Nieuwsuur reported this week that crowdfunding is becoming increasingly popular.
What do a sustainable entrepreneur in charging stations, a sleeper train operator and disability insurance have in common? They owe their success to the Dutch Eyevestor. In total, more than forty million euros have already been raised via this share platform, while almost 25.000 active users are already connected to it.
Nieuwsuur reported this week that crowdfunding is becoming increasingly popular. Eyevestor from Utrecht is the inventor of the crowdfunding phenomenon sharefunding®. Via the platform, every startup or scale-up can handle online, digital and fully automated share transactions. Through sharefunding, the growth and development of companies is financed by investors, employees, customers and other stakeholders who together become shareholders.
Eyevestor has an international focus, but there are also domestic success stories. SharePeople, an alternative (and modern) collective disability solution for the self-employed, was one of the first companies to raise money (more than 1 million euros in 2019) through Eyevestor. The customer base grew from 2.000 to 12.500 independent entrepreneurs. Thanks to sharefunding, Blue Current can continue to build charging points and other services that make transport more sustainable. European Sleeper brings the night train back with connections from Belgium and the Netherlands, among other things by collecting funding from its own fans and employees via Eyevestor. “Through Eyevestor we received half a million from 355 fans within sixteen minutes,” says Chris Engelsman, co-founder of European Sleeper.
Driven entrepreneurs
Eyevestor CEO and initiator Gijs Dalen Meurs about sharefunding: “Raising growth capital through sharefunding requires a lot of preparation, a community and trust through past successes. It is a sustainable and modern way of participating and financing. I think the best thing about the success stories of our platform is that we give a boost to the dreams of driven entrepreneurs.” Mark de Raaij, co-founder of Blue Current: “The biggest advantage of sharefunding is that as an entrepreneur you continue to set the course yourself. Customers and suppliers join our story, get on board and benefit from the success”. Cosmas Blaauw, initiator of SharePeople: “Thanks to sharefunding, everyone gets the chance to be both a customer and an owner. That suits us, because we want to be an honest, solidary and affordable insurer, focused on people and not on profit. Soon we will start another round”
Photo above: Gijs Dalen Meurs, Eyevestor CEO.
