Crowdfunding also for medium-sized businesses?

The idea of crowd funding origi­na­ted in the USA and was initi­ally used prima­rily to finance music produc­tions. Crowd (‘swarm’) funding repres­ents an inte­res­t­ing alter­na­tive for finan­cing projects, start-ups and compa­nies. In Germany, there are about half a dozen crowd­fun­ding plat­forms, such as Berg­fürst or compa­nisto, with a focus on start­ups. — SMEs in parti­cu­lar are finding it incre­asingly diffi­cult to obtain finan­cing from banks. Future-orien­­ted finan­cing solu­ti­ons are in demand. Can equity or debt capi­tal also be mobi­li­zed for SMEs with the help of the ‘swarm’?