Crowdfunding for SMEs: A European Perspective provides a valuable insight into this new source of capital. In
particular, the authors focus on financial return crowdfunding, which repays
the crowd either through debt or equity. This source of capital might play a
significant role in the future becoming an alternative or a complement to
traditional funding sources. It is therefore of the uttermost importance to
understand what has boosted its exponential growth in recent years, as well as
the key drivers of success of P2P lending and equity crowdfunding campaigns on
both the funders and the fundraisers side.

 Due to the financial nature of the
return provided to the crowd, financial return crowdfunding has been the object
of recent waves of regulation, although the European Union still lacks a set of
common rules. The aim of regulation should be twofold, to protect investors
and, at the same time, to favor the financing for SMEs. In this book, the
authors explore such issues and the regulatory policies, while looking to the
future of financial return crowdfunding as an evolving source of capital.