According to the Crowdinvesting Observatory at MIP, the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano, the overall capital raised by Italian companies through crowdfunding platforms in the period 2014-June 2023 was € 1.21 billion. In particular, € 662 million was the capital raised through equity-based platforms (including minibond), and € 551 million through lending-based platforms. Capital raising slowed down slightly for the first time, with € 343.79 million (-1%) raised in June 2022-June 2023.
According to the latest report, as of 30 June 2023, there were 48 authorised equity-based crowdfunding platforms in Italy, 3 less than the previous year.
The equity raised in the period July 2022-June 2023 was € 143 million, with 207 campaigns, a slight decrease compared to the past.
In terms of overall raised capital, the top platforms were Mamacrowd and Walliance. The platform that published the highest number of campaigns was CrowdFundMe.
The reference year is the year the campaign was closed
The average equity raised per campaign was € 180.126, with a 90% success rate. Platforms have become more selective in accepting campaigns where a good level of adherence is expected and more able to leverage the contacts created over time.
These numbers do not consider the real estate equity crowdfunding platforms, which, on average, raised € 1.776.630 per campaign.
The 989 successful campaigns achieved 181% overfunding (median value). By contrast, the unsuccessful closed campaigns amounted to 7.9% of the target (median value).
The average number of investors who joined the equity crowdfunding offer was 96.4 (the median is 54). The average share of capital offered in exchange for the capital raised was 5.91%, with non-voting shares below a certain investment threshold.
Companies raising capital were primarly innovative startups (62%), innovative SMEs (12%) and then “traditional” SMEs (18%) and investment vehicles (8%). The median pre-money valuation was approx. € 2 million.
If we look at the investment size, the average ticket was € 4,223 for individuals and € 49,377 for corporates; both values are trending upwards.
In June 2022-June 2023, 23 minibond placement campaigns were concluded on 2 portals for € 20.82 million (-45%). The leading platform in this area was Fundera.
On the lending side, the total number of lending crowdfunding platforms operating in Italy is 31 as of June 2023: 4 platforms specialised in consumer lending (such as Prestiamoci), and 10 of which specialised in business lending (such as Re-Lende, Ener2Crowd and Evenfi); 17 real estate platforms (such as Recrowd and Rendimento Etico).
The graphs below show the total amounts of loans provided by lending platforms.
The average annual interest rate offered to business lending increased to 8.56% in the first half of 2023 from 7.71% in 2022.
The real estate crowdfunding industry continued to be particularly vibrant in Italy. Typically, these are short- to medium-term projects that aim to redevelop or build from scratch real estate properties with subsequent sale.
Crowdfunding plays an important role in boosting initial financing due to the speed of capital raising and the absence of collateral. Projects financed in this segment over the period June 2022-June 2023 raised an impressive € 178.67 million, about 40% more than in the previous period.
The average annual return offered increased in the first half of 2023 to 13.72% for equity offerings and decreased slightly (9.69%) for lending offerings.
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The report (in Italian) is available at the following link: https://www.osservatoriefi.it/efi/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/reportcrowd2023.pdf