The crowd investor, the unknown entity: The crowdfunding platform Companisto surveyed its users and painted an interesting picture of the crowdinvesting scene.
Despite all the doom and gloom, there is no indication that crowdinvesting was just a hyped flash in the pan: the volume of funds invested by the crowd has more than tripled in 2017 compared to the previous year, according to an analysis by the platform crowdfunding.de. Who are the people behind the investor crowd? What drives them? A survey among 2,307 users of the Companisto platform.
Male, wealthy — and often charitable
The average crowdinvestor is 39 years old, male (at least 84% of them), and has an above-average net household income (57% have more than €40,000). Crowdinvesting is not for beginners: Around 95% of Companisto users have investment experience.
Around half of investors are satisfied with a return above and below 100% after five years. However, a surprising number of investors are apparently not only interested in increasing their own capital: 23% would consider even a total loss a partial success, as the investment enabled the implementation of a worthwhile idea. Nevertheless, profitability remains by far the most important criterion in investment decisions: 93% consider it to be at least somewhat important.
The right balance of risk and return counts
Clear preferences emerge regarding the stage of development in which startups are seeking investors: Companies in the founding phase are the least interesting (57%) for investors—presumably due to the understandable motive of risk avoidance. However, the high return expectations are reflected in the fact that companies in the "maturity phase," i.e., those already generating profits, follow in second to last place with 71%. The development phase, in which market entry is prepared, ranks second out of four, with 84% interested respondents. Startups in the growth phase, which already have revenues and an expansion strategy, lead the popularity rankings among crowd investors with 86%. Despite all the noble intentions of investors, the decisive factor is ultimately the right balance between expected return and risk.
