September 28, 2015 @ 4:00 am By Therese Torris  |  

Crowdfunding, in particular in its presales form, has proven an excellent channel to accelerate the process of innovation and lower its risk. It enables entrepreneurs to get early feedback and submit their prototypes and service concepts to the ultimate market test: the customers’ willingness to… Read More

September 18, 2015 @ 10:00 am By Therese Torris  |  

Financement Participatif France (FPF), the French national association of crowdfunding platforms has released the sector’s market numbers for the first semester of 2015: a 100% increase from the same period last year. Results were said to be “encouraging” as France is still a very long way… Read More

July 31, 2015 @ 8:41 am By Therese Torris  |  

SparkUp is a new French startup, the brainchild of 24 year old, now 26. And yes, age matters. Why? Because it takes a lot of disruptive energy to reinvent equity crowdfunding when it is barely emerging as a force. SparkUp positions itself as a B2B… Read More

July 21, 2015 @ 9:08 am By Therese Torris  |  

Alternativa.fr is an intriguing cross between an equity crowdfunding platform and an alternative exchange system which gives it something many crowdfunding platforms would like to have: a secondary market for trading SME’s private equity shares. Creating liquidity for private shares is an ongoing discussion in… Read More

July 10, 2015 @ 1:05 am By Therese Torris  |  

Seedrs is a star among equity crowdfunding platforms. Founded in 2009 in the UK, the company pioneered innovations such as raising funds for several crowdfunding platforms – including itself – and launching a crowdfunding campaign for a listed company. Such bold moves have made Seedrs… Read More

June 27, 2015 @ 10:00 am By Therese Torris  |  

  Not long ago the European Crowdfunding Network (ECN)  was just an informal group of Europeans involved in the emerging crowdfunding market. Only in 2013 did it come into legal existence as a formal body. Yesterday, during its second General Assembly in the beautiful city… Read More

June 15, 2015 @ 10:21 am By Therese Torris  |  

How does equity crowdfunding co-exist with business angel networks and seed investment clubs? Does it enable networks to attract new members, or, on the contrary, does it lure existing members away from the networks? Numbers from France Angels, the French Federation of business angels, seem… Read More

April 29, 2015 @ 8:24 am By Therese Torris  |  

Serial entrepreneurs are a rare species. Even rarer are serial co-founders like Vincent Ricordeau, Ombline le Lasseur and Adrien Aumont. In 2009, the three French entrepreneurs co-founded rewards-based crowdfunding platform KissKissBankBank with a mission to “free creativity”. Since then, the platform has collected more than… Read More

April 16, 2015 @ 12:19 pm By Therese Torris  |  

French equity crowdfunding platform SmartAngels and the French arm of global insurer Allianz announced today the launch of a crowdfunding investment fund. Allianz’s customers will be able to use SmartAngels’ crowdfunding platform to invest in startups and high-growth companies. Allianz France will co-invest in the… Read More

April 7, 2015 @ 8:50 am By Therese Torris  |  

Ulule Challenges Global Crowdfunding Platforms with Rapid Growth & Stellar Success Rates. France is home to the Pan-European reward-based crowdfunding platform Ulule. Ulule started in late 2010. Since then, it has collected nearly €29 million and recruited more than 650,000 members. In the neck and… Read More

March 23, 2015 @ 3:36 pm By Therese Torris  |  

Peer to peer lending platform Unilend has announced a significant investment in the amount of € 8 million from BPI France, a state government investment fund, Ventech and 360 Capital Partners.  The direct lender was launched in 2013 prior to formal regulations which were finalized in… Read More

March 10, 2015 @ 1:00 am By Therese Torris  |  

Leading French crowdfunding platforms Anaxago and WiSeed launched real estate business units to meet strong demand from both real estate developers and investors. In this interview, Souleymane Galadima, the Managing Director of WiSeed Immobilier, presents his company’s current real estate crowdfunding model based on debt… Read More

March 5, 2015 @ 9:11 am By Therese Torris  |  

French real estate developers badly need private equity and French savers have a strong, yet until recently unsatisfied, appetite for investing in real estate development. Crowdfunding comes to the rescue. Two leading French equity crowdfunding sites Anaxago and WiSeed have recently launched a division dedicated… Read More

February 9, 2015 @ 2:00 am By Therese Torris  |  

Following up on the recent announcement of the partnership between French Groupama Bank and peer-to-business lender Unilend, we spoke with Nicolas Lesur, founder and CEO of Unilend, about what makes this deal unique and how it will accelerate Unilend’s rapid growth. Peer-to-business lending platform Unilend… Read More