This book focuses on various types of crowdfunding and the lessons learned from academic research. Crowdfunding, a new and important source of financing for entrepreneurs, fills a funding gap that was traditionally difficult to close. Chapters from expert contributors define and carefully evaluate the various market segments: donation-based and reward-based crowdfunding, crowdinvesting and crowdlending. They further provide an assessment of startups, market structure, as well as backers and investors for each segment. Attention is given to the theoretical and empirical findings from the recent economics and finance literature. Furthermore, the authors evaluate relevant regulatory efforts in several jurisdictions. This book will appeal to finance, entrepreneurship and legal scholars as well as entrepreneurs and platform operators.

1: Introduction.- Part I Startups.- 2: Crowdfunding as a New Financing Tool.- 3: Signaling to Overcome Inefficiencies in Crowdfunding Markets.- 4: The Crowd-Entrepreneur Relationship in Startup Financing.- 5: Fraudulent Behavior by Entrepreneurs and Borrowers.- Part II Market Structure.- 6: Fintech and the Financing of SMEs and Entrepreneurs: From Crowdfunding to Marketplace Lending.- Part III Backers and Investors.- 7: Crowdfunding as a Font of Entrepreneurship: Outcomes of Reward-Based Crowdfunding.- 8: Crowdfunding Creative Ideas: The Dynamics of Project Backers.- Part IV Recent Regulatory Efforts.- 9: The Regulation of Crowdfunding in the United States. 10: The Regulation of Crowdfunding in Europe.- 11: Individual Investors’ Access to Crowdinvesting: Two Regulatory Models.