Name:
Blue Crowdfunding

Developed by:
Blue Crowdfunding Project (Interreg MED), Lead Partner
E-Zavod

Country(ies) involved:
Croatia, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain

Funding sources:
INTERREG MED

General idea:
Blue economy innovation in Mediterranean could be significantly improved, if more investment funds would be available.One possible solution is use of crowdfunding (CF), but knowledge and capacities for CF are still low in MED area . Project general objective is to improve innovation capacities in blue growth sector by mainstreaming use of crowdfunding. Project ambition is to trigger change from using public funds for innovation to use crowdfunding and crowdsourcing to fund, test and validate innovative blue economy products and services. Consequently blue-economy SMEs will get better access to funding and will be able to deliver better and more innovative solutions.The project will address the following blue economy sectors: blue energy, maritime safety, maritime transport, maritime tourism, fisheries and aquaculture.

Description:
BLUE CROWDFUNDING is an Interreg MED Project aiming at spreading information and knowledge about crowdfunding as such and as applied to blue economy, in order to make it more accessible to the stakeholders involved. As a matter of fact, blue economy innovation in Mediterranean could be significantly improved, if more investment funds would be available. One possible solution is use of Crowdfunding (CF), which wides the financial market also to private investors and non-institutional shareholders. Nonetheless, knowledge and capacities for CF in MED area are still low in comparison to North EU.

To improve the attitude for innovation and the expertise related to alternative finance in blue growth sector, BLUE CROWDFUNDING delivers capacity-building trainings and good practice exchange by mainstreaming use of crowdfunding. In order to do so, it capitalised the proved-successful methodology of Interreg Central “CROWD-FUND-PORT” project and Interreg MED “FINMED”, carried along by Slovenian LP e-Zavod and PP5 University of Algarve, who were coordinator/partner in those projects.

Sources:
https://blue-crowdfunding.interreg-med.eu/