CrowdSpace team at the Place to Crowd by Financement Participatif France: how it was 

Our team was glad to participate in the first European crowdfunding networking event on Feb 14th in Paris, organised by Financement Participatif France. It was a pleasure to meet many platform and industry representatives in person to discuss the current state of crowdfunding and what the future possibly holds for us.

At the event, we were exhibiting with our sister-company Lenderkit and were moderating a discussion panel dedicated to technology in crowdfunding and ways to improve user experience.

While there have been so many important discussions brought up, all of them are related to the ESCP regulations and the changes they bring. It’s true that the industry is currently undergoing a significant transformation. 

While we are still enjoying the aftertaste and digesting the opinions shared, here are the key takeaways from the conference:

• The main goal of the ESCP regulations is to create a Pan-European market with fewer yet larger platforms that will include all the services and compete with banks, as equal alternatives. There are signs that this process has already kicked off, and we are likely to see more developments in the coming future.

• The crowdfunding platforms are encouraged to apply for the licence or finalise the process, since being late may cause operational issues that may potentially result in the platform’s closing. As of mid-Feb, there were around 270 platforms still to be regulated.

• ESCP insurances are becoming available in more and more countries which proves that restrictions are indeed gradually disappearing. 

• Some speakers brought up local market specifics and crowdfunding investment types dominating there. For instance, equity is more common for Italy, while lending is mostly concentrated in Estonia and Germany.

• As to the niche specifics, real estate crowdfunding is claimed to be growing and expanding, with new models introduced.

It’s been an exciting event that brought together people behind the crowdfunding industry: regulator, crowdfunding services provider, experts, and lawyers.

Looking forward to the next year event and curious about where 2023 takes the crowdfunding world.