Gender Differences in Equity Crowdfunding

Online peer-to-peer investment platforms are increasingly popular venues for entrepreneurs and investors to engage in financial transactions without the involvement of banks and loan managers. Despite their purported transparency and lack of bias, it is unclear whether social inequalities present in traditional capital markets transfer to these platforms as well, impeding their hoped revolutionary potential. In this paper we analyze nearly four years' worth of data from one of the leading UK-based equity crowdfunding platforms. Specifically, we investigate gender-related differences in patterns of entrepreneurship, investment, and success. In agreement with offline trends, men have more activity on the platform. Yet, women entrepreneurs benefit of higher success rates in fund-raising, a finding that mimics trends seen on some rewards-based crowdfunding platforms. Surprisingly, we also find that female investors tend to choose campaigns that have lower success rates. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of gender-related discrepancies in success on the online capital market and point to differences in activity that are key factors in the apparent patterns of gender inequality

Tackling gender bias in equity crowdfunding: an exploratory study of investment behaviour of Latin American investors

Purpose Belonging to the financial technologies' companies, equity-based crowdfunding platforms offer investors the opportunity to become shareholders through the purchase of small equity stakes of new innovative ventures. This paper aims to investigate gender-related differences in the behaviour of investors in firms seeking equity financing in Latin America. Design/methodology/approach Using a unique database, with combined information from different equity crowdfunding platforms in Brazil, Chile and Mexico, the authors study the population of 492 projects between 2013 and 2017. To analyse the relationship between investors' gender-related differences and equity crowdfunding investment, this paper applies Poisson regression. Findings Results suggest that the probability that an investor finances a firm is based on gender bias. Investors prefer firms led by entrepreneurs that are similar to them in terms of gender. Furthermore, the authors find evidence that both female and male investors are risk-averse and are more likely to invest in the equity of firms that are older and offer a higher percentage of equity. However, female investors are associated with firms that are on average older and offer 0.02% more equity. Practical implications These findings have implications for crowdfunding platforms managers when selecting their target companies and policymakers when defining political actions to promote greater use of equity crowdfunding among female entrepreneurs and decrease barriers hindering women's access to investment. Originality/value Unique in its proposition and data usage, this study sheds light on the relationship between investors and entrepreneurs in the Latin American equity crowdfunding market

Birds of a feather flock together and get money from the crowd

In constructing online alternative finance instruments as a new form of financial democratization and financial inclusion, this article aims at verifying the presence of similarity effect in equity crowdfunding investments. Discussion focuses on ethnic and gender similarity between the seekers and investors that sustained the project. Our analysis is based on 5,996 personal investors that have participated in 81 equity crowdfunding campaigns, on Crowdcube, a British equity crowdfunding platform from 2011 and 2016. Results show that in equity crowdfunding gender and ethnic similarities play different role based on investors’ characteristics - gender, ethnicity and the combination of two. In particular, ethnic similarity positively influence the level of amount invested by both female and male investors belonging to an ethnic minority. Even if female investors tend to prefer male company, their preference changes if a female proponent belonging to an ethnic minority runs the company. From a practical perspective, our findings shed new light on how individual characteristics can be important factor in financing situations. Results allow entrepreneurs and equity crowdfunding platforms to understand better potential investor behaviour and highlights the role of equity crowdfunding as tool for minorities’ financial inclusion and women entrepreneur empowerment

Birds of a Feather Flock Together: The Inclusive Effect of Similarity Patterns in Equity Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is helping to drive financial inclusion by expanding the availability of funds to traditionally excluded and underserved groups of individuals, such as ethnic minority and female entrepreneurs. This study verifies how ethnic and gender similarity between investor and entrepreneur can affect the invested amount in an equity crowdfunding campaign. Using an integrated approach with linear regression and Shapley decomposition, we analyze 8600 investments made by 5996 unique personal shareholder investors in 81 equity crowdfunding campaigns. Results show that similarity patterns seem to significantly influence the amount invested in a campaign but their effects change according to investor’s gender and ethnic origin. In fact, even if female investors give a higher amount to men-led companies, their preference changes if the company is run by a female founder belonging to the same ethnic minority group. Results emphasize equity crowdfunding’s potential as a tool for the financial inclusion of ethnic minority groups of investors and entrepreneurs