London Becomes The World Capital For Crowdfunding
Only a week on from Chancellor George Osborne’s declaration that “we stand at the dawn of new era of innovative finance” and setting the objective of the UK leading the world, new data from The Crowdfunding Centre reveals London has already overtaken New York and San Francisco to become the world capital of crowdfunding. With around 250,000 campaigns already launched this year worldwide, by the end of July London was leading in the key categories of Business, Technology, Publishing, Gaming, and seven others, making London the top performing centre.
This morning I attended a panel discussion and gathering organised by The Crowdfunding Centre at the Centre for Entrepreneurs to discuss the potential for crowdfunding to facilitate entrepreneurship across the UK and the world, to create new jobs and to help alleviate social exclusion problems in society.
Twelve new crowdfunding projects are now launched every day in London, while on average 32% of these go on to reach their fully funded targets with an average of 70 backers. Driven by the same forces as Moore’s Law, amazingly, crowdfunding is currently doubling around ten times faster!
As a result, The Crowdfunding Centre is seeing an explosion of innovation as very different businesses are now able to get off the ground. Early research indicates that crowdfunded companies are stronger, better supported and live longer, while they make for more mature investment prospects and typically attract rather than seek further investment.
Dr Richard Swart, a leading researcher on crowdfunding, stated that “the UK is leading the world in the development of crowdfunding and alternative finance models, London is the dominant cluster in all sectors which means that it is poised for hyper-growth emanating from the number of crowdfunding projects and the impact such successful projects will have on the economy”.
United Kingdom Overview & Stats
| 41 | NEW PROJECTS EACH DAYWORLDWIDE TOTAL: 440 |
| 8,742 | PROJECTS CREATED JAN-JUN9.4% OF WORLDWIDE TOTAL: 93,205 |
| 30% | IS THE AVERAGE FULLY FUNDED SUCCESS RATEWORLDWIDE AVG: 26% |
| 53 | PEOPLE BACK EACH OF THESEWORLDWIDE AVG: 67 |
| $25,034(£15,646) | WAS THE AVERAGE AMOUNT RAISEDWORLDWIDE AVG: $18,498 (£11,561) |
| $52,890,461(£33,056,538) | WAS THE TOTAL RAISED JAN-JUN13.1% OF WORLDWIDE TOTAL: $404,511,158 (£252,819,474) |
London Overview & Stats
| 12 | NEW PROJECTS EACH DAYUNITED KINGDOM TOTAL: 41 |
| 2,463 | PROJECTS CREATED JAN-JUN28.2% OF UNITED KINGDOM TOTAL: 8,742 |
| 32% | IS THE AVERAGE FULLY FUNDED SUCCESS RATEUNITED KINGDOM AVG: 30% |
| 70 | PEOPLE BACK EACH OF THESEUNITED KINGDOM AVG: 53 |
| $17,834(£11,146) | WAS THE AVERAGE AMOUNT RAISEDUNITED KINGDOM AVG: $25,034 (£15,646) |
| $11,166,127(£6,978,829) | WAS THE TOTAL RAISED JAN-JUN21.1% OF UNITED KINGDOM TOTAL: $52,890,461 (£33,056,538) |
The forthcoming second ‘State of the Crowdfunding Nation’ report revealing how the UK is faring in it’s appointed quest to lead the world in future finance will be released on 1st September and on 13th November the third ‘Crowdfunding Deep Impact Conference’ will explore how Crowdfunding is rebooting, innovation, venture creation and entrepreneurship’.
