Research Initiative is in Collaboration with 17 Major Industry Associations & Organisations
The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School is launching the Second Annual European Alternative Finance Industry Survey with the support of 17 major European industry associations and research partners following the success of its 2015 benchmarking report – Moving Mainstream. The industry research has become a benchmark study of the fast growing internet finance sector. Prior the CCAF study, much information was anecdotal or localised. The advent of their report has quantified the importance and potential for new forms of finance as the industry quickly moves online.
The previous study generated tremendous amounts of mainstream media coverage across Europe and effectively informed policymaking and regulation on crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending at both national and supranational levels. The document has been cited perhaps hundreds of times by this publication alone. The CCAF research is a beacon for industry leaders and important elected & appointed policy officials.
Alternative finance encompasses innovative financial instruments and distributive channels that have emerged outside of the traditional financial system, including crowdfunding and peer-to-peer (P2P) lending activities. This will be the fourth in a series of reports that the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance and its research partners have produced in 2016 to document and analyse the rapid growth of alternative finance markets in the UK, the Asia-Pacific region and the Americas.
The Second Annual European Alternative Finance Industry Survey launches on 2nd of May and is scheduled to close on the 25 May 2016. The objective is to track aggregate transaction volume, year-on-year growth and the latest trends of the alternative finance markets across Europe.
The results of the survey will be made freely available to the public in the Second Annual European Alternative Finance Industry Report, due to be published later in the year.
All findings shall be presented in aggregate form only, either by country, region or alternative finance models and no individual platform data will be divulged. All contributed data will remain anonymous.
All crowdfunding, peer-to-peer (marketplace) lending and other alternative finance platforms, operating in Europe are invited to contribute to the survey linked below. All participating platforms will be prominently acknowledged in the industry report, with their respective logos displayed.
The survey is led by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at the Cambridge Judge Business School and supported by KPMG, CME Group Foundation and 17 major crowdfunding associations and industry organisations in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, the Nordics and other European countries.
The leaders and founders of these distinguished research partners have offered their strong endorsements and support for the 2nd Annual European Alternative Finance Survey.
“Financement Participif France is happy to support this state-of-the-art report. Its highly recognized academic research offers a deep understanding of our growing industry at a European level.”
Nicolas Lesur, President of the Financement Participatif France
“In 2015, the German Government changed the regulation concerning Equity- and Lending-Based Crowdfunding in Germany. The new Alternative Finance Report will be an excellent opportunity to assess how the regulation affected the industry. We see a consolidation in the industry around higher standards, which also creates more trust and thus more volume on the platforms – and look forward to comparing these developments to other countries in Europe.”
Karsten Wenzlaff, Secretary-General, German Crowdfunding Network
“The burgeoning alternative finance industry has been lucky to have the support of the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance in creating and sharing their groundbreaking surveys. Once again LendIt and Lend Academy are very pleased to be research partners in their second annual European survey.”
Peter Renton, Chairman of LendIt Conference
“Every financial professional, regulator or scholar should be looking forward to this year’s CCAF European Alternative Finance Industry report, which has already become the gold standard for accurate and comprehensive information in a fast-moving industry.”
Daniel Oliver, President of the Spanish Crowdfunding Association
“We are proud to collaborate again as a key research partner to analyze the size and growth of the Alternative Finance industry in Europe. For policy recommendations and strategic decisions by stakeholders in the market, it is important to have a reliable and independent views on the developments in the industry.”
Ronald Kleverlaan, Founder of CrowdfundingHub
“We are happy to solidify our contribution to these important reports. They have become the backbone and main source of statistics and facts about European alternative finance in general, and crowdfunding in particular. And as such, they help all stakeholders in understanding current trends, and strategizing towards the future.”
Dr Rotem Shneor, Head of the Nordic Crowdfunding Alliance
“Alternative Finance marketplaces are growing rapidly across Europe and are embraced by users seeking innovative and efficient new solutions to old use cases. This report, which independently collects data, will help all participants to better understand the developments and increase transparency.”
Claus Lehmann, Publisher the of P2P-Banking.com
“The ECN welcomes the ongoing research activities of the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance with its European Benchmarking Survey. This vibrant market needs regular analysis. We hope the data will help to frame the diversifying income sources and quickly scaling operations of debt and credit-based crowdfunding, in the form of marketplaces and peer-to-peer lenders, but also the significant increase of the less liquid but innovation seeking equity-based crowdfunding across Europe.”
Oliver Gajda, Chairman and Executive Director of the European Crowdfunding Network
“The dimension of the crowd economy is so huge that Governments and markets absolutely need surveys, analysis and business intelligence; when these come from Cambridge University you have reliable sources to safely plan our common future.”
Alessandro Lerro, General Counsel and Manager of the European Equity Crowdfunding Association
“We were very proud last year to support this first independent survey. ANACOFI is clearly involved in France and in Europe in the alternative finance and crowdfunding Universe. It appears to us that the previous year’s results were the first independent analysis of the subject. In a very fast changing and growing market, it is of a great importance to update our view, which is why we will support the University of Cambridge in 2016.”
David Charlet, Director, Crowdfunding Comity Anacofi
“Alternative finance is not a first choice for entrepreneurs in CEE yet, but no one can argue, that the biggest potential for growth in the future is among emerging markets. There is a need for such a report, because governments, corporations and entrepreneurs finally understand the power of crowds. Now they need professional knowledge to shape their strategies for further development.”
Karol Król, Co-Founder of Collaborative Economy Center
“Switzerland is tackling the Crowdfunding opportunities with major regulatory changes in the first quarter of 2016. The Swiss Crowdfunding Association collaborate with major platforms, regulators and stakeholders representatives to support the funding needs of small businesses, individuals and non-profit organizations. The Swiss market has a high potential, dominated by its high citizen savings capacity and dynamism of private investors in this emerging market.”
Jonathan Normand, Co-Founder and Board Member of the Swiss Crowdfunding Association
“The research provided by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, and their report partners, is invaluable and sets a new benchmark for the alternative finance industry. This is the data that elected and appointed officials need in order to foster an environment where new forms of finance can flourish. As a publisher, we continue to depend upon the accurate and comprehensive information that the CCAF has consistently delivered on a global basis.”
Andrew Dix, Founder and CEO of Crowdfund Insider
“The alternative finance industry is growing at an astonishing pace, and the opportunity to share best practices and success stories around Europe adds great value to the crowdfunding arena. Cooperation among universities in welcome in order to understand the potential of the market and improve the institutional framework”
Professor Giancarlo Guidici, Politecnico di Milano – School of Management, director of the Italian Observatory on Crowd-investing
“Alternative Finance is a data and technology driven evolution of the capital market. In just a couple of years it has introduced additional transparency and competition within financial services and introduced new and important diversification of funding sources available to businesses. The European credit infrastructure has been limited and fragile, often with banks as the sole provider of credit. Alternative Finance is great as it is creating a more robust infrastructure. Any industry needs transparency and research to gain wide spread adaptation and awareness (from companies to policy makers). We at crowd.one are thrilled to support Cambridge on its endeavours to provide much needed research on Alternative Finance.”
Kasper Oldby, Crowd.One
“The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance is recognised widely as a leading authority on innovative finance, including peer-to-peer lending. The Annual European Alternative Finance Benchmarking Survey provides insights which are invaluable for policy-makers across Europe in this fast-growing and mainstream part of the financial services landscape.”
Robert Pettigrew, Policy Manager of the UK Peer to Peer Finance Association (P2PFA)
“The UKCFA welcomes the new wave of the Cambridge Alternative Finance Survey in Europe for 2016. The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance are the leaders in measuring and analysing the growth of the alternative finance sector because they work directly with the platforms and businesses themselves to get the data from the source. UKCFA members cover all the major sectors of alternative finance from p2p loans through to equity crowdfunding and will be contributing directly to the survey. These reports are highly influential with policy makers and investors alike because of the rigorous and robust way that the data is collated and we look forward to the publication of this next wave.”
Bruce Davis, Director of UK Crowdfunding Association (UKCFA)
The link to the benchmarking survey is below
Survey Link (in English):
Survey Link (in French):
Survey Link (in Spanish):
For enquiries about the Second Annual European Alternative Finance Industry Survey, please contact Tania Ziegler at t.ziegler@jbs.cam.ac.uk or Alexis Lui at a.lui@jbs.cam.ac.uk at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, University of Cambridge Judge Business School.
Crowdfund Insider is proud to support the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School and their important research
All findings shall be presented in aggregate form only, either by country, region or alternative finance models and no individual platform data will be divulged. All contributed data will remain anonymous.
