Apr 4, 2016

Summit meeting in Paris brings together key stakeholders of French Crowdfunding


Last Tuesday 29 March 2016 the third national crowdfunding event took place in Paris, bringing together some 500 participants : investors, financiers, funders, project developers, crowdfunding platforms, debated together. For the organizers, the presence of some key decision makers from across all the country was a major success. Conference participants learnt a lot from keynote speakers who are experienced managers , such as Jean-Louis Bancel, (Crédit Coopératif), Hervé Hatt, CEO (meilleurtaux.com), Nicolas Lesur, (PFP Financement Participatif France), Olivier Mathiot co-founder of France Digitale & PriceMinister, Fabrice Pesin, André Jauny, Benoît Granger...

Amongst the hot topics in this third national meeting were the impact of the lending platforms in funding the economy, crowdfunding donations, conditions for the best support to corporate finance and value creation, legal frameworks, emerging sectors such as renewable energy and urban projects, social innovation and territorial development. Delegates also learnt a lot from key industry players and partners such as Afip, Anaxgo, Bpi France, KissKissBankBank...
Emmanuel Macron, the Minister of Economy and former investment banker re-thinks Crowdfunding and announces new legislation

Nevertheless, the speech given by Emmanuel Macron, the Minister of Economy and former investment banker was undoubtedly the key moment of this event. The minister of Economy had a strong message to deliver to the conference delegates which was well received and much applauded. He called for a real revolution, yes revolution! He criticized his compatriots about their fear to taking business risks, he called for a new revolution in the manner that we talk business, and economy in France: “we need a revolution” he underlined! This was a much appreciated moment: Magic Macron!
The Economy Minister focused particularly on growing sectors for Crowdfunding in France and announced new legislation to foster investment:
- “Consultants equity investments (CIP) can now collect 2.5 million € (instead of 1 million € before);
- The possibility for CIP to intermediate for: preferred shares, convertible bonds and equity securities;
-The possibility for corporations to pay by purchasing certificates of deposit (now called “mini bonds”) through the CIP; an experiment will also be conducted to secure records “mini bonds” in blockchain;
-Raising the funding ceilings from 1000 to 2000 € for paid loans and 4,000 to 5,000 € for interest-free loans made through crowdfunding Intermediaries (IFP)”.
Two models and two visions of France Crowdfunding
The audience of young France Crowdfunding players attending the conference contrasted with the big and monolithic Ministry of Finance nicknamed ”Bercy”. In fact the young entrepreneurs were the guest stars of this meeting. They were very resolute and ambitious; their stands were manned by young people, like Eva Sadoun from 1001PACT and others.
The organizers can be congratulated; firstly they provided a wonderful platform for the young entrepreneurs to voice their opinions through the “Pitch platform” to present their sectors and business and secondly the event organizers gave specialists and experts the opportunity to debate on critical issues such as the legal, regulatory framework and business risk.
This allowed to confront two different visions of crowdfunding: one set of speakers talked about doing business whilst the other set of speakers focused rather on the ethics and regulation of crowdfunding.
Macron’s ambitious programme of reform will certainly give a renewed impulse to the crowdfunding sector and future perspectives look very exciting. The French loans market amounts to about 80 billion € but the crowdfunding industry has only represented up till now a mere 0, 003 % market share of the business loans market, according to M. Hatt.
A big new horizon for France Crowdfunding is opening!