Equity- and debt-based crowdfunding in Belgium: Developments over the 2012 – 2017 period

Crowdfunding entailing a financial return has gained ground in Belgium. Since 2012, different platforms of crowdfunding providing crowdlending, equity-based crowdfunding or both have emerged. In order to assess the scale and the characteristics of the existing crowdfunding market, the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) decided to conduct a survey of the five main crowdfunding platforms operating in Belgium: Lita.co, Ecco Nova, Look&Fin, Spreds and Bolero Crowdfunding. Each platform was surveyed about the crowdfunding campaigns launched during the period from January 2012 to December 2017. The objective of the present paper is to report the main findings of the analysis of the collected data.