Microfinance and Crowd funding: Alternative Approaches for Entrepreneurship Development

As the studies say, most of the entrepreneurs fail to get external finance for their start-ups and ventures due to inaccessibility of traditional finance in the form of banks, VC funds and angel investors. This paper examined the new trends of alternative finance such as microfinance and crowdfunding. Microfinance is not a new option of financing but a new approach for raising funds for microenterprises. Crowdfunding is a technology based online platform for financing a project, business ventures or social cause by a group of individuals. Crowdfunding platforms are not only offering donation and reward based financing, but it also offers equity based funds. This paper analysed the role of microfinancing and crowdfunding as the alternative form of financing for entrepreneurship development.