Ryan Weeks, one of the leading writers on UK crowdfunding, writes in AltFi on what to watch out for in 2016.
Ryan’s views are not dissimilar to our own communications director’s take on the topic on the Money&Co. site.
However, Ryan also asks a particularly interesting question:
Will the institutional funding run dry?
“The various Closed End Funds (CEFs) that operate within the peer-to-peer/marketplace/direct lending sectors enjoyed a run of rampant investor demand between 2014 and the early part of 2015. That demand tailed off towards the end of last year. VPC’s Specialty Lending Investments raised £183m in a C Share issue, after having initially planned to raise at least £200m. The GLI Alternative Finance fund fell short of its fundraising target at debut on the London Stock Exchange. Ranger Direct Lending cancelled a £135m C Share round in late November, later raising £14m in a tap issue.”
Some might say that in this young market, some fund raises may be seen as a little premature. Softly, softly may be the way forward for now. We’ve certainly seen a lot of enthusiasm from institutions that want to provide liquidity for platforms like ours, where the challenge is to keep the crowd (ie, the individuals) in crowdfunding.
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