Crowdfunding Market Grows 167% in 2014: Crowdfunding Platforms Raise $16.2 Billion, Finds Research Firm Massolution(R)

LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwired - Mar 31, 2015) - Crowdfunding is accelerating at an unprecedented rate and impacting government policy, informing enterprise innovation, and changing the role of financial institutions around the world. Today, massolution®, a research firm specializing in the crowdsourcing and crowdfunding industries, released its annual 2015CF - Crowdfunding Industry Report. After collecting data on 1,250 active crowdfunding platforms (CFPs) worldwide and undertaking significant further research, the results reveal that CFPs raised $16.2 billion in 2014, a 167% increase over the $6.1 billion raised in 2013. North America still accounts for the largest market but 2014 saw Asia overtake Europe, by a small margin. With exponential growth in Asia, Massolution forecasts this lead will increase significantly in 2015 with the delta between Asia and Europe increasing to over $4 Billion. We predict that Europe's 20.1% of market share in 2014 will decline slightly in 2015 when Europe will account for 18.8% of the worldwide market.

"In April 2013 we predicted that total crowdfunding volume by the end of 2013 would nearly double from 2012's $2.7 billion but in fact the market reached $6.1 billion, largely due to faster growth than anticipated in Asia. Acceleration continued in 2014 achieving an impressive $16.2 billion in funding volume and we are forecasting that worldwide crowdfunding volumes will more than double again in 2015, to reach $34.4," said CEO of Massolution, Carl Esposti. "Surprises materializing from this year's research included GoFundMe topping Kickstarter as the largest donation/reward based CFP and astounding growth in the P2P lending market in Asia, stemming largely from the Chinese market. Further, the top 5 CFPs in North America increased wallet share during the period 2011-14 while in Europe the top 5 lost 30% of their market share, indicating that the markets in North America and Europe are shaping up very differently."

Growth Rates By Region in 2014
North America retained its market lead in 2014 but Asia topped Europe to become the second largest region by funding volume.

• North America: crowdfunding volumes grew 145% to $9.46 billion
• Asia: crowdfunding volumes grew 320% to $3.4 billion
• Europe: crowdfunding volumes grew 141% to $3.26 billion
• South America, Oceania and Africa grew 167%, 59% and 101%, respectively

Growth Rates By Models in 2014
The growth in funding volumes continued to be primarily driven by lending-based crowdfunding, but significant annual growth in equity-based crowdfunding and increased adoption of newer hybrid and royalty-based models indicates that the allocation of funding volume across different models will be more highly distributed over the coming years.

• Lending-based crowdfunding grew 223% to $11.08 billion
• Equity-based crowdfunding grew 182% to $1.1 billion
• Hybrid-based crowdfunding grew 290% to $487 million
• Royalty-based crowdfunding grew 336% to $273 million
• Donation- and Reward-based crowdfunding grew 45% and 84% respectively

Most Active Categories in 2014
Crowdfunding's popularity as a way to fund creative, philanthropic, and social endeavors still prevails but crowdfunding's application for entrepreneurial ventures began to gain significant traction over the last few years. Business and Entrepreneurship had become the lead category by 2012 at 27.4% of total crowdfunding volume and in 2014 had increased in importance, accounting for over 40% of worldwide funding volume. In 2014, the lead categories share of funding volume was:

• Business & Entrepreneurship at 41.3% / $6.7bn
• Social Causes 18.9% / $3.06bn
• Films & Performing Arts 12.13% / $1.97bn
• Real Estate 6.25% / $1.01bn
• Music and Recording Arts 4.54%/ $736m

Further insights in 2015CF include:

• Historical comparison of crowdfunding's growth 2011 through 2014
• Breakdown of Regional funding volume by model and model by region
• Top 11 performing crowdfunding categories
• Average deal size for each crowdfunding model
• Crowdfunding outlook trends: 15 major developments
• CFP leaderboards worldwide, by region and by model
• Growth in CFP numbers and worldwide distribution
• Market predictions for 2015 by region and model

Research Methodology
The 2015CF - Crowdfunding Industry Report is a research report that provides a unique and in-depth analysis of crowdfunding market size, composition, trends and composition. The Crowdfunding Industry Survey, to which Massolution received 463 high-quality responses, was conducted during late 2014 and early 2015 and resulted in the most comprehensive data collection on the worldwide crowdfunding market to date. Massolution has conducted significant follow-up research via other reliable channels to complete the profiling of the global crowdfunding industry.

You can purchase a licensed copy of the report here. Publication of the report was supported by lead research sponsors GoFundMe, Wealth Migrate, DST Systems and investUP. Courtesy of our sponsors, 50 copies of the report are available at 50% off list price using coupon code FIRST50.

Journalists interested in a copy of the report can contact research@crowdsourcing.org.

About massolution®
Massolution® is a unique research and advisory firm specializing in the crowdsourcing and crowdfunding industries, that is helping to write the guidelines for a new way to do and fund business. Massolution works with governments, institutions and enterprises in the design and implementation of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding business models that drive improved business performance, product and service innovation, enhanced levels of customer engagement and in the formation of new sources of capital. Massolution also publishes the industry website www.crowdsourcing.org. To enquire about services, contact research@crowdsourcing.org, or for more information, visit www.massolution.com.