Crowd funding is the use of small amounts of capital from a large number of individuals to finance a new business venture. Crowd funding makes use of the easy accessibility of vast networks of people through social media and crowd funding websites to bring investors and entrepreneurs together, with the potential to increase entrepreneurship by expanding the pool of investors beyond the traditional circle of owners, relatives, and venture capitalists.
In most jurisdictions, restrictions apply to who can fund a new business and how much they are allowed to contribute. Similar to the restrictions on hedge fund investing, these regulations are supposed to protect unsophisticated or non-wealthy investors from putting too much of their savings at risk. Because so many new businesses fail, their investors face a high risk of losing their principal.
Crowd funding has created the opportunity for entrepreneurs to raise hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars from anyone with money to invest. Crowd funding provides a forum to anyone with an idea to pitch it in front of waiting investors.
