How Crowdfunding Boosts Innovation

Tech Trends takes a look at the first-ever government run crowdfunding platform and what it hopes to achieve for the municipality of Biscay.

Crowdfunding has come a long way over the last decade or so, and it is fair to say that most people are not only familiar with the concept but have supported some sort of crowdfunded project themselves. Increasingly, therefore, the model is being seen as an essential part of the mix where it comes to financing not only individual projects and companies, but entire ecosystems. We’ve recently reported on such moves being made in places like Cornwall.

The municipality of Biscay (Bizkaia) has gone a step further, however, launching its own equity-based crowdfunding platform. This is the first of its kind to be officially backed by a government for the purpose of encouraging investment and entrepreneurship in the region. The idea is to encourage ordinary people to invest in Basque start-ups by connecting individual small investors and companies seeking funding.

The Crowdfunding Bizkaia website is initially launching with four start–ups, with another four set to follow shortly. The target is to manage between ten to twelve projects a…