Participatory financing, or crowdfunding, experienced a boom in 2022 thanks to loans and bonds, establishing itself as a real savings solution for the French.
Born in the early 2000s, participatory financing does not use traditional banking circuits, but makes it possible to finance projects with many advantages. In 2015, crowdfunding weighed 167 million euros collected in France, and more than 1 billion in 2020. In 2022, we reached new records.
Real estate crowdfunding, a real figurehead
Last year, 2.35 billion euros were collected on platforms (Ulule, Leetchi, KissKissBankBank, GoFundMe, Enerfip, Homunity, Anaxago etc.) through crowdfunding. The increase (+25%) compared to 2021 is very significant, and the three models combined have raised more than 7 billion euros since 2015.
Crowdfunding now makes it possible to finance a large number of projects thanks to the number of participants. The person who launches (or carries, we will say) the project can also be an artist, an SME, an association, a real estate developer or other. The participants will then play the role of patrons, creditors or business angels, in the case of young companies.
In 2022, it is mainly thanks to real estate that crowdfunding experienced a boom (+40.2%, 1.6 billion euros collected, a record), since it weighs for 2/3 of the overall collection over the year. The number of projects linked to real estate crowdfunding has increased from 1,346 in 2021 to 1,628 in 2022.
Crowdfunding in lending is by far the majority in raising money, and it pays off
Real estate crowdfunding makes it possible to appeal to donors who will help the bearer (here, a promoter) of the project to finance renovation work, or even a construction, all in the form of a loan whose duration can vary (1, 2 or 3 years). For those who participated in the financing, there is indeed a consideration, since they are paid interest, often very high.
The mechanism is relatively simple, transparent, and puts itself at the service of a local economy, which contributes to its democratization in a relatively delicate economic context. With regard to real estate crowdfunding (of which 71% of projects concern residential), no less than 562 projects were reimbursed in 2022, bringing in 382 million euros to those who had contributed to their financing. Sustainable financing, with projects with an environmental or societal dimension, enabled the collection of 552 million euros.
Overall, crowdfunding in loans will have enabled the collection of 2.1 billion euros over the year as a whole, with 1.8 billion euros for the bond issue, and 300 million euros for the interest-bearing loan. Investment crowdfunding (150 million euros raised in 2022, compared to 103.5 million the previous year) follows behind.
Then, we find crowdfunding in donations which is down in 2022, with 116,155 projects funded for 107 million euros collected. This drop is explained by a strained household budget, inflation obliges, and a year following those (2020 and 2021) marked by the momentum of solidarity in the period of COVID-19. This financing in donations continues to be carried by cultural projects (70 million euros).
Source : Crowdfunding Association France
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