Table 1 Summary of the literature on offering and post-offering success

University degree

A degree (in economics) increases the number of investors on:

 - ASSOB (Ahlers et al. 2015)

 - SiamoSoci (Piva and Rossi-Lamastra 2018)

In addition, Goethner et al. (2020) demonstrate on Companisto that a PhD increases the probability of investments.

To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to investigate the relationship between a university degree of the CEO and post-offering success.

Equity stake offered

A decrease of the equity offered is associated with a higher number of investors on:

 - ASSOB (Ahlers et al. 2015)

 - Crowdcube (Ralcheva and Roosenboom 2016)

 - Crowdcube and Seedrs (Vismara 2016)

Smaller equity stakes offered increase the chances to reach the funding target on Crowdcube (Cumming et al. 2019).

Recent studies provide mixed results.

The following results indicate that smaller equity stakes offered are positively related to post-offering success in the UK:

 - Cumming et al. (2019) find that smaller levels of equity offered increase the likelihood of success and decrease the probability of failure (Crowdcube, UK)

 - Signori and Vismara (2018) find no significant effect on the risk of failure (Crowdcube, UK)

 - Signori and Vismara (2016) find that equity offered is negatively related to the probability of seasoned equity offerings, which they consider a success (Crowdcube, UK)

In contrast, Hornuf et al. (2018) find that higher equity stakes offered are associated with lower probabilities of failure using a sample of 13 platforms from the UK and Germany.

Our study attempts to clarify the role of equity offered on the German equity-based crowdfunding market. This is of particular interest as other forms of financial instruments (without voting rights) are used in Germany.

Reputable (professional) investors

Support by reputable (professional) investors is positively related to the number of investors on Crowdcube (Ralcheva and Roosenboom 2016).

Mixed results on the effects of reputable (professional) investors exist.

Signori and Vismara (2018) find a positive effect of professional investor backing on post-offering success. In their sample no venture that was backed by professional investors failed subsequently.

In contrast, Hornuf et al. (2018) find that a higher number of initial VC investors is associated with a higher probability of failure.

With our study, we want to test how reputable investor backing and post-offering success are related in Germany.

Large investments

Large investments of other investors have a positive effect on willingness to invest:

 - Hornuf and Schwienbacher (2018) demonstrate a positive effect of large investment on the number of investments in the subsequent days on Companisto and three other German platforms

 - Walther and Bade (2020) show that large investments increase investors’ willingness to pay on Companisto

To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to study the relationship of large investments and post-offering outcomes.

Updates

An update increases the number of investments on various German platforms including Companisto (Bade and Walther 2021; Block et al. 2018a; Hornuf and Schwienbacher 2018). Block et al. (2018a) also show that the investor reaction depends on the updates’ content.

To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to investigate the relationship between the number of updates and post-offering outcomes.