혁신형 창업기업을 위한 대표적인 자금조달 수단으로 증권형 크라우드펀딩(crowdfunding) 제도가 2016년 국내에 제도화되었다. 증권형 크라우드펀딩은 기업이 온라인 플랫폼을 통해 증권을 발행하고, 다수의 소액투자자가 이에 투자하여 자금을 조달하는 방식을 의미한다. 국내에서 증권형 크라우드펀딩이 본격적으로 제도화된 이후 지난 2년 동안 괄목할만한 성장세를 보여 왔다. 투자자관점에서는 투자자가 빠르게 늘어나고 있으며, 이에 따라 정부가 투자한도 확대 등 규제완화를 계획하고 있기 때문에 당분간 이러한 성장세는 지속될 것으로 예상된다. 본 연구는 어떤 기업의 특성이 지난 2년간 진행된 크라우드펀딩의 성공에 영향을 미치는지 살펴보고, 이어 크라우드펀딩성공이 기업의 성과 개선에 영향을 미치는지를 실증분석을 통해 살펴보고자 하였다. 우선 크라우드펀딩의 성공여부가 과거의 재무적 요인에 의해 결정되지 않는다는 점이 발견되었는데, 이는 크라우드펀딩이 과거의 성과보다는 미래의 성장가능성을 보고 펀딩이 이루어진다는 점에서 긍정적인 효과라고 판단된다. 또한 전체적으로 자금조달에 성공한 기업은 기업의 규모는 성장하고, 매출활동도 크게 개선되는 등 일부 긍정적인 영향이 관찰되었다. 향후 증권형 크라우드펀딩과 관련된 정책방안을 고민할 경우 펀딩 성공이라는 그 자체보다는 지원된 자금이 기업내부의 혁신과 성장을 위해 효율적으로 사용되어 궁극적으로는 사업화에 이르는 과정까지의 지원으로 한 단계 진화토록하는 지원방안을 고려할 필요가 있다.

In 2016, the equity-type crowdfunding was introduced and institutionalized in Korea as a major fund-raising tool for innovative start-ups. Equity-type crowdfunding is where a company offers and issues securities for financing via an online platform, and many small investors come to invest in them. In fact, since crowdfunding makes it possible for start-ups to raise fund from the public based on their future growth potential rather than past performance, it could be a major funding source for domestic venture and startup companies. Also, crowdfunding could be a first step in creating a healthy venture and entrepreneurial eco-system, playing a pivotal role as start-ups supporting system. Over the past two years as of the institutionalization of equity-type crowdfunding in Korea, it has seen remarkable growth. In terms of investors, the number of participating investors are growing rapidly. Also, the growth is expected to continue for a time being as policy authority has plans to deregulate regulations regarding equity-based crowdfunding by expanding investment limits, for instance. In particular, the current Korean government policy stance to promote the naissance and development of early innovators is expected to greatly contribute to the revitalization of equity-type crowdfunding. All these given, this study examines whether the characteristics of a firm have been a variable for the success of crowdfunding conducted over the last two years. Then, this study also examines whether the success of crowdfunding affects the performance of the firm. In this paper, we present several meaningful findings. First, there were no clear evidence in difference of financial characteristics between the successful and failed firms. Since crowdfunding is a system that assesses the future of corporations or projects rather than their past performance, it seems that some of the initial intention of Korea's equity-type crowdfunding’s introduction is taking place. In addition, this study analyzes whether firms’ financial indices in financial statements are improved after crowdfunding compared to those firms which failed to procure. We suggest that there were some positive impacts on companies that were successful in funding, as a whole. Specifically, the size of firms with successful crowdfundings are growing, and their sales activities are also significantly improving. Yet, the impact of crowdfunding on substantial corporate performance is still ambiguous with a few exceptions. However, this ambiguity could be coming from the fact that crowdfunding is still at an early stage. Therefore, we think that future discussion needs to be focused on long-term achievements rather than recent short-term results. In the future, if further policy measures on equity-type crowdfunding are considered in a way to improve funding condition of start-ups and SMEs, it is necessary to promote the support measures of crowdfunding. However, future discussion for crowdfunding support measures should look a step further from just making the funding itself successful: Crowdfunding should be a supporting system for the efficient use of funding for firms’ internal innovation, growth and ultimately commercialization, and so on.