On 15th April VU and the Network Institute hosted Crowdfunding Day 2013. Crowdfunding Day 2013 was an event visited by about 200 persons ranging from crowdfunding platforms and consultancies, start-ups, innovation managers from the public and private sector, academic researchers, marketers, fundraisers and financial institutions.

Crowdfunding is a new way of raising funds. The concept is simple: a large number of people (the crowd) contribute small amounts of money to finance a project or a startup company. Crowdfunding Day started with an inspirational introduction about crowdfunding success factors. Next the evolution of crowdfunding was discussed: will crowdfunding evolve into a serious alternative for other sources and methods of funding and how will crowdfunding develop in the next few years? Finally several European crowdfunding thought leaders from Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom shared their insights and perspectives: what can Dutch crowdfunding experts learn from new developments in other European countries? A complete overview of the speakers and their presentations plus a report in tweets and pictures can be found on www.crowdfundingday.nl.