Online Crowdfunding, Types, and Technology

Abstract

Online crowdfunding provides startups with an opportunity to raise funds from a large number of contributors (backers), in which each individual furnishes a very small amount of money. While entrepreneurs use peer-to-peer lending (lending-based), donation-based, rewards-based, equity-based, and profit-sharing as the most common forms of online crowdfunding, many campaigns remain unfunded and are unable to reach the intended target. To respond to this problem, it is, therefore, necessary to identify success factors in crowdfunding. Thus, the form of technologies that help platforms to consider identified success factors is crucial. This chapter provides an overview of different types of crowdfunding financing. The success factors that impact the main players of crowdfunding are identified. The chapter shows how adopting artificial intelligence (AI) technologies affects crowdfunding success.