Men dominate in the crowdfunding arena

Singapore

MEN are from Mars and women, from Venus, or so a book of this title observes - and it would seem it is the case even in the sphere of seed crowdfunding as a means of raising capital.

A report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and The Crowdfunding Centre has noted that men use crowdfunding more than women do, and raise more funding in absolute terms than their female counterparts.

However, despite setting smaller funding goals on average, women tend to be more successful at meeting their funding goals.

The report, titled "Women Unbound: Unleashing female entrepreneurial potential", analysed the results of two full years of seed crowdfunding campaign data (2015 to 2016), with the survey covering 205 countries and nine of the largest crowdfunding platforms.

PwC said it used two main metrics in its analysis - whether the funding target was reached, and the amount of capital raised.

The women fared better in hitting their funding targets, but the men raised more capital.

The report noted that in global terms, of the 63 crowdfunding campaigns that raised over US$1 million (S$1.38 million) in the time frame, 56 were led by men and the remaining seven, by women.

But while the men dominated crowdfunding efforts on an absolute level, the women outdid the men in terms of the overall success of their funding campaigns - defined in the report as whether the campaign's funding goals were met.

The report said men led 139,000 crowdfunding campaigns over the two-year period, compared to the women's 55,000 campaigns.

But while 22 per cent of crowdfunding campaigns led by women were successful, only 17 per cent of those led by men were.

This may be attributable to men typically setting higher funding targets than women, but the report also pointed out that crowdfunding was a more accessible way for women to raise capital.

Another difference between the sexes is that, even though men tended to receive more pledges than women, women tended to garner more funds per pledge than men.

But this didn't hold true in Asia and Asean, where men pulled in more funds per pledge than women.

In global terms, the average individual backer contributed US$87 (S$120) to women, and US$83 (S$114) for men.

But in Asia, the average pledge for female-led campaigns was US$25 (S$35) less than for male-led campaigns. Asian women met their funding goals at a 14 per cent success rate, against Asian men's seven per cent.

In Asean, the average pledge for female-led campaigns was US$19 (S$26) less than for male-led campaigns, but women met their funding goals at an 11 per cent success rate, against men's eight per cent.

The report also noted that crowdfunding success rates were higher for women across all industries it analysed, including education, technology, and entertainment and media.

PwC said that, based on its experience in the market, women are not as proactive in leveraging seed crowdfunding as men, and expressed hope that the higher success rate for women in the report would spur more women to use seed crowdfunding and become entrepreneurs.