Gender in Entrepreneurial Finance: Matching Investors and Entrepreneurs in Equity Crowdfunding

Abstract

The Internet has long promised the democratization of entrepreneurial finance by disintermediation of the interaction between those who want to invest money and those who need it. Equity crowdfunding platforms are one such mechanism. Using a sample of 58 equity offerings of UK crowdfunding platform Seedrs, we show that (1) gender diversity is higher in equity crowdfunding than in other entrepreneurial finance markets and that (2) gender impacts the interaction between demand and supply of equity capital. The number of female investors in campaigns by female-led businesses is almost twice that in male-led businesses. Although investors are predominantly men (78.5 percent), on average, women invest 34 percent more than men.

Keywords: crowdfunding, equity crowdfunding, gender, diversity, crowdinvesting

JEL Classification: G30