How’s Crowdfundme doing a year after its listing on Piazza Affari? How is crowdfunding equity getting on during quarantine? Tommaso Baldissera Pacchetti, Founder of Crowdfundme, tells us what he thinks about this, with a lot of pragmatism but also a lot of initiative, a distinctive characteristic of his company.
From March 2019 to the present, let’s retrace the milestones of your growth in these 12 months from your listing to date.
With the listing on Piazza Affari, CrowdFundme has become the bridge between fintech and traditional finance. The capital raised with the stock market landing served to accelerate our growth, especially in the second half of 2019. In fact, the portal raised more than 6.2 million euros compared to approximately 3.7 million euros in the first six months. In 2019, Consob also introduced important regulatory changes, thanks to which this year we will be able to implement the,so-called secondary market,and also place Mini-Bonds. CrowdFundMe will thus become the benchmark for Crowdinvesting, being able to offer a wide range of both Equity and Corporate Debt investment products.
Entering the real estate market. Why this choice and objectives?
The real estate market presents great opportunities, starting from Milan which is the most dynamic Italian city in this sector and the envy of several European metropolises. The data for the first quarter of 2020 certifies the potential of Real Estate Crowdfunding: it has collected over 14 million euros, improving on the record of the last three months of 2019. CrowdFundMe wants to allow investors to seize the potential of this sector, fully in line with its philosophy of offering different financial products for different types and markets, in order to build a diversified portfolio.
With the coronavirus emergency how have you changed your business strategy and the way you work as a team?
CrowdFundMe is fully operational, in the maximum security of all, thanks to smart working. The coronavirus emergency has made us reprogram part of our activities, with the aim of prioritizing the campaigns of companies that are relatively impacted by the coronavirus or that are possibly accelerated. This is the case of Tulips, an online supermarket that is benefiting from the e-commerce boom; people, forced to stay at home, are increasing the use of the web to shop and our broadcaster is recording a strong increase in demand and turnover. Its campaign has closed in the last days reaching a maximum target of 300,000 euros.
From your point of view what will be the impact of this pandemic on the crowdfunding sector, both on the corporate and crowd side?
Due to the coronavirus some Equity Crowdfunding campaigns will be postponed until better times. Investments, especially in some sectors, are likely to slow down. However, as explained for the case of Tulips, there are realities which are being accelerated by the current circumstances. If, on the other hand, we think of the companies that are suffering, it has to be said that the liquidity crisis is pushing many of these to use alternative financing. CrowdFundMe’s products are therefore becoming essential to find the resources needed to overcome the difficulties of this period and prepare for the reopening phase. To date, many elements are uncertain and it is not possible to make precise forecasts, but we are confident that our ability to adapt to the circumstances will allow us to continue on our path of growth. If we look at the first quarter of 2020, CrowdFundMe’s results were positive despite the impact of the coronavirus, with the collection marking a new record at around €4 million.
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