Equity crowdfunding: Why Australia needs to learn from Italy’s mistakes

By Marina Nehme Australia can learn from Italy’s mistake in limiting companies that can access crowd-sourced funding, as the government examines changes to the Corporations Act. The Corporations Amendment (Crowd-sourced Funding) Bill 2015 proposes changes that are designed to encourage small businesses to use crowd-sourced funding, while providing protection to investors. However, the restrictions it […]

The Conversation 26 February, 2016

By Marina Nehme

Australia can learn from Italy’s mistake in limiting companies that can access crowd-sourced funding, as the government examines changes to the Corporations Act.

The Corporations Amendment (Crowd-sourced Funding) Bill 2015 proposes changes that are designed to encourage small businesses to use crowd-sourced funding, while providing protection to investors.

However, the restrictions it is placing on business present a key obstacle to the promotion of entrepreneurship.

Crowd-sourced funding uses online platforms to allow businesses to raise small amounts of money from a large number of investors in order to fund a particular project.