By A Cecile Watson
A Cecile Watson is the founder of pitchandchoose. com, the crowdfunding platform for the Caribbean. She is also the Principal at Gr8Way Consulting and the Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Ambassador and Regional Leader for the Caribbean.
I’m making a prediction. By the year 2020, crowdfunding will be a household word across the Caribbean, pretty much as it is now in the United States. I’m also predicting that by that time we in the Caribbean will all know at least one person who has benefited from crowdfunding or who has contributed to a crowdfunding campaign.
So you may wonder why I am so bullish on crowdfunding. And some of you may even be wondering what this “crowdfunding” thing is. If so, then you will no doubt be amazed to learn that the economic value of crowdfunding was estimated as having added at least 270,000 jobs and provided a US$65 billion boost to the global economy in 2014. During that time, startup companies benefited to the extent of US$10 billion. Now that’s significant.
Crowdfunding activity is doubling every year, and continuously outstrips projections. In the five years preceding 2014, the growth was estimated at over 1,000%. And in 2014 US$16.2 billion were raised on platforms globally, and by 2015 the level of funding had