Table 2.6: Investors for SMES
E- Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people who each contribute a relatively small amount, typically via the internet. Although crowdfunding did not seem to attract much attention from our survey respondents (62 respondents considered it as a fnancing channel while only 9 respondents mentioned obtaining fnancing through this crowdfunding), we were interested to learn more about this promising channel as it appears to be one of the most suited for SMEs in general and it holds many promises for the expansion of this economic sector. It appears from data analysis of statements related to crowdfunding (Table 2.7) that African businesses are more or less aware of crowdfunding and how crowdfunding can work as a fnancing channel (61,3% and 66,1% of our respondents either agree or strongly agree with the statements “I am completely familiar with the crowdfunding fnancing” and “I am completely aware of how the crowdfunding works” respectively). From an awareness point of view, the statement “People in my entourage talk about and know what is crowdfunding” did not have a conclusive answer on whether people in the entourage of startups are aware about the crowdfunding fnancing channel or not since 42% disagree with the statement and 38,7% agree with it, making this a difcult to reach an understanding of the awareness level surrounding the tool in the African continent. However, it is comforting to learn that among those who considered crowdfunding as a fnancing tool (62 respondents) some knew in person other people (36 respondents) who used crowdfunding in their company fnancing.
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