Crowdfunding, the internetbased form of finance popularised in America, is taking off in Scotland.
Bloom VC, established by businesswoman Amanda Boyle and social media expert Michelle Rodger, is celebrating the successful funding of its first projects.
A short film, an album, a web platform to promote Scottish musicians and a contemporary dance production premiering at Edinburgh Fringe, have reached the financial goals.
Bloom is providing a way for business start-ups, social enterprises, community projects and arts ventures in Scotland to appeal to ordinary people, by-passing banks and government schemes.
Hopefuls simply pitch their idea and wait to see if enough people like it in order to reach a preset financial goal.
If they are unsuccessful, no money changes hands. If successful, supporters either receive something in return or are simply content to have helped a worthy ambition be fulfilled.
Bloom takes a 5 per cent fee and PayPal, which handles payments, between 3 and 5 per cent. The model is similar to Kickstarter, the New York-based crowdfunding platform.
Earlier this month, one Kickstarter project – to make a digital watch called the Pebble – closed its fundraising at £6.4m having set out to raise only 1 per cent of that sum.
While Bloom is in its early stages by comparison and emphasises the grassroots nature of many of its projects, co-founder Boyle is delighted with progress.
Will Peakin
Beginning as a reporter on weekly newspapers in the North-East of England, Will moved to Glasgow and worked as a freelance for a number of UK national newspapers. In 1990 he was appointed News Editor of Scotland on Sunday and in 1995, Scotland Editor of The Sunday Times. In 1999, he and his family moved to the south-west of France where he wrote for The Sunday Times Magazine. Returning to Scotland in 2002, he was Assistant Editor (Features) and Deputy Editor at The Scotsman before joining Holyrood Magazine in 2004. He writes for the magazine's business pages and edits its series of...