ForCrowd
The Italian crowdfunding market has boomed since 2018, when a change in the regulation framework boosted the number of crowdfunded projects, the amounts raised, the number of platforms and the campaigns’ success rate.
Equity crowdfunding platforms raised ca € 65 million in 2019 vs. € 36 million in 2018 (representing a +80%) and vs € 11 million in 2017 (+490%). In 2020 crowdfunding projects are expected to raise to € 80 million (+23% YoY); The first 3 months of 2020 have been positive, despite Covid-19 pandemic, as the Italian Equity Crowdfunding sector raised € 24 million vs € 13 million during Q1 2019 (+84%).
Campaigns’ success rates (i.e. the number of campaigns reaching the funding target) also have significantly improved over the years. Currently, between 75% and 80% of all equity crowdfunding campaigns are successful.
In October 2019 Clear Leisure acquired a 20% interest in ForCrowd Srl (“ForCrowd”), an Italian equity crowdfunding platform based in Milan dedicated to Italian small/medium companies.
ForCrowd was granted a mandatory Crowdfunding license in June 2019 by Commissione Nazionale per le Società; e la Borsa (“Consob”), the equivalent of the UK Financial Conduct Authority in Italy.
After successfully completing the test phases, the platform was launched in December 2019 and the first campaign in May 2020. Unlike other crowdfunding platforms, ForCrowd targets more mature companies with fundraising goals not less than € 500k up to over € 1m, with particular focus on projects in the real estate, energy and technology sectors.
As part of the terms of the investment, Clear Leisure is entitled to a referral fee on all clients and investors introduced to ForCrowd. The referral fee will be 1% of the total amount raised for any projects Clear Leisure introduces to ForCrowd and it will receive an additional 3% of funds invested into a project by an investor introduced by the Company.
ForCrowd’ main shareholder is For Finanza d’Impresa e Management Srl (“ForFinanza”), a financial and management consulting company based in Milan that has extensive expertise in corporate finance and is part of a large network of individual and corporate investors in northern Italy.
