Crowdfunding as a way to finance companies

João Vieira dos Santos

Keywords

Crowdfunding; Regulation; Companies; Fundraisers; Online Platforms; Investors

Abstract

In this essay, we seek to adress the emergence of Crowdfunding, a new means of financing, by a crowd, using online platforms. We explain the different existing models: Donation-based Crowdfunding, Reward-based Crowdfunding, Equity-based Crowdfunding and Lending-based Crowdfunding. We also intend to analyze how these new funding mechanism can be introduced in the portuguese legal system to finance our companies, taking into account the risk of fraud and the possible legal constraints, especially in the portuguese Company Law.

Therefore, we seek to research, regarding the fundraisers, the online platforms and the investors, the legal systems that already regulate Crowdfunding (the legal system of United States of America, the legal system of France and the legal system of Italy). Last but not the least, we intend to comment the Law Project n.º 419/XII, from 30 April 2013, that aims to approve the Crowdfunding legal Framework in Portugal and the recent developments registered in the European Union to regulate this tool.