Background

EUROCROWD, Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, is Europe’s leading business network for professional crowdfunding platforms and stakeholders. initially conceived in late 2011 following The Bielsko Biała Declaration on Realising the full potential of crowdfunding initiatives by EURADA, was officially incorporated in 2013 in Belgium. We started with the intention of representing the burgeoning European crowdfunding sector, but challenges soon turned into opportunities, leading the organization to expand well beyond its initial vision. We are independent from market players and privately funded and managed.

Since our incorporation, EUROCROWD has worked closely with the leading crowdfunding platforms in Europe to establish a professional market. Since our incorporation, we remain independent and have been privately funded, with membership income accounting for less than 20% of our annual budget. This allows us to remain a trustworthy partner to public administrations, development agencies and policy-makers both at the EU and national levels – and ensures that market actors cannot apply undue influence. It also gives us the freedom to act in the best interest of the overall crowdfunding market, including citizens and project owners, a quality needed when providing bespoke services to our clients.

Today, EUROCROWD is the premier hub for networking and representation among professional crowdfunding service providers, reward crowdfunding platforms, and professional service companies in the European market. Join forces with EUROCROWD today and become an integral part of a dynamic community committed to shaping the future of crowdfunding in Europe. We are structured as a collaborative network, in which the not-for-profit European Crowdfunding Network AISBL (ECN) oversees direct membership affairs and representation, while our separate entity EUROCROWD BV/SRL manages the association and facilitates commercial interests.

Since its establishment, EUROCROWD has created a strong service portfolio:

EUROCROWD organizes annual conferences, workshops, and seminars bringing together crowdfunding platforms, investors, policymakers, and industry stakeholders. These events serve as forums for knowledge exchange, networking, and collaboration. By 2023 we had organised more than 20 pan-European conferences, more than 100 local events and countless webinars aimed at increasing the visibility of crowdfunding and its members across Europe bringing together platform operators, investors, and project owners..

EUROCROWD is actively engaged with policymakers at the European Union level to advocate for crowdfunding-friendly regulations and policies. It has provided input and expertise to shape regulatory frameworks such as the European Prospectus Law or the European Crowdfunding Service Providers (ECSP) Regulation. We have engaged with policy-makers and delivered key research on operational and regulatory hurdles in crowdfunding to the European Commission in 2017, paving the way with political arguments for the introduction of the European Crowdfunding Service Provider Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 (ECSPR). But not before achieving the inclusion of an exemption for crowdfunding in the European Prospectus Law (EU) 2017/1129. Over the years we have also worked closely with national supervisors and policy-makers, for example in Germany, France and Italy.

EUROCROWD offers technical assistance to administrations and development agencies that aim to ensure greater transparency in their decision-making process and to allocate resources more efficiently. Our methodology will help clients to exploit the benefits of crowdfunding methodologies within the decision-making process of the administration and potentially seek co-funding. We have worked with a number of public administrations and development agencies regarding decision-making processes and the allocation of resources. We also engage with our partners and clients at the local level by supporting the implementation of actions, not only related to crowdfunding. We have delivered impact assessments of actions by local authorities and also created relevant guidelines for intra-national or national administrations.

EUROCROWD is actively participating in consulting, research and support projects. Our work may target a specific sector, with the aim to enhance the understanding and reinforce the presence of in areas such as creative industry, renewable energy, health, etc. We are and have been actively participating in consulting, research and support projects, including research grants and support actions for the European Commission since the Framework Programme 7. Our work may target a specific sector, with the aim to enhance the understanding and reinforce the presence of in areas such as creative industry, renewable energy, health, etc. We have helped crowdfunding platforms access investors, find local partners for project acquisition, and obtain legal advice through its network of industry experts and partners.

EUROCROWD conducts research studies, publishes reports, and gathers data on crowdfunding market trends, regulatory developments, and best practices. These publications provide valuable insights and analysis for industry stakeholders and decision-makers across different sectors. In 2015, we published the first academic compendium on Crowdfunding with a scientific publishing house, Springer Science, capturing both academic and practical research. We contributed to several scientific and legal publications, frequently by providing background knowledge and access to data. We have also worked on bespoke client research for intra-national, national and regional government organisations, some of our research has led to significant changes in the policy discourse. In partnership with major law firms, we have created in-depth overviews of the existing legal frameworks for Crowdfunding as early as 2013, 2014, 2017 and in 2023 another one on ECSPR implementation and taxation.

EUROCROWD offers training programs, webinars, and educational resources to to public administrations and development agencies, crowdfunding platforms, entrepreneurs, and investors to enhance their understanding of crowdfunding and improve their skills in crowdfunding campaign management, due diligence, and risk assessment. We published the first industry-wide code of conduct back in 2014 and have been leading the early adoption of professional standards. We have also protected the sector against malpractice and referred (more than one) market actors for misconduct to the competent authorities in their country, and in one case also to criminal investigators. We have facilitated knowledge-sharing and best practices among crowdfunding platforms to promote transparency, integrity, and professionalism in their operations.

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