Voting rights delivery in investment-based crowdfunding: a cross-platform analysis

This is one of the first studies to investigate corporate governance in investment-based crowdfunding. Our cross-platform analysis reveals a large variety in corporate governance mechanisms, in particular with regard to voting rights delivery. Some platforms assign voting rights to individual investors, some work under a nominee structure, and some require the involvement of accredited investors to list offerings. Using a sample of 185 investment-based crowdfunding portals based in Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, the UK and the US, we find that the delivery of individual voting rights is associated with lower chances of success of the platforms, whereas the delivery of pooled voting rights is not significant. Fewer offerings are listed in syndicate-like platforms.