Crowdfunding in Switzerland at Record High

CHF 375 Million - Study by Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts - Seite 2

International perspective: Switzerland two to three years behind - but catching up 

The Swiss crowdfunding market has grown significantly more rapidly than those of neighbouring countries since 2015. With a per capita investment volume of CHF 45 (2016: CHF 15), Switzerland still lies two to three years behind leading crowdfunding markets such as the USA (2016: CHF 78) or the UK (2016: CHF 90) - but it is catching up fast: "The strong momentum provided by new platforms and alternative business models suggests that Switzerland is catching up with highly developed crowdfunding countries such as the USA and the UK," says Andreas Dietrich.

Hidden concentration in the crowdfunding market 

43 crowdfunding platforms were maintaining a physical presence in Switzerland as of the end of April 2018. Also in the market are several nondomestic platforms without an office in Switzerland. Despite the large number, each crowdfunding segment is dominated by a handful of major platforms. In the crowd lending and reward-based crowdfunding segments, for example, the six largest platforms each have a market share of 96 percent and 97 percent respectively.

This concentration is expected to continue: "That said, small, innovative niche players will continue to survive in the market," says Andreas Dietrich.

Businesses and institutional investors discover crowdfunding 

The involvement of larger businesses and institutional investors is becoming more prevalent across all areas of crowdfunding. In reward-based crowdfunding/crowddonating, for example, projects are increasingly being launched with the support of businesses. In crowdlending, crowdinvesting and invoice trading - segments of interest to investors - the proportion of institutional investors will increase significantly in future. This will have the effect of contributing significantly to the continued rapid growth in volume.

Crowdfunding goes blockchain 

Two Swiss platforms have already announced their intention to launch innovative products based on blockchain technology in 2018. From spring 2018, Swisspeers is looking to transact loans between business and investors as "smart contracts" in the Ethereum blockchain and represent creditors' claims using tokens. Wemakeit is planning to launch a new crowdfunding platform that will be completely blockchain based. The report's authors are anticipating that blockchain technology will find other fields of application in the crowdfunding market in the coming years.