Crowdfunding – also in the form of Peer-to-Peer lending (P2P) – represents an innovative form of financing the economy, both in the segment of consumers (with personal loans and mortgages) and
in the segment of business activities.
P2P lending has the following distinctive elements in comparison with traditional funding channels:
- financing takes place on the direct market by a plurality of investors who adhere to the proposal formulated through the platform that performs a simple mediation function;
- the evaluation processes use AI technology and the relationship is mainly online;
- on platforms - it is emphasized the activity/project to be financed and the figure of the entrepreneur/management who lead the company.
In the literature there is a little knowledge on the underlying motivations for the use of this form of financing, on the degree of satisfaction and the critical issues faced, the subjective perception of the creditworthiness assessment procedures and the suggestions for an offer better suited to needs. The proposed STSM project aims to fill this gap. In order to acquire knowledge on the elements mentioned above, a survey was carried out aimed at companies that have resorted to P2P lending and a questionnaire was submitted to them.