Infographics: how the crowdinvesting market works in Russia

Hello! In this article we will talk about a promising type of investment – crowdinvesting.

Today you will learn:

How to give a start to your ideas for the future of business;
What are crowdinvesting projects and on what platforms you can learn about them;
Who can become an investor?

Content

Crowdfunding and crowdinvesting: the essence of the concepts
Pros and cons of crowdinvesting
How did crowdinvesting develop?
Crowdinvesting participants
Classification of crowdinvesting
The principle of operation of the sites
Who can engage in crowdinvesting
What is the life path of a project on the crowdinvesting platform?
Is it possible to earn a lot on crowdinvesting?
Advice for novice investors
Who can place their project on a specialized site
How does crowdinvesting differ from other forms of investment?
The most famous platforms for crowdinvesting in Russia
Is it possible to do without platforms?
How crowdinvesting can help at the country level

How it works?

Let’s say you decide to launch a project “A hotel for animals for a while, the owners go on vacation abroad.” To launch an idea, you can use funding from various sources - ask friends and relatives for money, take out a bank loan, find a private investor. But don't rush into debt. You have an alternative option - place the project on a crowdfunding site.

To do this you need to follow these steps:

Select a crowd platform and register;
Get free training;
Draw up and calculate a business plan;
Post the project;
Indicate the required amount for investment, describe the essence of the idea;
Offer investors a reward in return (a bonus, free advertising, a share in the business, or a percentage of profits).

After the crowd campaign is launched, sponsors will begin to raise money to implement the idea. Information on the progress of collections will be displayed in real time. If within a given period of time (usually 3 months) at least 50% of the required amount is collected for the project, then the money will be transferred to you with the service commission and taxes withheld (For example, on the planeta.ru service 10-15% is withheld from the amount received). If the required capital is not raised, the money will be returned to the sponsors. After receiving funding, the author of the idea can begin to implement the startup. At the same time, you are obliged to report to sponsors about the money spent and transfer the reward.

Crowdfunding and crowdinvesting: the essence of the concepts

There is individual and collective investment. In the first case, one owner of equity capital uses it in directions beneficial to him.

The second form of investment involves the presence of a large group of people, often even strangers to each other and living in different parts of the globe. They buy shares in a large project and subsequently make a profit.

This collective form of investment is inherent in crowdfunding. This concept is a type of investing in some new risky project (startup), most often with the goal of supporting its owner financially without any benefit. You simply do charity out of your own motives and give others the opportunity to realize their dreams.

Crowdinvesting is one of the types of crowdfunding, which does not involve gratuitous assistance, but a return of invested funds with favorable interest rates. You give money for the development of some business, which, upon further implementation, gives you a share of its profits.

Pros and cons of crowdinvesting

Crowdinvesting has several advantages that attract new investors:

Possibility to invest a small amount (for those who do not have large sums to invest);
Having a high income when choosing a far-reaching project;
You can invest in several projects so as not to lose your money and definitely make a profit.

At the same time, crowdinvesting is not suitable for everyone, as there are also disadvantages:

The development of fraud in this area (an unscrupulous person can take your money and spend it for his own purposes. He will not return a penny to investors);
The project may not raise the required amount (then the startup will not be implemented);
Perhaps the implemented project will not bring any profit or will be unprofitable;
There are few legislative norms regulating the relations of participants;
There is a risk of bankruptcy of the platform itself, which acts as an intermediary between investors and project owners;
You will not be able to predict the outcome of the transaction in advance (you may lose 100% of your invested funds).

By placing your project on display for potential investors, its owner receives the following advantages:

You can promote your idea even if you do not have the funds to implement it;
You can collect a string from the world and get the desired amount (you do not depend on two or three large investors dictating their terms);
An easy process of raising money (you just register on a special platform, and don’t run around the city looking for sponsors).

Types of crowdinvesting

One of the possible schemes for the functioning of crowdinvesting platforms was described above. Conventionally, it can be called “ financing through an intermediary ,” since money from the investor goes to the entrepreneur through an intermediary, who directly handles all financial processes. In other words, one entrepreneur receives money from several investors.

But there are other schemes of work.

Direct crowdinvesting. The site simply serves as a showcase. Investors and entrepreneurs find each other and enter into an agreement directly. The site does not charge money for mediation and does not provide intermediary services at all - it works like a bulletin board in a newspaper. The investor assumes full responsibility for investments.

Distributed funding (pools). Here the platform selects projects and forms them into a certain pool. Then it attracts money from investors and contributes the collected amount to the pool, i.e. in fact, distributing funds between several projects. This reduces risks, since if one organization defaults, there will still be profit - due to the success of other companies.

But there are also disadvantages: investors have to wait a long time until the pool is formed, there is no opportunity to choose for themselves which projects to distribute the money to, and, frankly, there may be no profit if more than half of the companies in the pool default.

Mixed financing. Here, the crowdinvesting platform also forms companies into pools, but the investor can choose between which pools he will distribute funds. For example, he will choose investments in IT companies with high growth potential, but the risk of losing money, or in industrial companies with small gains, but significantly lower risks.

There are other forms of co-financing. For example, on the Simex and Webmoney exchanges (shareholder.ru), primary investors are offered to buy shares in the project , which can then be traded on the secondary market and are available for purchase by third-party investors. Each share brings a certain profitability (as a percentage of the total profitability of the project). The greater the number of shares in the investor's property, the greater the profit. Sounds like stocks and dividends, doesn't it?

And here’s another interesting article: Which Russian companies are conducting buyback in 2020

How did crowdinvesting develop?

Crowdinvesting is a relatively new concept both for foreign countries and for Russia. For the first time, Americans began investing in projects. The idea then spread to Great Britain and Italy. Today, this form of investment is also known in Russia.

The first site appeared in America in 2005. 2011 was a landmark year for the development of crowdfunding in the UK. And in 2012, the first site was launched in our country.

The American population actively invests in startups; this type of investment has long been known in the United States, and therefore has managed to gather many fans. European sites are actively operating and increasing the number of their clients, as well as successfully implemented projects.

In Russia, over the short years of the existence of crowdfunding, there have already been several cases when sites were closed. This suggests that this area is just beginning to sprout in the country. Our population is accustomed to keeping money under their pillows or in bank deposits. No one even thinks about giving them to risky projects through crowdinvesting sites in Russia, which could go bankrupt.

Nevertheless, there are already positive results from the introduction of crowdinvesting. For example, a well-known company raised funds for business development thanks to other investors. What’s most interesting is that investors in Russian startups are mostly Americans.

Today crowdfunding is most developed in the USA and the European Union. South Africa, Australia and Russia are far behind them.

Crowdinvesting participants

Crowdinvesting implies the presence of several participants in the transaction (objects and subjects).

These parties are:

The startups themselves (projects that need funds for promotion);
Micro-investors (individuals who invest small amounts of money);
Platforms (all kinds of platforms for virtual meetings of project owners and investors);
Venture funds (special organizations that raise funds for the development of high-risk projects);
Professional private investors (these are millionaires who want to increase their wealth);
Business angels (individuals who have great wealth and are willing to spend it on developing projects at the idea stage. They are most often interested in technological developments);
The state (in Russia, this party currently ranks last among participants, since there are no laws regulating the activities of platforms as such).

Classification of crowdinvesting

There are three main crowdinvesting models:

Royalty;
Lending with the help of the masses;
Joint Stock.

The first model implies that if the startup is successfully implemented, the investor will receive some income from the company’s profits. This form is applicable in the field of cinema, music, games, etc.

The second option is similar to issuing a loan to the startup owner to develop his idea. After collecting money for the project, it is implemented. After this, investors receive a return on their investment and interest.

Shareholder crowdfunding is the most interesting model that allows you to become the owner of company shares. When the startup owner is able to place shares on the stock exchange, all investors have the right to purchase them and can also participate in the company’s shareholder meetings.

The following categories of crowdfunding are also divided:

According to the purposes of creating the project (social, political or creative);
According to the type of income of the investor (charitable - which does not imply profit for the investor and financial - with the payment of interest).

Crowdinvesting schemes

Despite the abundance of crowdinvesting platforms and the variety of rules on them, there are three main “crowd investing” schemes.

Royalty is the right to a share of income or profit from the activities of a company. The investor may also receive non-financial benefits. Often this is participation in the management of the company or even in the selection of personnel. This investment model is typical for music and film projects, software development and games.
Crowdlending is the issuance of loans to legal entities and individuals through crowdinvesting. This model of “people’s” lending differs from the usual one in that the lenders are individuals, not financial institutions. Borrowers not only receive a loan on simpler and more favorable terms than at a bank. What is important to them is that crowdlending allows them to get a loan for purposes that banks do not finance at all. The investor's benefit is that the interest rate from crowdlending is higher than on deposits. I would recommend this model both as an investment tool and as a source of borrowing funds. In the latter case, only advantages are visible in comparison with banks or pawnshops.

There is another option for crowdlending - issuing interest-free loans to the poor (social lending). Although this type of lending is not positioned as charity, they say, the money must be returned, it cannot be classified as an investment. Any investment implies profit for the investor, which cannot be said about social lending.

Equity crowdfunding - Investors purchase securities, becoming full shareholders of the company they are funding. This model is very beneficial for investors, since by becoming co-owners of the enterprise, they receive additional guarantees and reduce risks. Unfortunately, equity crowdfunding is not widespread due to the lack of necessary laws providing for this method of acquiring shares.

The principle of operation of the sites

The intermediary between the investor and the project is a special platform that has its own characteristics. This is a kind of exchange that helps startupers (development owners) realize their ideas with the help of a large number of investors. It gathers a large number of people who want to invest their money in the project.

To become a member of this site, you just need to go to the site and register. Transferring money in favor of a project you like occurs in just a few clicks. First, you need to deposit funds into the site’s account. Then transfer them to the startuper’s account.

Fundraising takes varying amounts of time. It all depends on the size of the required amount and the nature of the project. As soon as the project collects the required money, it begins to implement its developments.

There are fees for various types of transactions. Their size is determined by the working conditions of a particular site. Some platforms take a commission on the total amount raised by the project, while others charge a commission on each payment to the startup.

Alternative crowdfunding services

In recent years, the largest Internet companies Yandex and Mail.ru have launched their own products to support crowdfunding in Russia.

The “Together” project from Yandex is a non-standard platform that allows you to create Internet pages asking for funding for various purposes, including personal needs (see Crowdfunding for personal needs and goals). Payments from investors are made immediately and have no restrictions on time or volume.
Dobro Mail.Ru - the service offers a huge number of charitable projects that anyone can finance. Fundraising is carried out until the required amount is received.

In addition to the main platforms, tracker sites (Thestartman.ru) aimed at investors are also appearing. Such services offer convenient viewing of all current crowdfunding projects in Russia, collected on various websites.

The main advantage of domestic sites is the opportunity to receive money even in the absence of the fact of collecting the full amount, and often without a time limit. This allows projects to be launched, providing newly attracted investors with real evidence of the effective operation of the public financing system.

Who can engage in crowdinvesting

If you want to invest your accumulated funds in any project, you need to think in advance about all the risks and the amount of return you would like to receive.

Crowdinvesting is suitable for you if you:

You are not afraid of losing the money invested (the riskiness of the transaction is due to the fact that the project may not be realized);
Are you ready to wait a long time (this area involves receiving income only after a few years);
You realize that you are not investing in a finished project, but only in an idea (all crowdinvesting implies the presence of several stages of investment);
You have extra money (if you have been saving for some important purchase, you should not risk it);
You will be able to assess the future prospects of the project yourself (not all exchanges check startups for their compliance with reality).

Disadvantages of crowdinvesting

Despite the control and selection carried out by crowdinvesting platforms, the risk of fraud on the part of entrepreneurs is higher than with other investment methods.
There is a risk that the project will not start at all due to a simple lack of money. This happens when entrepreneurs fail to raise enough funds through a crowdinvesting platform. In this case, the money will be returned to you, but, of course, there will be no profit.
The project may turn out to be unprofitable and close, and the investment will “burn out.” This risk is inherent in any venture capital investment and is offset by greater potential returns than investments in traditional companies.
Crowdinvesting is often not regulated at the legislative level, so if problems arise, it is impossible to resolve them through the courts.
Often new crowdinvesting platforms are closed at the initial stage due to their unprofitability.

Now that you have learned what crowdinvesting is, you can decide for yourself how interesting this method is for investing or involving funds in a project.

Before investing money through a specific platform, try to study its history and rules as much as possible, and also be sure to read the reviews of those who have already worked with it. You should not invest money through a new crowdinvesting platform that has not managed to earn a positive reputation. Try to minimize the risk at least at this stage.

It is also necessary to take a balanced approach to choosing an investment project and make a decision only after a thorough assessment of possible risks and prospects. Actually, this advice applies to any method of investing.

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What is the life path of a project on the crowdinvesting platform?

Implementing a startup is a long process that can take several years.

The main stages of its development include:

Registration on the site (choosing a direction and laying out all the necessary information for potential investors);
Collection of the amount;
Going beyond the platform (when the required amount is collected and the startup begins to be implemented in life);
Starting a business (getting started);
Development of the company (the emergence of regular customers and an increase in their number);
Receiving your first net profit (after several years).

When a project goes off-site, the investor needs to constantly monitor its implementation. He should be interested in how the company is doing, so that in case of possible failure he can sell his share and not be left in the red.

Is it possible to earn a lot on crowdinvesting?

The more risky the project, the more you can earn from it. But this statement only applies to successful startups. If you invest in several unpromising projects, you will lose every share purchased.

When you invest a small amount in one project, there is a 90% chance that you will not get it back. Therefore, when investing in venture capital, it is better to diversify the portfolio, that is, distribute the available funds in different directions.

In the case of crowdinvesting and a small available amount, it is better to invest the latter in equal shares in several startups. If at least one of them wins, then the income received will cover all losses from the others.

Currently, there are a large number of sites with a high barrier to entry. If you have an amount of less than 100,000 rubles, you will not be able to become a member of one of them. True, platforms with a lower participation rate also exist, and you can register on them even with 1000 rubles in your pocket.

In some countries, the minimum total threshold for joining such a platform is established at the legislative level. And if your annual income is below the legal limit, then you won’t be able to become an investor.

Existing platforms understand that it is easier to make money on a project with the help of a large number of investors who invest small amounts. If you deposit 1000 rubles, of course, your profit will not bring in millions, but it is quite possible to get up to 1000% in a year. It all depends on the investor’s intuition and chance.

Russian crowdinvesting sites.

In 2014, the 3 leading platforms (StartTrack, VCStart and WeShare) managed to collect about 45 million rubles. To date, two of these sites have closed and only StartTrack is operating.

StartTrack can be considered the only reliable and time-tested crowdinvesting platform.

There are now 760 investors registered on StartTrack. In 2014, they were able to collect 30 million rubles of investment from 200 people. This means that the average investment amount was 1,500,000 rubles.

These figures confirm the positioning of the site. They are aimed at attracting large investors. The minimum investment amount here is 100,000 rubles.

How much money are people willing to invest in crowdinvesting?

In general, this project aims only to organize a meeting between the investor and the founder of the startup. After all, no one will invest such large sums “without looking”.

Advice for novice investors

If you decide to finance a project, then first you need to conduct its examination. This action in some cases is carried out by the platform on which the project is hosted.

The site owners immediately weed out unpromising areas after a thorough analysis. They study the business plan presented for general review and compare various indicators. If the obtained values clearly cannot be implemented in life, then the fate of such a startup will not be decided by the platform.

There are sites that offer investors untested projects. Investors themselves must analyze their viability.

To invest money in the “right” startup, follow these recommendations:

Pay attention to the risks indicated in the plan (correlate their magnitude with your possible losses);
Look through the entire object and try to understand whether it will gain its fans and whether the product of its implementation will be in demand;
Find out as much information as possible about the owner of the startup (how much money he has already raised for the project or how much he personally has available for implementation purposes. If he already has some kind of enterprise, pay attention to finding information about it).

Who can place their project on a specialized site

If you have developed an interesting plan, you can implement it using different means:

Using personal savings;
Receive financial assistance from the state in the form of a grant;
Take out a bank loan;
Find an investor.

Most often, your own savings are not enough to implement your ideas, and therefore borrowed funds are a way out of the situation. Support from the regional administration can only be useful if you need a small amount.

Also, government assistance involves several stages of obtaining money - from collecting a large package of documents to speaking before a commission, which may not approve of your ideas.

A bank loan implies a too high interest rate. And if your project is not implemented, you will also have to repay the loan amount with all interest.

The best way to promote your development is to find an investor whose goals coincide with yours. Most often, they demand income only if their undertakings are successfully implemented.

If the startup fails, you won't owe anyone anything. In order not to waste time searching for a good investor, you can register your business plan on one of the specialized platforms. Here you can find a large number of helpers. Collecting money does not burden you, since this is done by the platform using a well-functioning automatic system.

Crowdinvesting. What is this?

So, crowdinvesting is a type of crowdfunding. But if in crowdfunding people invest money in a particular project free of charge (or almost free of charge), then crowdinvesting is built on share capital.

In other words,

Crowdinvesting is investing money in a project for the opportunity to receive part of the profit in the future. Those. An investor, investing in a project, claims a certain share of the profit.

So the startup investor becomes a shareholder and receives a percentage of the company’s income and its sales (profits).

For example, a certain group of people wants to start producing branded clothing, creates a business plan and invites other people to participate in the development of the company. Interested people invest money in the company and automatically become its shareholders. Those. when a company opens, starts producing clothes and receiving income from it, a certain percentage of the proceeds will go to those people who financed the development of this company at the launch stage.

In theory, this looks like a type of passive income: you invest once and then receive money from the company once a quarter until the very end of its existence. And if you chose a project in which you invested wisely and the project suddenly gained wild popularity, then there is a high probability of making a fortune from the profits of this company.

This is worth remembering:

Speaking about crowdinvesting, it is worth considering that the profit of the copyright holder and the profit of the investor will only be if the project not only started successfully, but also works quite successfully for a certain period of time .

Why is crowdinvesting in Russia associated with great risks?

There is a crisis in Russia now. Many companies open and many close. Many fail at the launch stage. Others are launched, but go bankrupt within a few months after opening. This is generally a normal and natural process: in business, the strongest survive.

It turns out that crowdinvesting is an extremely risky tool for making money. The main task of investors is to at least preserve their funds, so investing in projects at the startup stage is clearly not for them. Due to the length of projects and the inability to get out. There are no guarantees or reliable opportunities for quality earnings.

To make money on crowdinvesting, you need to have good analytical thinking , as well as economic sense. Understand the current situation on the Russian market. Choose a project based not on emotions and sympathies, but on common sense. So, for example, it may turn out that some company producing toilet paper will be more in demand and successful than some bright startup with a flashy name and tempting promises.

Therefore, if you are really considering crowdinvesting as a possible option for investment and receiving passive income, then once again weigh all the possible risks before investing your savings in the development of certain projects.

How does crowdinvesting differ from other forms of investment?

You must be aware of the risk of your investment. Crowdinvesting is a form of venture investment. You can get a high return or lose all your invested money.

Unlike mutual funds, individual investment accounts or investments in securities, you are investing specifically in the idea of a future project (which it may not become).

At the beginning of investing, you yourself choose which startup to invest in, the amount for these purposes and the platform. You need to control the entire process of implementing your idea outside the platform.

This activity is quite difficult for inexperienced private investors. And due to the financial illiteracy of our population, some do not even know that they can earn money in this way.

Crowdinvesting carries great risks, and therefore only those who are not afraid of losing money or have a large sum to diversify the project can engage in this type of investment. You also will not know a clear completion time for the project. This date may not coincide with that indicated in the business plan, and therefore the deadline for making a profit may be delayed.

ModuleMoney

The online platform ModulMoney has been operating since 2020. He is a member of the Skolkovo group - in fact, this project originated within Skolkovo and was funded at the state level.

Like Penenza, ModulDengi specializes in issuing loans to companies that have won government contracts. Interestingly, some entrepreneurs manage to receive financing on both platforms - naturally, under different contracts.

Here are some statistics on what kind of loans were issued on the platform.

And here’s another interesting article: What are subordinated bonds and is it worth investing in them?

The declared profitability of the site is 25-35% per annum, the investment period is from 1 to 6 months. The minimum investment amount is not limited - you can start with at least 1 ruble. You choose the investment sites yourself. The platform recommends investing in an investment portfolio of 50-100 projects.

You will have to pay taxes on your profits yourself.

The most famous platforms for crowdinvesting in Russia

There are several Russian platforms that are the most popular.

These include:

StartTrack - appeared in 2014, the minimum entry threshold is 10,000 rubles, and the profitability is up to 35%. This is one of the most famous platforms, which has established itself as a reliable crowdinvesting platform;
Aktivo – developed by the owner of the KupiVip and CarPrice platforms. It invests in commercial real estate, which is leased to the Pyaterochka and Victoria supermarkets. To become a participant, you need to deposit at least 500,000 rubles. Promised profitability – up to 17% per annum;
Stream is a project of Alfa-Bank. The minimum amount is 10,000 rubles, which must be kept for at least six months. The profitability promised by the bank is 30%;
Simex – the company has existed since 2015. In its short period of operation, it has already successfully implemented 29 projects. A special feature of the site is the possibility of passive income by attracting referrals (you invite other people to the exchange, from each of whose transactions you will receive income).

Crowdinvesting is collective investment. Crowd - crowd, Investing - investment. That is, crowdinvesting is “investing in a crowd.”

The principle is simple: a person came up with a startup - people chipped in to implement it - the profit from the business is divided among everyone in pre-agreed proportions.

Crowdinvesting is one of the varieties of crowdfunding (Crowd - crowd, Funding - financing).

Crowdfunding

Usually, special crowdfunding platforms - specialized sites that organize the entire crowdfunding process (vetting and analysis of startups, allowing startups and investors to find each other, fundraising, transfer of funds, legal issues, advertising, etc.).

Crowdfunding comes in three directions:

No remuneration (charity). Until 2012 it was the dominant direction. A striking example in Russia is Dobro Mail.ru

With non-financial reward. Non-financial rewards usually include copies of the final product (book, disc, ticket, etc.), autographs, mentions in the credits, participation in the process, and generally anything that the author of the idea can offer. This is the most popular direction of crowdfunding today. The most famous platforms in Russia working in this direction are Boomstarter and Planeta. Around the world - Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

With financial reward (crowdinvesting). Actually, this is what will be discussed in this article.

Types of crowdinvesting

In turn, crowdinvesting comes in three types:

Royalty. With this form of crowdinvesting, the investor has the right to count on a share of the profit of the financed project. This approach is often used when financing music projects (SonicAngel), films (Slated) and games (LookAtMyGame). There is even a platform that allows you to “sell your soul into slavery” for 10 years - Upstart. A person leaves his resume, describing what he needs money for - people chip in - for 10 years a person pays them a certain part of his income.

Public lending (crowdlending). Allows individuals to lend to other individuals or companies. At the same time, the lender receives a higher interest rate than banks offer, and the borrower receives a lower loan interest rate than banks offer, as well as a simplified procedure for obtaining a loan. A special case of public lending is social lending. Here, loan rates are symbolic or non-existent. It turns out to be a kind of mixture between lending and charity.

Crowdlending provides an opportunity, through the crowdlending platform, for lenders and borrowers to bypass intermediaries in the form of banks, which is beneficial both for the lenders and borrowers themselves and for the crowdlending platform.

Equity crowdfunding. The most advanced form of crowdinvesting, in which the investor becomes the owner of part of the financed project (shareholder), with all that it entails (the right to participate in the management of the company, the right to receive dividends). However, this form of crowdinvesting is contrary to the laws of many countries. The bureaucracy puts a spoke in the wheels of the crowdinvesting machine. However, more and more countries are passing laws legalizing and regulating this form of crowdinvesting, which undoubtedly has a positive effect on the development of the economies of these countries.

Advantages and disadvantages

Let's look at the pros and cons of crowdinvesting.

First, let's look at what pros and cons an investor will have to face.

Pros:

Possibility to invest small amounts
Opportunity to find a “gold mine”
Wide opportunities for diversification

Minuses:

Fraud risk
The risk that the project will not be able to raise the necessary funds
The risk that the project will be unprofitable
There are no laws protecting the interests of investors in this area
Risk of bankruptcy of a crowdinvesting platform

As you can see, there are plenty of disadvantages for investors. But for a startup , crowdinvesting has a lot of advantages:

Opportunity to manage your own startup
No dependence on one or two large investors
Investor brand loyalty
Ease of attracting investments

Crowdinvesting in the world

The first crowdinvesting platforms began to appear in 2005 in the USA.

The legislation of most countries greatly hindered the development of crowdinvesting. However, some of their governments began to amend laws that favored the development of “investment in startups for the people.” For example, the most famous black president, so “loved” by the Russian peasant, signed the Startup Financing Act (JOBS Act) in April 2012, designed to stimulate financing of small businesses by private investors and make the crowdinvesting industry more liberal.

In Europe, the UK and Italy have the most liberal legislation in the field of crowdinvesting. By the way, the British sites Seedrs and CrowdCube accept investments from 10 pounds.

Perhaps the most famous sites in the world today are: USA: EquityNet, AngelList, SeedInvest, Funders Club, CircleUP

UK: CrowdCube, Seedrs, Zopa (there must be a joke here about the fact that many of our compatriots invest money in Zopa