BWB @ Crowdfest

Learning more about the benefits of crowdfunding

· Crowdfunding,Event,P2P lending

BWB were proud to be a part of the first annual Crowdfest Conference and it was great to see many of you there!

The event took place on 19 and 20 October 2016 and we were there speaking about some of our specialist areas - crowdfunding combined with social finance, gaming and regulation. It was full of useful content from over 60 speakers as well as plenty of workshops and exhibitions to get involved with!

Here's a quick summary if you missed us.

Crowdfunding the gaming industry

BWB Associate Gemma Boore coordinated a two hour interactive session where a plethora of industry experts with experience developing, investing in and advising successful gaming companies discussed the pros and cons of crowdfunding in the games industry.

Gemma's guests included Tom Leigh, Director at Crowdcube; Travis Winstanley, Games Investment Director at Kuju; Gareth Evans, Chief Technology Officer at Phundee; and a host of others including the pioneers behind Failbetter Games, Massive Monster and Foam Sword.

Social Impact Funding

Alongside speakers from Big Society Capital, Nesta and Ethex, Oliver Hunt, a solicitor in our social finance team, looked at how crowdfunding can make a real difference to funding for social enterprise and ventures.

In particular Oliver shared how these organisations can navigate the financial services requirements of crowdfunding for investment.

“There was great interest in the potential for crowdfunding to fund social impact projects, from donations to individuals, rewards based offers from consumer focused social start-ups, to investments in social enterprises.

It is clear from Nesta’s and Ethex’s research and the contributions from the panel that crowdfunding is becoming an increasingly important tool in the fundraising mix.”
Oliver Hunt

Essential Regulatory Update

Head of BWB Compliance, Gillian Roche-Saunders, moderated a fantastic panel of crowdfunding and P2P platforms who were all happy to share their experiences of regulatory life.

Full video coverage of the session is available here.

Paul Massey from Crowdcube shared some predictions for the FCA's review of investment-based crowdfunding and shared Crowdcube's experience in setting up in Spain.

Taking time out of his current crowdfunding campaign, Richard Theo from Wealthify shared his thoughts on potential regulatory considerations for companies seeking finance, including the need to get financial promotions signed off.

Julian Cork from Landbay gave us the P2P angle, looking at how the 'new' UK regime for lending platforms is bedding in and on the of challenges operating cross border given the varied approaches across the globe to lending platforms

All the way from Helsinki, Joahnna Palin from Invesdor talked about the experience of using a passport to operate across Europe, both the areas that passporting helps, and the areas where challenges still exist.

The event was organised with the UK Crowdfunding Association and supported by BWB, as well as the Institute of Directors, Confederation of British Industry, Federation of Small Businesses, UK Business Angels Association, British Banking Association, EIS Association and Better Business Finance.