Aggregating crowdfunding projects in Franceprojects with social, environmental, economic and cultural impact. TousNosProjets.fr solely serves as an aggregator of French crowdfunding

TousNosProjets.frAggregating crowdfunding

projects in France

https://www.crowdfunding4culture.eu/

https://www.crowdfunding4culture.eu/

2 | Case study TousNosProjets.fr

Name of aggregator platform TousNosProjets.fr

Geographical focus France

Active since 2014

Initiator BPI France (public investment bank)

Number of platforms involved 38

Platform website www.tousnosprojets.fr

http://www.tousnosprojets.fr/

Executive summary

Case study TousNosProjets.fr| 3

The website TousNosProjets.fr is aplatform that aggregates projects ofFrench crowdfunding platforms. It wasinitiated by the French publicinvestment bank BPI France. The goal ofthe platform is to support theemergence of crowdfunding in Franceby giving visibility to the crowdfundingindustry and its operating platforms.

When the platform was set up in 2014 ithosted 13 French platforms, includingdonation and reward-based platforms,lending-based platforms andinvestment-based platforms. InSeptember 2016, TousNosProjets.fr had38 French crowdfunding platforms onits website, which hosted a totalnumber of 956 projects.

The majority of the projects come fromthe cultural sector, even thoughTousNosProjets.fr does not have aspecific focus on this sector. It presentsprojects with social, environmental,economic and cultural impact.

TousNosProjets.fr solely serves as anaggregator of French crowdfundingprojects from different platforms.Visitors are redirected to the respectiveplatform upon clicking on a project.There is no match-funding mechanisminvolved in the partnership that BPIFrance has with the crowdfundingplatforms. There is an automatedprocess that allows to collect statisticaldata on a daily basis.


The initiative TousNosProjets.fr was setup in 2014 with 13 founding platforms.Today (September 2016) it aggregates 38French crowdfunding platforms and listsall of their respective projects.TousNosProjets.fr hosts platforms thatuse all four crowdfunding models(reward, donation, equity and lending).The platform is operated by BPI France, aFrench public investment bank. It advisesand supports SMEs and midsizecompanies as well as innovativeenterprises in order to support publicpolicy of the State and of the Frenchregions.

Aggregation of crowdfunding projects from platforms in France

TousNosProjets.fr serves as anaggregator of all data from the partnercrowdfunding platforms. BPI Francefollows a validating process before theyaccept a crowdfunding platform onTousNosProjets.fr. Furthermore, eachplatform is asked to provide an update ofthe current projects (e.g. fundingamount collected) on a daily basis toallow BPI France to aggregate the dataon the website.

Considering the whole French market ofcrowdfunding platforms, which countsabout 140 platforms in 2016,TousNosProjets.fr represents less than1/3 of the market.

Nevertheless, the two big French playerslike ULULE and KissKissBankBank arerepresented on it.

TousNosProjets.fr allows:

Backers to access all the projectoffers of 38 French crowdfundingplatforms in one place and to filteraccording to his/her interests;

Project holders to choose theplatform that best suits his/herneeds;

The public to access detailedstatistics on the types of projectsthat raise funds in France;

The crowdfunding platforms to gainvisibility and reach a wideraudience.

With TousNosProjets.fr, BPI Francemainly targets professional investors,without focusing on a specific CCS-subsector. However, there is a filterfunction that allows to only showprojects in the cultural and creativessector. On 30 September 2016, therewere 756 cultural projects online(including music, video and movies,games, events, fashion and design,publishing and journalism, kitchen, artsand cultural heritage).

About TousNosProjets.fr


The projects on TousNosProjets.fr arecharacterized by:

impact on society: social,environmental, cultural, economic;

profile of project holders: business,individual, association, community;

method of financing: grant, loan,investment and reward-based;

location of the project.

The backers / investors can find theprojects they want to support throughthe universal search engine. Email alertscan be set to be notified of any newproject in line with the investorsinterests.

Rationale for the partnership

The aim of TousNosProjets.fr is tosupport the emergence of crowdfundingin France. According to BPI France, theintention of the platform is to givevisibility to the crowdfunding industry inFrance and to help the crowdfundingplatforms grow.

Further to this, by collaborating closelywith the crowdfunding platforms, BPIFrance stays connected to thecrowdfunding industry, which canpotentially open new investmentpossibilities for them. Nevertheless, BPIFrance states that the partnership withthe crowdfunding platforms has nomonetary intention in the first place.

From the perspective of one (donation-based) crowdfunding platforminterviewed, one of the main drivers tobe on TousNosProjets.fr is for reasons ofreaching a wider audience. The equity-based platform LUMO, which was one ofthe 13 founding platforms, states thatthe intention was to reach out to moreinvestors and to stay closely connectedto BPI France.

Furthermore, TousNosProjets.fr helpsthe French public to better understandthe concept of crowdfunding and informabout which crowdfunding platformsexist in France. It serves as a tool to raisegeneral awareness of this viablealternative financing tool. There is nospecific focus on CCS nor on a specificcrowdfunding model.

Partnership model

Set-up

The initiative was set up in 2014 whencrowdfunding platforms brainstormedtogether with BPI France about whatcould help the industry to grow. As BPIFrance runs a similar platform formergers and acquisitions , the option ofhaving a similar system for thecrowdfunding industry in France arouse.BPI France responded to this need andbuilt TousNosProjets.fr in order to helpthe crowdfunding industry in France todevelop.

On the basis of the interviews forTousNosProjets.fr there is no evidencethat the partnership will be adapted orexpanded in any way in the near future.If such thing would be considered in thefuture, it will be done in very closecollaboration with the crowdfundingplatforms that partner with BPI France.

Model of cooperation

All partners are treated equally. BPIFrance collects and promotes all thedata provided by the platforms onTousNosProjets.fr. There is no matchfunding mechanism involved in thispartnership, according to BPI France.

BPI France claims that there are norestrictions on the duration of thepartnership, unless a platform stops itsoperations or decides to withdraw fromTousNosProjets.fr.

Evolutions of the partnership are madein close collaboration with the partnersand their needs, according to BPIFrance. A working group that involvesthe 13 founding members, getstogether every 6 to 9 months in order todiscuss the status of TousNosProjets.fr.According to BPI France no futureevolutions with regard to the rationaleof the partnership are currentlyplanned.

With regards to recent evolutions, BPIFrance recently introduced a new filterfunction that filters by regions, in orderto increase the visibility for regionalplatforms and projects and to attractmore visitors on TousNosProjets.fr.According to BPI France this need wasexpressed by investors.


Impact of TousNosProjets.frImpact on the uptake of crowdfunding

In March 2016, TousNosProjets.fr had atotal number of 1.580 projects from 38crowdfunding platforms online(including 450 lending, 750 donation-and reward-based and 380 investmentprojects). On 28/09/2016 the numberof live projects on TousNosProjets.fr was965 projects, with 763 cultural, 121social and 32 environmental projects.Hence, the majority of the projectscome from the creative and culturalsector.

Rather than promoting donation-basedcrowdfunding platforms such as ULULEwith a high number of CCS projects,TousNosProjets.fr seems to be morehelpful for equity-based crowdfundingplatforms such as LUMO, which is aninvestment platform focused onrenewable energies. The causes for thiscan presumably be explained by acombination of two aspects, a)TousNosProjets.fr rather attractsinvestors looking for actual investmentopportunities, instead of backers, who(only) seek to donate with no monetaryreturn expectations and b) ULULE is oneof the biggest platforms in France withan established (donation) backercommunity whereas LUMO is a smallerplatform operating in a niche thatattracts investors seeking for financialreturn.

Looking at the type of projects, there isa high number of cultural projects onTousNosProjets.fr (763 out of 965).From the interviews conducted, itbecame clear that the partnership doesnot seem to help with institutionalizingcrowdfunding in the financingecosystem for CCS. It is more helpful forequity-based crowdfunding, which israre in CCS.

Donation- and reward-based projects:

This data needs to be regarded withcare, as it only takes into accountprojects of the 11 donation and reward-based platforms on TousNosProjets.fr(see footnote 8). These 11 platformsmainly operate in the cultural andcreative sectors and include also smallerplatforms, which explains the highnumber of CCS projects displayed in thestatistics.

With regard to the number of projectsfinanced, the figure below shows that10.876 cultural projects weresuccessfully funded in the period from30/09/2013 to 27/10/2016. The total oflive projects in that period amounted to15.833.



The following figure shows the amountscollected in the period from 30/09/2013to 27/10/2016. Again, cultural projectsare represented very well, due to thenature of the platforms considered forthis data. As shown in the figure below,the amount of 46 million euro wascollected for cultural projects in theperiod of about 3 years, followed bysocial projects with around 20 millioneuro collected. The amounts raised foreconomic and environment relatedprojects are rather low with 3.4 millioneuro and 1.18 million euro respectively,which can be explained by the fact thatonly donation and reward basedplatforms are considered in this data.

Lending-based projects

For this data set the 12 lending-basedplatforms on TousNosProjets.fr havebeen considered. The total of livelending-based projects from30/09/2013 to 27/10/2016 was 958projects. Figure below illustrates thenumber of fully financed lending-basedprojects, with the majority allocated toeconomic-related projects (701),followed at a large distance byenvironment-related projects (168projects). With regard to the othersectors, 65 social projects and 24cultural projects were fully funded inthe respective period.

One can conclude from this that culturalprojects are rather seldom fundedthrough the lending-basedcrowdfunding model, carefully takinginto account the focus of the platformsconsidered for this data.

In line with the above figure, theamounts collected for economic relatedprojects are the highest with around 74million euro. Followed by environmentalprojects with € 17.17 million, € 1.75million for social and € 1.37 million forcultural projects.

Investment projects

A total of 15 investment-basedplatforms are represented onTousNosProjets.fr and are consideredfor this statistic. The number of projectsin the period of 30/09/2013 to27/10/2016 amounts to 212.


Evidently, a little more than half of thefully financed projects are economic-related (112), 48 are environment-related, 33 are social-related and only 19are cultural-related. Very similar to thelending-based data set, the culturalprojects are underrepresented in thisfunding model.

Considering the amounts collected ineach of the sectors projects, the figurebelow illustrates that economic projectshave the highest amount collected,(€ 48.17 million) followed byenvironmental projects (€ 15.15 million),social projects (€ 10.72 million) andfinally cultural projects (€ 8.82 million).

Impact on the project holders

Due to the nature of the platformTousNosProjets.fr, i.e. serving asaggregator, the direct impact on theproject holders cannot be measured byBPI France itself.

According to one of the donation-basedcrowdfunding platforms interviewed,

there is no significant impact on theproject holders themselves, except forthe fact that a wider audience isreached. But this has no direct effect onthe amounts raised or the number ofbackers, says one of the interviewsrunning a donation based platform.Similarly, according to the equity-basedplatform LUMO, no impact on theproject holders can be accounted for.

TousNosProjets.fr claims to attract (new)investors, as the platform is linked on thegeneral BPI France website, whichconsequently increases the traffic to itand vice versa. For equity-basedcrowdfunding platforms this may bebeneficial, but the impact on donation-or reward-based crowdfunding platformsis rather low, according to the findingsfor this study. Hence, one can argue thatTousNosProjets.fr does not seem to bevery beneficial for CCS projects ingeneral, as CCS projects are mainlyhosted on donation- and reward-basedplatforms rather than on investmentplatforms.

According to BPI France, two of the maindrivers for TousNosProjets.fr are toreach a wider audience and to createawareness about crowdfunding.Furthermore, BPI France intends tosupport the French crowdfundingindustry with this initiative. ByTousNosProjets.fr BPI France staysconnected to the fast-changingcrowdfunding market and can look outfor investment opportunities in this fieldmore easily.


Impact on the backers

TousNosProjets.fr offers backers thepossibility to easily overview and filterprojects they are interested in. WhetherTousNosProjets.fr has an impact ontheir profile in terms of behaviour oramount donated/invested, no evidencecould be found.

From the perspective of the donation-based crowdfunding platform ULULE,TousNosProjets.fr does not impact thebackers’ profile, neither has it increasedthe number of backers. This is due tothe fact that investors seekinginvestment opportunities visitTousNosProjets.fr, and the likelihoodthat they will choose a donation-basedplatform for their “investment” is verylow. According to ULULE, the majority ofthe funding (98%) comes throughULULE directly. The transformation rate,which means backers that actually makea donation to a project after they visitedTousNosProjets.fr, is as low as 0,7%according to ULULE.

In consideration of the fact that ULULEis a) one of the biggest platforms in theFrench market and b) a donation-basedplatform, the low impact on the numberof backers seems reasonable.Furthermore, ULULE has its establishedcommunity, where backers and projectholders go directly to ULULE and do notlook at other crowdfunding platforms(on an aggregated website) for a projectdonation.

For the crowdfunding platform LUMOthis is different. LUMO registered anincrease in the number of investmentson their platform sinceTousNosProjets.fr started. Hence, for anequity-based platform like LUMO thepartnership with BPI France seems to bebeneficial. According to LUMO’stracking, the path where visitors comefrom says that TousNosProjets.fr isranked number 3.

Impact on the public partners

From the viewpoint of thecrowdfunding platform ULULE,TousNosProjets.fr is a valuablecommunication tool. It informs thepublic about crowdfunding and raisesawareness about it. In this regard, it ispositive, as it serves as an educationaltool for the (general) public, as most ofthe visitors on TousNosProjets.fr comethrough the general BPI France website.The overall traffic at TousNosProjets.fr isaround 20.000 visits per months.

Critical success factorsAccording to BPI France, the key factorof success was the fact that thepartners were willing to work togetherwith them and appreciated BPIssuggestion for an aggregated platformlike TousNosProjets.fr. Additionally, thecapability to work closely with all thepartners and exchange on a regularbasis, seems to be a key success factorfor a good partnership. The frequentexchange on a 6 to 9-month basis iscrucial for the evolvement ofTousNosProjets.fr and the cohesion of

all partners involved. TousNosProjets.fris always up to date and gives the publica good overview about which projectsare currently running.

With regards to the potential growth ofCCS crowdfunding throughTousNosProjets.fr, the initiative doesnot seem to help with institutionalizingcrowdfunding in the financingecosystem for CCS. It is more helpful forequity-based crowdfunding, which isstill rare in CCS.



Case study author: European Crowdfunding Network

Layout: Jessie Pieters, IDEA Consult

Photos: TousNosProjets.fr, Shutterstock

This case study is part ofthe EU funded projectCrowdfunding4Culture.

Project partners:

Do you have questions after reading this case study? Contact our Crowdfunding4Culture project coordinator: Isabelle De Voldere (IDEA Consult), [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Documents

Aggregating crowdfunding projects in Franceprojects with social, environmental, economic and cultural impact. TousNosProjets.fr solely serves as an aggregator of French crowdfunding