Crowdfunding describes the emerging phenomenon of raising financing from a large audience via the Internet. The purpose of this thesis is to describe what factors influence individuals to invest in crowdfunding projects and to test their explanatory strength of how much someone invests. A conceptual framework is developed and a study of 735 individuals was conducted on three international crowdfunding platforms. The findings show that trust is important and that the individuals are mainly driven by willingness to help, to support a good cause and to be part of a project realization. The study also shows that some of the factors have a significant relationship to the investment size; however, these factors can only explain a small part of the investments. The thesis provides some tentative insights and implications on how to successfully raise financing through crowdfunding and takes a further step towards explaining this new phenomenon.

Crowdfunding is becoming a new form of funding used by entrepreneurs in Sweden who seek financing for their ventures or projects. This form of funding of which the crowdfunders invest in a nontraditional alternative requires a relationship between the crowdfunders and the entrepreneurs. This thesis aims to provide extensive information into how entrepreneurs and crowdfunders interact with each other. While considering research that has been carried out so far on the growth of crowdfunding, the author wishes to provide more detailed findings and an understanding of how crowdfunders and founders operate after equity crowdfunding.The empirical findings were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire from 20 Swedish entrepreneurs that are currently engaged with equity Crowdfunding and have received funding for their ventures. The basis for the design of the questionnaire was built upon a literature review and previous researches. The research was carried out as an exploratory study using a qualitative approach known as thematic method of data analysis to investigate entrepreneur and crowdfunders relationships and what successes can be recorded based on the relationship.This thesis indicates that the entrepreneurs were largely satisfied with the relationship and benefits they derived from equity crowdfunding. However, this research also presented challenges and benefits of crowdfunding as experienced by the respondents. The benefits of the crowdfunders-entrepreneurs relationship as a factor have contributed to entrepreneurs' wellbeing as described by the participants.