EVERYONE would like a piece of the next Google or Facebook. But the big venture-capital (VC) firms do not usually raise money from small investors. And some entrepreneurs complain that it is hard to get noticed by the hotshots in the VC industry. Hence the enthusiasm for crowd-funding, where small investors can buy a stake in startup companies.

所有人都想购买谷歌或Facebook的股票，但是，大型风投公司往往不会向小投资者融资。一些创业者抱怨称，很难得到大风投企业的亲睐。因此点燃了众筹的热情，小投资者也能购买创业公司的股票。

Seedrs, a British crowd-funding firm, was set up in 2012, and has backed 500 firms so far, raising a total of £210m ($271m) from more than 200,000 users. But there are two big problems with crowd-funding. First, it is risky: most startups fail. Second, investments tend to be illiquid—shareholders have to wait for a takeover or a stockmarket flotation to recoup their investment.

2012年成立的英国众筹企业Seedrs迄今为止已为500家企业融资，从20多万众筹用户那里筹集了2.1亿英镑（约合2.71亿美元）资金。不过，众筹存在两大问题。第一，高风险：大多数创业公司倒闭。第二，投资流动性弱——股东必须等待股份被收购或股票上市才能收回投资。

Seedrs is trying to solve the illiquidity problem by setting up a secondary market, where buyers and sellers can exchange shares. The new market will start operating this summer, and will allow trading for a week every month, starting on the first Tuesday. The price at which investors can deal will be set by Seedrs itself, based on a valuation mechanism in line with industry guidelines. But there are some restrictions: only current investors in a firm will be allowed to buy shares. And, to the extent that investors make a profit on a sale, Seedrs takes a 7.5% cut of the gains.

Seedrs试图建立二级市场，解决投资流动性弱的问题。在二级市场，买卖双方能交易股份。二级市场将在今年夏天启动，每月交易一次，为期一周，开始日期为每月第一个星期二。Seedrs根据专业的评估机制，为投资者制定交易价格。不过，这种做法存在局限性：只有公司的现有投资者可以买股票。另外，Seedrs将从投资者的股票交易收益中抽成7.5%。

Crowd-funding might be even more attractive if investors could at a click assemble a diversified portfolio of small stakes in 20-30 companies rather than just one—just as those who put money into peer-to-peer lending can spread their risk across a range of borrowers. The next challenge will be to build on early efforts to offer the same to investors in shares: ie, mutual funds for crowd-funded startups.

如果投资者选择一个多样化的投资组合，对20到30家公司少量投资而不是孤注一掷，众筹也许会更具吸引力。这就类似把钱借给一群实力相当的人以分散风险。接下来的挑战是让投资者在交易或持有股票时享受同样的待遇，即为众筹创业公司建立共同基金。

编译：张思莹

审校：菜菜泡菇

来源：经济学人