Crowdfunding in Ireland 

iCrowdFund launch Crowdfunding service.

iCrowdFund has been launched by the company who gave us iDonate. iDonate supports over 600 non-profit groups all over Ireland with a free fundraising service.

Crowdfunding has now become a recognised method of finance a business project or a non-profit fundraising event. Crowdfunding involves a large group of people supporting the financing of a project, generally online.
At the moment, there are no regulations in Ireland which deals with Crowdfunding. The Central Bank are monitoring the situation. As a result Crowdfunding systems need to ensure that they do not inadvertently provide a service which is regulated as part of legislation.
There are hundreds of very successful crowdfunding platforms all over the world. To date in Ireland, only FundIt has made any impact. It is specifically for the arts and to promote creative projects in the arts arena.

Why Crowdfund?
At a recent InterTrade Ireland Seedcorn Event in Galway City, the presenter highlighted five avenues for raising equity investment :
• Savings, family and friends
• Crowdfunding
• Angels
• Venture Capitalists
• Angel /VC Consortiums
iCrowdFund also off a crowdfunding mentors service, where a group of specialists offer their services in support of various projects.

There are several very popular crowdfunding website in Europe including FundedByMe in Sweden, Symbid in The Netherlands, MyMicroinvest in Belgium and Invesdor in Finland.