Funding alternative ‘potential’, says Bruton

A businessman who sought “crowd funding” from the public for a portion of the cost of developing a new ice-cream, crepe, and bike hire kiosk in Cork City got the money he needed within two days.

Crowd funding entails the use of small amounts of capital from a large number of individuals to finance a new business venture, typically with information on the investments available published on a crowd-funding website. It bypasses the need to seek a loan, often with high interest rates, from financial institutions.

Cork Business Association president Ernest Cantillon has latched onto the benefits of the phenomenon. He crowd sourced for €10,000 of a planned €60,000 fit-out of the riverside coffee pod on the city’s South Mall through linkedfinance.com.