The best SME crowdfunding platforms

SME crowdfunding platforms operate in 59 countries and focus on Equity, Debt, P2P lending, Reward, Tokenized, Donation and Mini-bonds providing different investment opportunities for retail and accredited investors. The biggest number of SME crowdfunding platforms are in Andorra, Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, United Kingdom, Ukraine, USA.

The minimum investment amount varies from platform to platform and usually depends on the investment type or particular platform goals. On this listing, you will find crowdfunding platforms that offer investment opportunities starting at € with a maximum investment amount of 1250000 €.

As a crowdfunding platform directory, we verify the most active crowdfunding platforms if they reach out and claim their profile. 70 crowdfunding platforms claimed their profile in this directory. They include Alixco, Prospera, Happy Pot, Wafer, 8lends and others.

Fun fact: among all the crowdfunding platforms listed here, the oldest has been founded in 200 and the youngest in 2024.

How do SME crowdfunding platforms work?

While more crowdfunding businesses enter the market yearly, the basic principle behind them remains the same.

Investors register on crowdfunding websites and choose a project or a campaign to invest in. Depending on the platform’s business model, if it’s equity, P2P, or even donation-based crowdfunding, investors receive either some regular returns or partial ownership of the companies.

On the other side of the bargain, borrowers must present a compelling presentation and description of their campaign or project to win attention.

For both sides, additional verification steps may be required to confirm their trustworthiness, credibility, and positive credit history.

Keep in mind that as the niche keeps evolving, crowdfunding websites for SME may tailor their own registration process to improve their user experience or comply with the legislation they fall under.

How to choose the best crowdfunding platform for SME?

People naturally tend to jump onto the most popular options when looking for the best SME crowdfunding sites. Still, regardless of the platform’s reputation, be sure to research it based on the following aspects:

• if it’s regulated;
• if there have been any defaults or failed projects, and how they were processed;
• if it offers buyback guarantees;
• what fees it charges;
• who runs the company;
• if it has a secondary market and auto-invest feature available;
• what general reviews are.

This basic set of questions will help to come up with a list of options that match your ambitions, feel reliable, and offer just the right risk-reward ratio for you.

On top of that, we recommend studying the platform’s terms & conditions section, and if you run into any unclear provision, don’t hesitate to reach out to the provider’s support. It’s an easy yet effective way to see how transparent the company is and how it treats its clients.

How to start investing in SME projects?

Crowdfunding platforms for SME projects offer options today for both newbies and experienced investors.

After doing your due diligence and checking the platform’s history and trustworthiness, the next major step is to start investing. But the important part is to start small and diversify across multiple loan types.

It’ll allow you to reduce the risks of losing all of your investments and see which loan types seem more promising. We also recommend keeping up with the SME news and following investors’ blogs to educate yourself and stay in the loop with recent developments.