How New Is Crowdfunding? The Venture Capital Evolution without Revolution - Discourse on Risk Capital Themes and their Relevance to Poland

This conceptual paper discourses the emergence and development of crowdfunding as a step of the broader risk capital evolution. In doing so, we call for a more careful discussion about whether crowdfunding is the next big thing in risk capital mechanisms or a continuity of risk capital instruments, which matches technological regime changes and aligns to economic and social development. Based on a historical overview of types of funding, we elaborate that the risk capital market follows an evolutionary rather than revolutionary progression, where crowdfunding developed as a continuity of business angel, venture capital and microfinance mechanisms. This paper also provides policy implications by discoursing the risk capital evolution and highlights the importance of diversification in risk capital institutions to drive entrepreneurial activity.