Thomson Reuters and Crowdnetic to increase transparency in crowdfunding
Thomson Reuters has announced a partnership with Crowdnetic which will see it begin tracking crowdfunded data. According to Thomson Reuters, regulatory change has been a catalyst for the development of crowdfunding as a serious way for companies to gain funding. The new feed will help address the significant challenges unlisted securities now pose for investors and regulators seeking to track deals and build an efficient primary market.

Thomson Reuters is to begin tracking crowdfunding data on its Eikon desktop, as new research projects explosive growth in the UK's alternative finance market.

Thomson Reuters is partnering with Crowdnetic, a provider of real-time data and research to the global marketplace-lending and crowdfunded-startup industries for the new feed, which aims to give investors more insight into the dynamics of this fast-growing investment area.



Data will be tagged using Thomson Reuters' machine-readable identifier PermID, which creates a unique reference for each individual data item, enabling it to track poorly described early-stage entities and unlisted securities.



Debra Walton, chief content officer, financial & risk, Thomson Reuters, says recent regulatory changes have been a catalyst for the development of crowdfunding as a serious way for companies to gain funding.



“The resulting surge in unlisted securities poses significant challenges to investors and regulators seeking to track deals and build an efficient primary market," she says. "With the data management and analysis provided by PermID and Thomson Reuters Eikon, we can help financial professionals gain a comprehensive view of the crowdfunding market.”



A new study from the Centre for Economics and Business Research commissioned on behalf of Fiserv puts a value of £12.3 billion per year on the UK's alternative finance market by 2020, up from £1.2 billion in 2014. The figures, which include loans from P2P lending and crowdfunding, would represent a £14,000 loan for every small business applying for credit.