The hotel group Falkensteiner Hotels & Residences has recently enabled Slovaks to participate in crowdinvesting via the financial platform Finnest.com. It raised the target sum of €2.5 million within 5-and-a-half weeks instead of the expected 10 weeks. The funds from Austrian, Swiss and Slovak investors will be invested in existing markets, the TASR newswire reported.
The hotel group ran two campaigns in order to raise a total of €5 million. The first round took place in autumn and raised €2.5 million. The second round,which Slovaks joined, was launched in late November. The average investment was €8,000, a new record.
“The overwhelming interest in crowdfunding in our brand clearly signals choosing financing in this form was a correct decision,” said Otmar Michaeler, co-owner and CEO of the Falkensteiner Michaeler Tourism Group (FMTG).
What is crowdinvesting?
Crowdinvesting is equity-based crowdfunding. In the case of equity-based crowdfunding, users invest in a start-up and receive shares in return. Investors become shareholders of the start-up and benefit from the profits of the start-up and from the possible sale of the start-up to a large investor. In the case of traditional crowdfunding, users receive no shares in a start-up but a symbolic return, for instance a CD.