EFFECTIVE CROWDFUNDING IN UKRAINE: EXPERIENCE OF USING GLOBAL PLATFORMS AND DIRECTIONS FOR PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT

Abstract

This article examines the essence of effective crowdfunding as a modern digital tool for capital mobilization and analyses the experience of its use by Ukrainian project initiators. The author generalizes the findings of domestic and foreign scholars on the key success factors of crowdfunding campaigns and systematizes the main models of collective online financing, including donation-based, reward-based, equity-based and lending-based crowdfunding. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of three prominent cases of Ukrainian projects that successfully raised substantial amounts of capital on international platforms Kickstarter and Indiegogo: Petcube (a smart pet-camera startup that raised over USD 250,000 in 2013), LaMetric (a smart notification ticker that raised over USD 370,000 in 2014) and Ugears (a manufacturer of self-propelled wooden mechanical models that has cumulatively raised more than USD 1.4 million across six Kickstarter campaigns). Based on a comparative case analysis, the paper identifies the reasons why Ukrainian entrepreneurs systematically prefer global crowdfunding platforms over domestic ones. These include the absence of a clear regulatory framework for investment-based crowdfunding in Ukraine, limited access to international payment infrastructure, the relatively low capacity of the domestic market, the need for product validation before entering the global market, access to diaspora and international backers, currency stability (fundraising in USD/EUR), and the presence of a mature ecosystem of accelerators, marketing agencies and PR services around global platforms. It is substantiated that the main preconditions for an effective crowdfunding campaign are thorough pre-campaign preparation, high-quality media coverage, a clearly articulated value proposition and the formation of a community around the project. The article concludes with a set of practical recommendations for improving the effectiveness of crowdfunding in Ukraine, including the adoption of a specialized crowdfunding law, the approximation of national regulation to Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 on European crowdfunding service providers, the development of equity- and lending-based models, the build-out of technological infrastructure (escrow services, KYC procedures, transparent reporting) and the establishment of educational programs for entrepreneurs on how to plan, launch and scale a successful crowdfunding campaign.