Find out what are the possible forms of investment and financing

BANKS

The banking system is the system around which the economy revolves; it is the system that controls the investment and financing markets, including through different companies and mechanisms, and which appear to be in competition with the banks. This is not always the case.

CREDIT GUARANTEE COOPERATIVES

Basically, they are bodies that work alongside the company, providing a more solid guarantee to make access to the institutional credit market represented by the banks easier.

SICAV – SGR – PRIVATE EQUITY

Today, the investment market is dominated by banks, financial intermediaries such as SICAVs or variable capital companies (basically investment funds in corporate form), asset management companies or asset management companies offering investment funds of all kinds to which all you need to join by buying shares.

These funds then take care of finding companies to invest their savings in, sometimes specialising in specific sectors.

As for the companies that benefit from the intervention of these financial operators, they receive financing and in most cases also support, but these are corporate financing at current rates taking into account that in the rates there are also to consider the costs of advice for the support that is given to the entrepreneur.

As far as the percentage returns on these investments are concerned, it can certainly not be said that they are very different from the market average.

Interest rates that are not particularly greedy for companies are not particularly greedy for investors either, because some of them remain with the management companies and do not end up in the investors’ coffers.

If you look at the type and size of companies that are managed in these operations, it is clear that the largest slice of companies (small and medium small) is not even taken into account by these companies, precisely because of their size.

VENTURE CAPITAL

Another type of investment (and financing) is Venture Capital: companies operating in this field normally make investments in a few sectors that are high technology (e.g. biotechnology) and internet.

If you do not operate in these sectors it is practically impossible to access the financing offered by these investors.

For an investor, buying shares of V.C. funds is always quite risky, especially if we are talking about internet investments where flops are the order of the day despite everything. With regard to high technology, however, the main problem for those who invest is the rather long time needed for the investment to produce the desired income.

BUSINESS ANGELS

Business Angels are investors who aim to finance new companies and innovative ideas. In order to have the funds made available by these investors you need to have innovative features in the structure and the project as well as having to be newly established companies. Even here the stakes to be included in the list of projects that can be financed, are very tight. If you want to invest in this type of operation, joining one of these associations of benefactors is the most suitable way.

CROWDFUNDING

Fundraising that takes place online and should exploit the enormous potential of the web’s virality and the new behaviors and mental patterns of surfers facilitated by the emergence of Social Media and the resulting global sharing. In Italy there is still everything to discover.

It is generally used to raise funds and attract funding in various contexts.

The idea of raising funds from various donors or investors is certainly not new, but crowdfunding goes far beyond that.

It is rooted in the concept of ‘microfinance’, the notion that small amounts, when combined, make a difference; it is the same concept that underlies much of the attraction that social media has as a means to facilitate popular action and change: many small actions, when combined, create chain reactions and cause huge effects, often unpredictable, and little traceable to the small initial action.

This financing system finds its limit in the very roots in which it sinks: it is a system suitable for small operations. In short, it is the words that have been spent discussing the various aspects of crowdfunding than the companies or investors who have benefited from it.