05 Feb New Crowdfunding Platform Brings New Opportunities to Startups and SMEs in Serbia
Belgrade Stock Exchange will by the end of March create crowdfunding platform in Serbia for financing startups, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in cooperation with one of the leading platforms in the world.
Director of the Belgrade Stock Exchange, Siniša Krneta, said that the goal of this business move is to help young, innovative companies and entrepreneurs get funds for further growth and development of their projects. He also emphasized that in Serbia, most of the financial market is currently occupied by banks, which, because of the strict regulation, are unable to meet the needs of startups and small businesses. “The Belgrade Stock Exchange intends to bridge this gap. Innovative companies will be able to create campaigns on the platform, under certain conditions, presenting their business concept to future investors and, depending on their assessment, collect the necessary capital,” said the director of the Belgrade Stock Exchange.
This new platform will be suitable for equity-based crowdfunding. Equity-based crowdfunding allows people to invest in an early-stage, private company (a company that is not listed on any stock exchange) in exchange for equity (shares, or a percentage of ownership) in that company. This platform will be open for business ideas from different areas and for both domestic and foreign investors.
Since a large number of good ideas fail because there are no adequate financing models available for the early stage of business, this new approach for financing innovation and startups is a promising tool for all entrepreneurs in the world. The crowdfunding market has become one of the fastest growing markets in the world, as it has been doubling in volume year after year. The World Bank estimated in 2015 that the crowdfunding market would have a turnover of close to USD 100 billion by 2020.
Different initiatives and support actions are working on promotion and regulation of crowdfunding in the world. One of the projects that supports crowdfunding in the Danube Region is CrowdStream which main objective is to improve the effectiveness of public/private business-support for innovative spin-offs and social enterprises to access qualitative alternative financing (crowdfunding).
Hopefully, all these initiatives and projects together will initiate a change in the financing market and help entrepreneurs gain market recognition and develop their businesses.
Source: http://rs.n1info.com/a361709/Biznis/Beogradska-berza-crowdfunding.html