Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is a form of alternative finance for start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises and represents an increasingly important type of intermediation where a crowdfunding service provider, without taking on own risk, operates a digital platform open to the public in order to match or facilitate the matching of prospective investors or lenders with businesses that seek funding.

This regulatory framework consists of:

• the Crowdfunding Regulation which applies from 10 November 2021;
• the set of regulatory technical standards and implementing technical standards (Level 2 Legislation) and
• Questions and Answers on Crowdfunding (Level 3 legislation) which are published on ESMA website and are expected to be updated continuously.

The types of crowdfunding regulated by the Crowdfunding Regulation are:

• crowdlending (facilitation of granting of loans) and
• crowdinvesting (facilitation of business financing via securities and admitted instruments for crowdfunding purposes). The National bank of Slovakia does not consider shares in limited liability companies, limited partnerships, public trading companies or cooperatives established under Slovak law as admitted instruments for crowdfunding purposes.

P2P (peer-to-peer) crowdfunding platforms, i.e. crowdfunding model focused on facilitation of consumer loans are out of the scope of this regulation as well as donation crowdfunding.

According to the Crowdfunding Regulation the provision of crowdfunding services encompasses three types of actors:

• project owner who seeks funding through a crowdfunding platform (crowdfunding offers with a consideration of less than EUR 5 000 000); in terms of the Slovak Republic the Article No. 49 of the Crowdfunding Regulation should be taken into the account,
• investors who provide their capital/invest to proposed projects,
• crowdfunding services provider who operates a digital platform.

Only an authorised legal person is entitled to provide regulated crowdfunding services in the Slovak Republic. The permission concerned is granted by the National bank of Slovakia under the Article 12 of the Crowdfunding Regulation, whereby detailed information related to an application is specified by the delegated regulation (EU) 2022/2112.

Only those companies which have provided crowdfunding services in accordance with the national law before the application of the Crowdfunding Regulation are not obliged to get a permission concerned during the transition period. The transition period is stipulated by the Article 1 of the delegated regulation (EU) 2022/1988 and applies until 10 November 2023.