Thomson Reuters will begin tracking crowdfunding data on its Eikon desktop, as new research projects explosive growth in the UK’s alternative finance market. Thomson Reuters partnered with Crowdnetic, a provider of real-time data and research to the global marketplace-lending and crowdfunded-startup industries for the new feed, which aims to give investors more insight into the dynamics of this fast-growing investment area. In the news yesterday, Crowdnetic announced the launch of “Marketplace Lending Gateway”, a centralized technology platform that connects loan applicants from banks and retailers to alternative funding sources through a real-time matching and allocation engine.
Regarding Eikon, data will be tagged using Thomson Reuters‘ machine-readable identifier PermID, which creates a unique reference for each individual data item, enabling it to track poorly described early-stage entities and unlisted securities. In the release, Debra Walton, Thomson Reuters Chief Content Officer, Financial & Risk, commented that recent regulatory changes have been a catalyst for the development of crowdfunding as a serious way for companies to gain funding.
“The resulting surge in unlisted securities poses significant challenges to investors and regulators seeking to track deals and build an efficient primary market,” Walton averred. “With the data management and analysis provided by PermID and Thomson Reuters Eikon, we can help financial professionals gain a comprehensive view of the crowdfunding market.”
A new study from the Centre for Economics and Business Research commissioned on behalf of Fiserv puts a value of £12.3 billion per year on the UK’s alternative finance market by 2020, up from £1.2 billion in 2014. The figures, which include loans from P2P lending and crowdfunding, would represent a £14,000 loan for every small business applying for credit.
