Deloitte released the company’s Technology, Media and Telecommunication predictions for 2013 and one particular section on crowdfunding caught our attention. Among Deloitte’s predictions:
- Between 2008 and 2012, crowdfunding portals likely lent more than $1.5 billion. In 2013 these loans could exceed $1.4 billion, up more than 50 percent from 201261.
- In aggregate, crowdfunding portals are already a multi-billion dollar industry, growing at more than 50 percent a year.
- Traditional venture capital raises about $40 billion annually67; charitable giving was almost $300 billion in the United States alone in 201168, and the pay day loan market in the United States was worth more than $50 billion in 200869. In each category, crowdfunding is growing much faster than traditional sources of funding, but still represents less than one percent of the total.
- In a recent survey, seed financing from VCs was down almost 50 percent year-over-year78, indicating that there may be a funding gap for crowdfunding to fill. Crowdfunding also brings the potential for more democratic or broader access to capital for startups and innovators without personal connections to capital.