Alma Pekmezovic & Gordon Walker, the Global Significance Of
THE GLOBAL SIGNIFICANCE OF CROWDFUNDING: SOLVING THE SME FUNDING PROBLEM AND DEMOCRATIZING ACCESS TO CAPITAL ALMA PEKMEZOVIC GORDON WALKER* ABSTRACT This Article provides a comprehensive review of the crowd- funding phenomenon. It argues that equity crowdfunding (“ECF”) and, to a lesser extent, peer-to-peer lending (“P2PL”) offer the pos- sibility of a global solution to the small and medium-sized enterprise (“SME”) funding problem. In the United States, the SME funding problem is exacerbated by the markedly diminishing rate of startup formation, a factor that injects a degree of urgency into resolving the optimal means to implement ECF. Here, as with the “fin-tech” revolution, the law lags behind technological developments. The second main argument is that ECF enhances access to capital for SMEs globally while simultaneously democratizing access to in- vestments for ordinary citizens. The Article begins by providing definitions, business models, and historical background before outlining the SME funding problem and new constraints on SME lending since the global financial crisis. ECF is placed within the so-called “financing escalator” and is distinguished from venture capital and angel financing. The global market for crowdfunding * Dr. Alma Pekmezovic, LL.M. (UCLA), Ph.D. (La Trobe) is a Lecturer at La Trobe University School of Law, Melbourne, Australia and a Research Fellow at Bucerius Law School, Hamburg, Germany. Dr. Gordon R. Walker, SJD (Duke) is a Professor of Law at the Law School, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, in strategic partnership with the Pritzker School of Law, North- western University, Chicago, Illinois, United States under the auspices of the Qatar Foundation, Doha, Qatar; Emeritus Professor of Law at La Trobe Univer- sity, Melbourne, Australia; and Visiting Professor at the University of Houston Law Center.
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