Crowdfunding revived sharply after spring stagnation

At the beginning of summer, the crowdfunding segment revived after the spring stagnation. Both clients who raise funds through investment platforms and investors have adapted to the economic and political situation. Market participants expect upward dynamics by the end of the year and new players entering the segment.

According to Money Friends data, prepared with the participation of the Association of Investment Platform Operators (AOIP), the total amount of loans issued by crowdfunding platforms amounted to RUB 2 billion in June. (increase per month by 300 million rubles, or 13%, and by 135% year on year). The total volume of the crowdlending market since the beginning of 2023 amounted to 9.5 billion rubles.

At the end of May, the volume of funds raised in the crowdfunding market reached 1.77 billion rubles. (see Kommersant dated June 15). Prior to this, the indicators of the last three months were about 1.7 billion rubles. June growth exceeded May by more than four times.

According to the executive director of AOIP Kirill Kosminsky, the growth is due to the improvement in the dynamics of major players. It is accompanied by a clear consolidation of industry leaders – JetLend, Potok and Vdelo in total occupy 80% of the market share for the year, the study says.

The demand for money from the SME sector is measured in trillions, so the growth in fact at the current stage is limited only by the number of investors and the rates expected from them (from 15%), Mr. Kosminsky notes. “There is a possibility of a slowdown in growth rates in the summer months and an acceleration from the fall,” he adds. “I expect a figure of 25 billion rubles. loans at the end of the year, if there are no force majeure factors.

“June was a record for Potok in many respects. We saw the largest deposits and the minimum withdrawal of funds by investors, the maximum interest income with almost zero defaults on loans,” says Potok CEO Yuri Popov. “I assume that the market as a whole is growing for the same reasons and will most likely grow by three times this year.

Yury Kolesnikov, a member of the expert council of the State Duma committee on the financial market, believes that the market will definitely grow. “The SME market has adapted to the new operating conditions in the mode of mobilization economy,” he notes. “Now it seems that interest rates will rise, as the key rate of the Bank of Russia will rise. And this will lead to an increase in interest rates in crowdfunding and will attract additional investments to the market.”

According to estimates of JetLend CEO Roman Khoroshev, unless force majeure occurs, the entire crowdlending market will grow to 23-25 ​​billion rubles. “The SME lending market is more than 11 trillion rubles, and it is very difficult to get a loan from a bank,” he continues. “Bonds can only be issued from 50–80 million rubles.” Segment from 1 million to 100 million rubles. not covered by non-bank lending, concludes Mr. Khoroshev.

At the same time, in June, the number of investment platforms registered by the Central Bank was replenished by one player – Brainbox VC. “This is a project that plans to specialize in corporatization of IT startups,” says Mr. Kosminsky. “For several years, there was only one equity crowdfunding platform (Rounds) in Russia, and two more have appeared over the past six months.”

It is becoming less and less convenient for investors to be members of various investment clubs, and it is more comfortable to choose startups for investment through a single digital window, where all calculations and communications are built-in, experts say. “New platforms continue to come to the market, that is, the decentralized finance format is in trend,” Mr. Kosminsky believes. I predict that we will also see banks entering this market in the next two to three years.”

Ksenia Dementieva, Yulia Poslavskaya