03 Mar Why crowdfunding and Amsterdam belong together
Crowdfunding Day 2015, the largest EU crowdfunding event, will be held in Amsterdam
Crowdfunding is growing very fast. Douw&Koren recently published a report showing that in 2014 €63 Million is raised by the Dutch crowdfunding platforms. Being twice as much as in 2013. Other reports show that the same level of growth (a doubling from 2013 to 2014) is being realized on a global level.
Crowdfunding is basically an online activity. However Douw&Koren decided that it is not enough to be present online. They felt that it was time to organize a serious offline event. Together with Erick Derksen from Event Department they took the initiative to organize the largest crowdfunding event in Europe: Crowdfunding Day 2015. It will be held on 12 May in Amsterdam.
Crowdfunding ‘avant la lettre’
Holland FinTech was invited to the preview of Crowdfunding Day 2015 in order to warm up for this event. Since the event will take place in the Amsterdam Arena, there was no better speaker to kick off the preview than Henk Markerink. He is the CEO of the Amsterdam Arena, home of Ajax, the famous Dutch soccer club. Markerink explained that in order to get the stadium built 20 years ago, they practiced crowdfunding ‘avant la lettre’ by issuing certificates.
We from Holland FinTech believe that the roots of crowdfunding can be found at a much earlier point in history: the issuance of shares by the Eastern Indian Company in Amsterdam at the beginning of the 17th century was really the first step in getting a project funded by the crowd. It was one of the largest financial innovations of the time and marked the start of the Golden Age. Since then history took its own course. Nowadays we have other associations with the word crowdfunding.
It is all about transparency
Simon Douw (from Douw&Koren) also took us back in time. He reminded us that the former president of the Dutch Central Bank predicted that crowdfunding platforms would not be able to raise more than a couple of million. With the €63 Million being raised in 2014, the total amount being raised in the Netherlands now sums up to a total of €100 Million.
Douw explained that crowdfunding is all about transparency. He believes, and many others do too, that transparency is one of the specific characteristics of Amsterdam. Douw&Koren did research and discovered that Amsterdam has one of the highest densities in crowdfunding platforms, proving his point that crowdfunding and Amsterdam belong together.
Promising line-up
A grown-up industry is entitled to have its own awards. On Crowdfunding Day the most appealing project that has been crowdfunded will receive an award. To get an idea of what kind of projects will qualify for this award there was a great line-up of projects (be aware, this is not the final list but just a demo of possible projects):
- Crowdfunding platform Kapitaal op Maat presented Brownies & Downies
- Next in line was Collin Crowdfund with Bikken en Bakken
- Followed by Symbid with Green Daddy
- The First Village Trade Center was presented by Wekomenerwel
- Oneplanetcrowd named Snappcar as a possible nominee for the award
- Last but not least was Geldvoorelkaar with Wingman Condoms.
All together a really promising preview of what is going to happen on 12 May in the Amsterdam Arena!
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