The use of equity crowdfunding to launch innovative ventures: insights from three cases

Crowdfunding is the process of collecting money from a large audience to launch an entrepreneurial project. It is mostly based on the use of internet to gather financial resources and leverage the 'wisdom of crowds' to pre-validate the potential of a business idea. In particular, equity crowdfunding allows broad groups of investors to fund new companies in return for ownership of a piece of the business. It is thus an interesting option for supporting the launch of innovative companies, although its adoption is still limited by a number of complexities and an incomplete awareness of potential benefits. In such vein, this paper delineates the status of equity crowdfunding in Italy and presents the analysis of three successful equity crowdfunding campaigns, with the purpose to collect a set of lessons learned and provide useful insights for entrepreneurs and investors as well.