Crowdfunding and wine

What is it about?

Crowdfunding is a relatively new financing opportunity that is growing rapidly worldwide and is mainly valuable for small and medium enterprises. By means of an open call on their own sites or dedicated platforms, entrepreneurs can finance projects through relatively small contributions from a large number of people and thus bypass banking institutions. Furthermore, crowdfunding offers remarkable benefits in a marketing perspective, such as: learning about markets, building customer relationships and communities, promoting products/services through word of mouth. This paper aims to achieve a deeper understanding of the opportunities offered by crowdfunding in the wine sector and offer some guidelines to entrepreneurs for running a successful campaign. Crowdfunding is ideally suited for the wine sector and that winemakers could exploit both the financial and marketing opportunities offered

Featured Image

Why is it important?

In this paper, a case study research that explores the experience of the first wine-dedicated crowdfunding platform, namely Fundovino, has been conducted. Multiple data sources were used, among which documents and archival data from the Fundovino website, an email interview to its management team and an on line questionnaire sent to a sample of projects’ funders. According to our survey, the main motivations for funding projects are the willingness to support and interact with small winemakers and the fun of being involved first-hand. So, the creation of other wine-dedicated crowdfunding platforms may help raise awareness about crowdfunding and attract funders interested in projects related to the world of wine. Running a successful crowdfunding campaign requires a significant investment of time and the development of some specific skills by proponents. Indeed, these latter should also be supported by platforms and other actors through the provision of appropriate services.