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Home > Country fiches > Country fiche for Belgium

Country fiche for Belgium

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General information

The Belgian crowdfunding market started late, however, it is evolving quickly and crowdfunding is becoming a viable alternative for financing. The Belgian market is primarily dominated by local platforms, with some impact from international players. With regards to other European countries, Belgium is the largest market for invoice trading.

AF market volume per capita
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  • Role of alternative finance
  • Regulatory Context
  • Support policies
  • Additional insight

Role of alternative finance

Overall size of the market: 

With 37m EUR in 2015, Belgium is the 7th largest Crowdfunding market in Europe. The Market Volume Per Capita is € 3.26.

Zhang, B. et al (2016): Sustaining Momentum. The 2nd European Alternative Finance Industry Report. Cambridge University. https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/fileadmin/user_upload/research/centres/alterna...

Trend:

In Belgium, the size of the crowdfunding market increased tremendously from 2,5m EUR in 2014 to 37m EUR in 2015. It is expected to continue growing in 2016.

Figures 2014:
Wardrop, R., Zhang, B., Rau, R., Gray, M (2015): Moving Mainstream. The European Alter-native Finance Benchmarking Report. Studie von der Universität Cambridge in Zusammen-arbeit mit EY. Verfügbar unter: www.crowdfunding.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Moving-Mainstream-Alterna...

Figures 2015:
Zhang, B. et al (2016): Sustaining Momentum. The 2nd European Alternative Finance Industry Report. Cambridge University. https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/fileadmin/user_upload/research/centres/alterna...

Total crowdfunding platforms: 

6 platforms were active in Belgium in 2014.
Source: European Commission (2015). Crowdfunding: mapping EU markets and events study. 30th of September

Crowdfunding Platforms specialising on R&I: 

There are two platforms dedicated to R&I: one platform is dedicated to technology and IT, while the other focuses on innovative startups.
Source: http://crowdfunding4innovation.eu/platforms?f[0]=field_base_country%3A1&...

  Evidence
Equity-based crowdfunding

Approximately €2,5 million is raised by equity based crowdfunding.
Source: Current State of crowdfunding in Europe, CrowdfundingHub, 2016.
http://www.crowdfundinghub.eu/current-state-of-crowdfunding-in-belgium/

Reward and donation-based crowdfunding

Approximately €7 million have been raised in 2015, of which 1 million has been raised by donation-based crowdfunding platforms and the remaining amount by rewards-based platforms.
Source: Current State of crowdfunding in Europe, CrowdfundingHub, 2016
http://www.crowdfundinghub.eu/current-state-of-crowdfunding-in-belgium/

Lending crowdfunding

Approximately €4,5 million in 2015.
Source: Le marché du crowdlending belge triple en 2015, Look&Fin, 2016
http://www.luna.be/fr/communiques-de-presse-clients/1341-look-fin-le-mar...

Others

Compared to other countries in Europe (excluding UK), Belgium is the largest market for invoice trading, with 25m EUR in 2015.

Regulatory Context

  Evidence
Is there a specific national regulation in place applying to crowdfunding?

No

General regulation

Crowdfunding Platforms facilitating direct investment in financial instruments, but under the Crowdfunding exemption for public offerings will not need to be licensed investment firms. Crowdfunding Platforms facilitating direct investment in financial instruments operating outside the Crowdfunding exemption for public offerings are likely to require a licence under the Act regulating investment services firms – authorisation and supervision by the FSMA (or Belgian National Bank, depending on the nature of their activities) save if no compensation is charged for these services.
Onward trading in financial instruments requires a licence. The Collection of limited public refundable funds does not fall within banking monopoly if sufficient safeguards are provided to guarantee that the funds will only be used to refund the investors or finance the project.

Osborne Clarke Germany (2016): Review of Crowdfunding Regulation & Market Developments. In: CrowdFundRES - Unleashing the potential of Crowdfunding for Financing Renewable Energy Projects. Deliverable 3.1 (PU).
http://www.crowdfundres.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/CrowdFundRES-Crowd...

Prospectus requirement

Prospectus requirement for offering investment instruments (a term broader than financial Instruments, as it encompasses contract-based debt instruments).
Thresholds: EUR 300,000 per issuer within 12 months, a maximum of EUR 1.000 per project per investor. Registered cooperatives may collect up to EUR 5.000.000.

Osborne Clarke Germany (2016): Review of Crowdfunding Regulation & Market Developments. In: CrowdFundRES - Unleashing the potential of Crowdfunding for Financing Renewable Energy Projects. Deliverable 3.1 (PU).
http://www.crowdfundres.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/CrowdFundRES-Crowd...

Support policies

Overview: 

The European Commission is launching a consultation to explore the added value of potential EU action.
http://ec.europa.eu/finance/consultations/2013/crowdfunding/index_en.htm

Main policy institution responsible in the country (ministry in charge of alternative finance): 

Federal Public Service Finance - Belgian Ministry of Finance, http://finance.belgium.be/en

  Evidence
Matching funds initiatives
State-aid
Tax benefits

The “Tax-Shelter” for Crowdfunding, which came into force on the 1st of July 2015, provides tax incentives for both equity-based and lending-based Crowdfunding schemes. (for equity-based crowdfunding, personal income tax reduction for equity investments in start-ups has been set up, while for lending-based crowdfunding, a tax exemption on the interests of loans to start-ups has been put in place.
Source: Osborne Clarke Germany (2016): Review of Crowdfunding Regulation & Market Developments. In: CrowdFundRES - Unleashing the potential of Crowdfunding for Financing Renewable Energy Projects. Deliverable 3.1 (PU).
http://www.crowdfundres.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/CrowdFundRES-Crowd...

Crowdfunding guidelines for entrepreneurs / investors

The European Commission has published a guide on Crowdfunding: https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/crowdfunding-guide_en

Guidelines for researchers on crowdfunding for R&I
Other Support measures for fundraisers: 

Due to the high number of regulations on the subject, the FMSA has published an online guide to help project developers and platform owners to identify the right legal scheme for their specific case.
Source: http://www.fsma.be/nl/Article/press/div/2012/2012-07-12_crowdfunding.aspx

Additional insight

Success story of crowdfunding platfroms for R&I: 

NAME: CroFun
DESCRIPTION: Crofun is a crowdfunding and investing platform for creative, social, and innovative business projects. It claims to be the first crowdfunding platform that enables the creation of the perfect mix of different types of crowdfunding such as donations, crowd-lending, crowd-bonds, and crowd shares, depending on the local laws of the country.
LINK: https://www.crofun.com/en/

Success story of crowdfunding projects for R&I: 

PROJECT NAME: TapFruit
PLATFORM: Angel.me
DESCRIPTION: TapFruit is a juice made from pure fruit grown in the Netherlands. By adding it to tap water, drinking tap water is more attractive. The goal of the project is to reduce the number of plastic bottles usually used by consumers. TapFruit has been conceived as a substitute for bottled beverages. The project has a good animated presentation available on YouTube, and all the infographics are clear and catchy. The strength of the project lies in the good marketing campaign built around it, such as the promotional rewards for financers.
AMOUNT RAISED: € 5,560 OUT OF € 5,000
LINK: https://www.angel.me/project/tapfruit

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