Resumen de A prospective analysis of the advantages of crowdlending to startups
Eva Porras, José Manuel Guaita Martínez, José María Martín Martín
Driven by technological advances, some of the new services developed within the financial industry have been grouped under the general label of fintech (Maier, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 33, 143–153, 2016). One of these innovations is crowdlending, a method of financing by which a large number of investors, each making a relatively small contribution, directly connect with borrowers through online platforms. These speciality sites guide the investors to select one or more projects they wish to support according to their desired risk profile. The objective of this chapter is to offer a complete and updated vision of crowdlending, especially in regard to startups. This is important because nascent companies with few assets usually have a difficult time trying to obtain loans to fund their growth. In this environment, crowdlending has enlarged the financing pool by positioning itself as an alternative to the usual funding by traditional institutions, angel investors and venture capitalists or friends and family. This work aims to provide a didactic and applied vision of this financing system. Thus, we use academic sources as well as information from professionals active in this sector. This is important given that simple concepts easily become complex due to the large offer of somewhat similar financial products.
