Crawdinvesting as an Innovative Method of Startup Financing

This work was carried out in order to answer the question of why crowdinvesting platforms are a promising way to finance startups and what practical examples confirm this? The object of the research is crowdinvesting in Russia and abroad. The subject of the research is crowdfunding as a new way of financing start-ups. The purpose of the study is to systematize data on the types of financing for startups, information on the experience of crowdinvesting, to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of crowdinvesting as a way to finance startups. To achieve this goal, the following tasks are set in the work: • study theoretical approaches to financing startups; • explore the classic ways of funding startups; • explore new ways to fund startups; • study the concept of crowdinvesting as a new way of financing startups; • conduct a study of existing types of crowdinvesting platforms, systematize them; • consider the effectiveness of crowdinvesting for financing projects in various industries; • consider crowdinvesting and its features as a way to invest in startups using the StartTrak platform as an example; • to identify the effectiveness of crowdinvesting in investing in startups; • consider the experience of the Science and Magic startup in the context of raising funds through the StartTrak crowdfunding platform; During the research, a number of general scientific and special methods were used, including analysis, synthesis, induction, analogy, the ascent from the abstract to the concrete, the method of comparative analysis and the method of analysis of secondary data, incl. analysis of Internet sources and scientific literature on the problem of research with subsequent analysis, content analysis, analysis of statistical data, comparative analysis. The empirical basis of the study was made up of statistical studies, as well as materials of international, public and private structures dedicated to the analysis of the experience of distance learning. In particular, research of such organizations and companies as Rosstat, Eurostat, VTsIOM, NAFI and others played a special role here. In addition, legislative acts of Russia and foreign countries, publications in the press, expert opinions and assessments were used as an empirical basis for the work. The empirical base was also formed by media reports about the Science and Magic startup. The main conclusions of the work: • classical methods of financing startups, such as attracting investment from business angels and IPOs, are not diverse enough and are not suitable for all types of projects; • new ways of funding startups are based mostly on mass funding. The reasons for this are globalization, increasing financial literacy of the population, interest of the population in investing; • crowdinvesting shows above average efficiency in financing projects in various industries; • Research on the effectiveness of crowdinvesting in investing in startups has shown that crowdinvesting is the most preferred tool for high-tech startups, venture capital projects and enterprises that cannot afford the heavy burden of bank lending due to the volatility of cash income.