Crowdfunding and modern financial technology in the western and domestic practices: the current state and prospects for development

Abstract

The article in hand presents the authors’ position regarding the current state and prospects for development of crowdfunding and modern financial technology (FinTech) in the US and European practices, as well as in those of the Russian Federation at the end of the 2021 financial year. The authors study the basics of crowdfunding as financial innovations in lending and investment and distinguished seven basic types of crowdfunding. They also present the results of the complex analysis of the FinTech function mechanisms in the sphere under consideration. The article contains the performance results of five largest American crowdfunding web-sites (AngelList, Kickstarter, Fundable, EquityNet и WeFunder) and the most successful European investment platforms (Ulule, Startnext и CrowdFunder). The authors examine specific features of applying FinTech in lending and investment of the Russian Federation. The carry out the historical and territorial analysis using the registration data of all investment platforms in the official “Register of investment platform operators of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation”. Using the analysis of factual financial data at the end of 2021 from 59 companies registered as investment platforms in the above mentioned register the authors conducted financial analysis of their performance. They found out that only 50% of the companies under study were able to attract investment for financing at least one investment project. It has been stated that only 16 companies in the Russian Federation can be more attractive for private investors compared to other crowdfunding platforms, as at the end of 2021 they did not have any unfulfilled investment obligations. The article shows that development of the Russian crowdfunding law is going on systematically, because the ideas of collective financing of different small and medium business projects are actively supported at the government level.