There has been much discussion about the potential of investment crowdfunding to empower women and minorities. Occasionally we receive data or research that shares encouraging information that underserved communities are benefiting by newfound sources of capital.
Recently, I saw a datapoint on Crowdcube, the largest UK crowdfunding platform by total funding, that caught my attention. Crowdcube now has over 100,000 female investors on its platform. That’s a lot.
Now, keeping things in perspective, this number represents only 27% of their overall investors (according to info on their site). But still that is pretty impressive.
Crowdcube has facilitated over £307 million (just under $400 million) since platform launch. On Crowdcube, female entrepreneurs have an overall historic funding rate of 75% compared to the 55% achieved by men. According to Crowdcube, female founders have successfully raised almost £6 million for their businesses in Q1 2017 alone. That is pretty encouraging – especially if they can keep that pace up or surpass it.
The UK has moved faster in the alternative finance space and specifically crowdfunding. The US has muddled a long bit due in part to a more challenging regulatory environment. Crowdcube says they want more female entrepreneurs. We say more power to them and hopefully the US can, at some point, match their accomplishments.