
In Austria, the idea of crowdfunding has been linked to a cooperative: CrowdCoopFunding eG (eG: eingetragene Genossenschaft, i.e. registered cooperative) –a crowdfunding platform (https://crowdcoopfunding.at) –emerged from an initiative of the Austrian Association of Cooperatives(Schulze-Delitzsch) (Binder, 2015), which offers its members theopportunity to raise equity capital. This is realized by mediation, which is advertised as a form of investment with the invitation ―buy shares‖. The platform is addressed to existing cooperatives to expand the group of members as well as to new cooperatives (start-up-coops).