The meteoric rise of crowdfunding for entrepreneurs

Just five years ago, a relatively small market of early adopter entrepreneurs crowdfunded for their businesses online to the tune of a reported $880 million. Fast forward to 2015 and crowdfunding grew to over $34 billion - a meteoric rise. In 2016 the crowdfunding industry is on track to account for more funding for entrepreneurs than venture capital, according to a recent report by Massolution. In comparison, the VC industry invests an average of $30 billion each year. Meanwhile, the crowdfunding industry is doubling or more, every year, and is spread across several types of funding models including rewards, donation, equity, and debt/lending. Equity crowdfunding has also emerged as the newest category of crowdfunding and is further accelerating this growth and disruption.The World Bank estimated that crowdfunding would reach $90 billion by 2020, but if the current trend of doubling year over year continues, we’ll see $90 billion reached by 2017. Fascinating stuff to consider for entrepreneurs here in Africa going forward!