Perception of investment crowdfunding in Germany continues to tick up, according to crowdfunding.de. In its annual barometer report, almost 3/4 of surveyed individuals are aware of the ability to raise money online at 74.3%
The segment of people that understand crowdfunding is almost half at 44.4% with 17.4% having participated in offerings.
The numbers continue to grind higher over the years. In 2015, only a quarter of surveyed individuals claimed to understand crowdfunding (24.5%) and just 7.3% had participated in an offering.
While the survey covers both donations (charity) and rewards (e-commerce), investing is (for our purposes) more relevant. The numbers indicate that over 33% of surveyed individuals are interested in online investing via securities platforms with 21.2% undecided and 19.7% being not inclined to participate. The rest simply do not understand the sector.
The demographics for both understand and interest in crowdfunding skews younger – something we have seen before.
As the European Union will offer a harmonized offering exemption starting in November 2021, both awareness and interest in this sector of Fintech should increase. Once issuers are able to raise up to €5 million across all member states expect awareness to push closer to 100%.