Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is a method of raising capital in which a large number of individuals each contribute relatively small amounts of money — typically via an online platform — to collectively fund a project, business venture, creative work, social cause, or personal need. The four primary models are: reward-based crowdfunding (backers receive a product or service in return — e.g., Kickstarter), donation-based (charitable giving with no financial return), debt-based or peer-to-peer lending (backers receive interest payments), and equity-based crowdfunding (investors receive equity stakes in the funded venture). In India, SEBI introduced a regulatory framework for Securities-Based Crowdfunding specifically and regulates P2P lending platforms under RBI's NBFC-P2P category. Equity crowdfunding provides early-stage companies an alternative to traditional venture capital for raising growth capital from a broad investor base. For investors on Ventura Securities tracking India's startup and early-stage investment ecosystem, crowdfunding platforms represent the earliest stage of the private capital formation continuum — providing exposure to high-risk, high-potential ventures well before they reach the IPO stage.