Success Factors in Reward based and Equity based Crowdfunding in Finland

Master’s Thesis 
74 
bronite “has grown explosively, sold to 40 different countries and hired new team 
members” according to Suoheimo. Ambronite has also obtained “funding from busi-
ness angels and venture capitalists in Finland and abroad” – one of whom is the co-
founder of YouTube. This is in accordance with Mollick (2014) claiming successful 
crowdfunding can lead to additional funding from traditional sources. Since 
EkoRent’s crowdfunding campaign ended only a short while ago, there is not yet 
much information about how well the business has proceeded. Overall the reward-
based crowdfunding projects seemed to have done well after the crowdfunding cam-
paign. 
As for the equity-based crowdfunding, the interviewees were less verbose in their 
description of current business. Bjors stated the crowdfunding success “has not eased 
life at all” and that while Juuri has opened a new location, more capital is required 
and “loans are very hard to get”. Alternatively, Pyynikin Käsityöläispanimo has “re-
cently taken a loan for 50 thousand euros from Finnvera” and is expanding produc-
tion capacity. It seems the equity crowdfunding projects have not experienced the 
crowdfunding success as uniformly as the reward-based ones. 
 

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Master’s Thesis 
75 
10. Discussion 
10.1. Findings from the Study 
Crowdfunding, as an emerging financing market has grown rapidly over the past few 
years 
(
Belleflamme et al., 2015). More capital is being raised through crowdfunding 
than ever before and more people are participating in it. People participate in crowd-
funding as entrepreneurs looking for funding or as funders. Both groups have various 
motivations behind their actions. For entrepreneurs a common motivation is to raise 
funding (
Manchanda and Muralidharan, 2014; 
Frydrych et al., 2014) and others may 
include reasons such as finding validation for ideas (Belleflamme et al., 2013; 
Gerber 
and Hui, 2013)
, building relationships and indicating demand 
(
Mollick, 2014; 
Manchanda and Muralidharan, 2014; De Buysere et al., 2012)
. Most funders on the 
other hand participate in crowdfunding projects in hopes of receiving compensation 
for their contribution (Wheat et al., 2013; 
Gerber and Hui, 2013
). Rewards can be 
monetary or non-monetary in nature (
De Buysere et al., 2012)
. Funders may also look 
to contribute in order to support a cause and be part of a community (
Gerber and Hui, 
2013).
Earlier in the thesis nine crowdfunding success factors were identified. Those success 
factors affect whether or not a project reaches its funding target. The identified suc-
cess factors encompass the crowdfunding project (Belleflamme et al., 2013), its dura-
tion and the entrepreneur initiating it (Frydrych et al., 2014). Moreover, success fac-
tors include aspects such as network (Frydrych et al., 2014; Agrawal et al., 2015), 
information sharing (Agrawal et al., 2015) and other crowdfunding projects 
(Ward 
and Ramachandran, 2010)
. Finally, geography (Mollick, 2014; Agrawal et al., 2015) 
and legal regulation (Sigar, 2012; 
De Buysere et al., 2012) 
have been found to affect 
crowdfunding projects. 
Several success factors can be identified from the interviews. Firstly, the type of the 
project and its rewards were found to have some correlation with successfulness. All 
interviewees felt that the nature and industry of their business was attractive to fun-
ders. This is similar to data from Kickstarter indicating the success rates of project 

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