Abstract: The financial crisis has decreased the opportunities of
small businesses to acquire financing through conventional financial
actors, such as commercial banks. This credit constraint is partly the
reason for the emergence of new alternatives of financing, in addition
to the spreading opportunities for communication and secure
financial transfer through Internet. One of the most interesting venues
for finance is termed “crowdfunding". As the term suggests
crowdfunding is an appeal to prospective customers and investors to
form a crowd that will finance projects that otherwise would find it
hard to generate support through the most common financial actors.
Crowdfunding is in this paper divided into different models; the
threshold model, the microfinance model, the micro loan model and
the equity model. All these models add to the financial possibilities of
emerging entrepreneurs.