered with the
SEC in 2009.
2007
LENDING CLUB
Lending Club launched the second peer-to-peer lending site in
the US Lending Club is significant for raising $125 million in
2013 from the heavyweights including Google.
Lending Club registered with the SEC in 2008.
Lending Club IPO-ed on Nasdaq on 11 December 2014, the
stock ticker symbol is LC.
CROWDFUNDING

6. INDIEGOGO
KICKSTARTER
2008
2009
Kickstarter launched in Brooklyn with the mission of helping
bring creative projects to life.
Time named Kickstarter as one of the best inventions of 2010.
A little more than a year later TikTok+LunaTik Multi-Touch
Watch Kits raise $942,578 of a $15,000 goal in December with
13,512 ‘backers’; both were recordbreaking at the time.
Indiegogo launched at the Sundance Film Festival and became
one of the first recognised rewards-based crowdfunding sites.
While the initial focus of Indiegogo was film, though this
eventually changed to ‘any type’ of idea.
2010
GROWVC
GrowVC launched the first effort into what would eventually to
be known as equity crowdfunding.

7. CROWDCUBE
SEEDRS
2011
2011
Soon after CrowdCube, Seedrs launched their own equity
crowdfunding offer, which brought investors together under a
nominee structure.
Where there’s a crowd there’s a way, and in 2011 Crowdcube
launched the world’s first business finance crowdfunding
platform and firmly established equity crowdfunding as a
concept.
2013
SYNDICATEROOM
SyndicateRoom disrupts the equity crowdfunding party by
being the first equity crowdfunding platform in the UK to allow
the crowd to co-invest in professionally led opportunities.

8. CrowdFunding
Rewar
d Equity Debt

9. Reward

14. Debt

19. Equity

20. Everyone else

23. Types of crowdfunding
HigherLower
Risk
Type Donation Debt Equity
What is it
Donate money
for a reward /
product
Fund part of / all
of a loan for a
specific purpose
Invest money for
a share in the
business
Return
No financial
return
Fixed interest
return
Repayment of
initial amount at
term of loan
Realisation of
investment at
time of exit
Best for
Community / art
projects / charity
Mature
companies with
regular and
predictable cash-
flow
Earlier high
growth
companies with
lumpy cash-flow