مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد تکامل سرمایه گذاری جمعی سهام – الزویر ۲۰۱۹

Equity crowdfunding platforms are at the center of the digital transformation of early-stage venture funding. These digital platforms were originally heralded as a democratizing force in early stage finance, due to their role in facilitating the exchange between entrepreneurs and a multitude of non-professional small investors (“the crowd”). Equity crowdfunding platforms have experienced considerable growth and now attract professional investors including business angels. The presence of angels alongside the crowd on equity crowdfunding platforms has raised questions whether these digital platforms can continue to play their role in democratizing access to capital. Using data from a leading equity crowdfunding platform, we examine the interplay between the investment decisions of angels and the crowd. We find evidence of information flows in crowdfunding platforms between angels, and from angels to the crowd. We find angels play an important role in funding of large ventures, whereas the crowd not only fill the funding gaps for such large ventures but also play a pivotal role in the funding of small ones. The complementarity between angels and crowd investors seems to increase the overall efficiency in an otherwise highly asymmetric and uncertain market, confirming that digitization can indeed bring important benefits to venture investment.

Introduction

Raising finance is one of the most challenging aspects of entrepreneurship (Lee et al., 2015). Direct investments into start-up businesses, the majority of which are likely to fail, are high-risk and start-up entrepreneurs often have limited access to traditional sources of financing. The financial crash of 2008 created additional barriers to early stage funding, which in turn gave impetus to regulators in the United Kingdom (UK) to facilitate access to capital for early-stage ventures (Mollick and Robb, 2016). Regulators actively supported fintech start-ups with the goal to reduce the dominance of institutional investors (Hernando, 2016). As a result, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has adopted a light touch approach towards Equity Crowdfunding (ECF) regulations in the UK (Vulkan et al., 2016). In addition, to encourage the public to invest in start-ups, the UK government offered generous tax incentives through the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS). With these incentives in place and their simple-to-use digital interface enabling easy-to-access venture information, ECF platforms quickly gained popularity among the public. These digital platforms, which differ significantly from traditional sources of financing, have increased optimism regarding the future of start-up finance, with ECF raising 1130 million USD in funding in the UK alone (Statista, 2018), and is now the second largest investment category in the UK (by number of companies funded) after venture capitalists (Beauhurst, 2017). ECF platforms not only attract non-professional small investors (“the crowd”), but also attract angel investors and venture capitalists (VC) interested in diversification or convenience. As such ECF platforms provide a wide range of potentially high-return early-stage ventures with the opportunity to spread risk across multiple ventures and limited administrative burden for investors seeking passive investments (AIG, 2016; Landström and Mason, 2016).