The European Crowdfunding Service Providers Regulation (ECSPR) has now been in full force for three years. A recently published report from the industry body EUROCROWD provides the first broader assessment of how the regime works in practice — and its conclusions are relevant for Swedish unlisted companies considering crowdfunding as a route to capital.
A brief overview of ECSPR
The European Crowdfunding Service Providers Regulation (ECSPR, EU 2020/1503) entered into full force in November 2023 after a transitional period. For the first time, the regulation created a common European framework for platforms that channel capital between investors and companies — covering both equity-based and lending-based crowdfunding.
The central building blocks are:
- Authorisation. Platforms must be licensed by a national competent authority. In Sweden, Finansinspektionen is the competent authority.
- Key Investment Information Sheet (KIIS). For each campaign, a standardised information document is produced to give investors a clear view of the offering and its risks.
- Knowledge test and reflection period. Non-sophisticated investors must demonstrate that they understand the risks, and have a four-day reflection period for investments above certain thresholds.
- Passporting. A platform authorised in one EU member state may operate throughout the EU without seeking a separate licence in each country.
- Threshold. A campaign may raise up to EUR 5 million per company over a rolling twelve-month period.
The purpose of the regime was to create a common European market — both for companies seeking capital and for investors seeking opportunities across borders.
What three years of experience have shown
In July 2026, EUROCROWD published an analysis of how ECSPR has actually functioned, based on ESMA's market reports, a review of platforms' public disclosures, and Member State notifications under Article 2(3). Several of the conclusions challenge the expectations that existed when the regulation was introduced.
The market is dominated by lending-based finance. Lending-based crowdfunding accounts for around 58% of total EU volume. Equity-based crowdfunding remains a niche — roughly 12% of volume. One explanation is that high interest rates have made lending-based products more attractive; another is that equity instruments are more complex and illiquid, which deters many retail investors.
Cross-border activity remains low. Despite passporting being available from the outset, cross-border transactions account for only around 8% of total ECSPR funding — a figure that has not changed since the regime was introduced. Harmonised rules are therefore not sufficient to create a single market. Taxation, language, marketing rules, and investor culture still differ significantly between member states.
The drivers of the market are not what was expected. The report identifies factors that have proven more decisive than the regulation itself: platform maturity and volume, the existence of national regimes that pre-dated ECSPR, investor culture, digital maturity among small and medium-sized companies, and the strategic choices of the larger platforms regarding cross-border activity.
Platform quality varies considerably. A particularly important observation concerns structural weaknesses. According to the report's review, 32.2% of platforms are assessed as having elevated risk in the area of data protection, and 30% in operational resilience (ICT security, business continuity, incident management). These weaknesses become more consequential as platforms grow and handle larger volumes of investor capital.
The debate on the threshold: EUR 5 million or EUR 12 million?
An ongoing debate within the European crowdfunding industry deserves particular mention. In February 2026, a coalition of European industry associations and platforms put forward a proposal to raise the ECSPR per-campaign threshold from EUR 5 million to EUR 12 million. The argument is that a higher ceiling would align with the EU Listing Act, under which the prospectus exemption has already been raised to EUR 12 million, and that it would enable larger financing rounds for fast-growing companies in deep tech, AI, and other innovation-driven sectors.
The EUROCROWD report is sceptical of the proposal. The report notes that even the largest ECSPR campaigns rarely approach the current EUR 5 million ceiling. In other words: it is not the threshold that is holding the market back, but structural factors such as deal flow, investor reach, and the operational maturity of platforms. Raising the ceiling without addressing the underlying issues would, according to the report, risk exposing non-sophisticated investors to larger and more complex deals without a corresponding strengthening of protection.
For Swedish companies, the practical conclusion is this: regardless of how the debate is resolved at EU level, today's threshold is EUR 5 million, and most Swedish unlisted companies that are candidates for equity-based crowdfunding operate at a scale where the threshold is not the binding constraint. The questions worth asking are instead about how a campaign is executed well within the existing framework.
What does this mean for Swedish unlisted companies?
For a Swedish unlisted company considering raising capital via a crowdfunding platform, the report's conclusions are practically useful. Here are five observations worth taking away.
1. ECSPR is not "an easy path to capital" — it is a structured process. A campaign requires a Key Investment Information Sheet, accurate information about the company and its risks, and the company standing behind the information under liability. For companies accustomed to formal reporting, this is manageable; for less experienced companies, it is a capability-building step that requires preparation.
2. Platform choice matters more than many think. The report's observation that quality varies considerably between platforms — especially in data protection and operational resilience — is important. A platform with shortcomings in these areas can cause problems both for the company raising capital and for the investors participating. The right questions to ask a platform include how it handles personal data, how it ensures continuity in the event of technical problems, and how it documents its processes vis-à-vis the supervisory authority.
3. Equity-based crowdfunding remains a niche — but a growing one. Although lending dominates by volume, there is structural room for equity-based finance, particularly for growth companies that want to broaden their ownership base rather than take on debt. The report also notes that the future of ECSPR is likely to be more about quality than quantity — which favours serious platforms and serious companies.
4. Cross-border capital is harder than it sounds. A company thinking about attracting investors from several European countries should not count on passporting to solve this automatically. The report shows that most successful campaigns still take place within a national investor base. That does not mean cross-border finance is impossible — but it requires a deliberate strategy, often with the help of a platform that has concrete experience of multinational campaigns.
5. The share register becomes a central part of the capital raise. This is perhaps the most underestimated aspect of equity-based crowdfunding. A successful campaign may result in tens, hundreds, or even thousands of new shareholders. They must be registered correctly, their rights managed on an ongoing basis, and future transactions (new share issues, acquisitions, generational transfers) become more complex as the shareholder base grows. Companies that enter a crowdfunding campaign without a robust digital share register risk creating an administrative problem for themselves that is more expensive to resolve after the fact than to solve in advance.
The broader perspective
The EUROCROWD report points to a broader development: the European crowdfunding market is entering a consolidation phase. Fewer, larger, and more professional platforms are expected to dominate — and platforms with shortcomings in basic operational hygiene are expected either to be acquired or to leave the market. For companies seeking capital, this means that the choice of platform becomes a long-term question, not merely a question of who can launch the campaign the fastest.
It also means that equity-based crowdfunding, while still a niche, is likely to play a clearer role in the European capital markets landscape over time. The report describes ECSPR as a potential "missing middle" between microfinance and public markets — a space in which small and medium-sized companies can find investors in a structured way without going all the way to a stock market listing.
For Swedish unlisted companies, this is particularly relevant given that the Swedish capital market has traditionally been bank-centric. A well-functioning crowdfunding alternative complements rather than replaces other forms of financing — and can be especially valuable in stages where a company wishes to broaden its shareholder base and engage a wider group of investors.
eAktiebok and crowdfunding
We at Alternativa Nordics AB, which operates the eAktiebok platform, intend to launch a service for equity-based crowdfunding during the latter part of 2026. Authorisation as a crowdfunding service provider will be sought from Finansinspektionen under ECSPR. The launch is conditional on authorisation being granted.
Our starting point is straightforward: equity-based crowdfunding works best when it is integrated with a well-managed share register. A campaign that results in many new owners is only the beginning — the real work lies in how the shareholder base is subsequently managed over time. By connecting capital raising with share-register management, we aim to reduce the friction that otherwise arises when companies grow with a wider circle of owners.
We share EUROCROWD's conclusion that the European crowdfunding market is entering a phase in which quality becomes more important than quantity. That is the phase in which we want to operate — for Swedish unlisted companies seeking capital, and for investors looking for opportunities in growth companies with well-ordered ownership structures.
Further information about the launch and service offering will follow during the autumn of 2026.
Source: EUROCROWD, "ECSPR at Three Years: A Single Market Still in Formation", public version 1.1, 7 July 2026.
