This book gives an introduction of the new funding model „crowdfunding”, which describes the fund-raising through numerous individuals via online intermediaries. During the financial crisis, traditional financing channels tighten up on their investments, Funding for innovative business projects, for small and medium sized enterprises become more difficult, crowdfunding becomes a feasible solution. Ordinarily crowdfunding is used in the initial funding or early-stage financing, both involve in high risks. Crowdfunding industry is still in its infancy, appropriate stakeholders’ protection mechanism not only benefits entrepreneurs and investors, but also has great significance for the industry itself. The content is structured with into 2 main parts, the first part gives a concise overview about the Internet-based financial industry and introduced the basic concept, characteristics of crowdfunding and an overview of the current regulatory state from three dynamic markets: US, Europe and China, to introduce industrial environment from macro-economic perspective. The following part leads into risk management theory and introduces specific risks in crowdfunding, it tries to answer the research question „How could crowdfunding platforms reduce risks for its participants? “ with selected cases and interviews with industrial insiders.weiterlesen