The Crowdfunding Ecosystem: Benefits and Examples of Crowdfunding Initiatives

Crowdfunding is a special form of crowdsourcing. The idea of crowdfunding is to collect many small amounts of money from a community in order to support and realize a certain project, and thus to provide a new dimension of venture capital financing. Similar to crowdsourcing, all stakeholders interested in a project idea can support the realization of the project with their funds. The gesture of appreciation and goodwill towards the funders can take various forms, from a simple communication of ‘thank you’, to other monetary rewards, depending on the degree of contribution. In a nutshell, crowdfunding is defined by the scenario when “co-thinking” micro investors provide small amounts for big ideas. Combined with the intelligent use of “crowd-technologies”, crowdfunding shapes new ways of entrepreneurship.