Crowdfunding is the financing of a new project by raising many small amounts of money from a large number of people.
Advantage: Access to capital without equity stakes or rigid bureaucracy.
Disadavantage: A lot of projects never get off the ground which can be frustrating given the amount of time you can spend setting up the campaign.
The following are the main crowdfunding platforms in Ireland:
iCrowdFund:
An Irish crowdfunding company from the same people that developed iDonate, iFundraise and iRegister.
Website: www.icrowdfund.ie
Fundit:
An Irish owned not for profit organisation working to support resilience and transformation in the cultural sector through research, innovation and partnership.
Website: fundit.ie
Linked Finance:
Another Irish owned crowdfunding site with favourable commission rates. Minimum amount of €5000; maximum of €250,000 with terms of up to 3 years.
Website: www.linkedfinance.com
Flender:
Another Irish owned crowdfunding site with favourable commission rates. Minimum amount of €5000; maximum of €300,000 with terms of up to 3 years.
Website: www.flender.ie
SPARK:
Ireland's first equity crowdfunding platform. The crowd then subscribes for shares in the company and if the target amount of money is reached the company issues new shares to the investors.
Website: http://sparkcrowdfunding.com/
