Crowdfunding: my 10 wishes for 2017

It’s that time of the year!

Although the title of this post (and the following list) refers to wishes, I strongly believe that the crowdfunding industry is closer than ever to actually fulfilling most of them.

I have been arguing about the coming of age of crowdfunding (see here), encompassing all the relevant segments (p2p loans, rewards, equity, etc.). In fact, Lending Club will be 10 years old in 2017 (Zopa and Prosper have recently been through that mark); Kickstarter and Indiegogo will be getting there soon (one and two years to go, respectively); and Crowdcube and Seedrs will reach school age this year. Not yet in adulthood, but old enough to start showing some contribution to the world.

So, my wishes for the Crowdfunding industry in 2017 are the following:

1. Maintaining an healthy growth rate (let’s put it at +50% yoy) across all the segments;
2. More transparency from all industry players (more data about deals, forthcoming stance on information and candor with problems);
3. Better interaction between the industry players, namely through the trade associations, in order to implement relevant self-regulation;
4. More innovation from the Regulators, keeping up with the pace of the industry players without hindering their ideas;
5. A mouth watering exit for equity crowdfunding (more that 5x return for crowdfunding investors, without accounting for tax benefits);
6. More exits and more liquidity (investors need to see their money coming back before putting it to work again);
7. Specifically for the P2P loans, a review of Regulations and the setup of a clear framework of play for all the industry stakeholders;
8. More institutional investors coming into the industry, with diverse backgrounds and perspectives (pension funds, family offices, insurance companies, etc);
9. Sustainability in the face of a change of the macro environment (lower growth, political instability, higher interest rates);
10. The resilience to overcome higher delinquency rates (P2P loans), project failures (rewards), insolvencies and low returns (equity) and the occasional platform going bust (it will happen, there are too many).

I am being reasonable, aren’t I?

My final wish is for all of you: have a Happy New Year!