European Crowdfunding Network
The European Crowdfunding Network, or ECN, is an independent non-profit association under Belgian law that works on crowdfunding and alternative finance in Europe. It was established in Brussels in 2013 and has worked on EU policy for more than a decade, including the development of the European Crowdfunding Service Providers Regulation.
ECN defines itself as a policy network without membership and without a mandate to represent the industry. An executive board whose members act in a personal capacity governs the association, and crowdfunding platforms hold no operational roles in it. Since 2024 the commercial work and the EUROCROWD brand have belonged to EUROCROWD BV, which runs EU programs, research and advisory projects.
Membership and governance
ECN has no members, so there is neither a membership to apply for nor a membership fee, and the association does not act as a trade association or industry body. The executive board consists of Oliver Gajda as Chairman and Executive Director, Lawrence Claes as Treasurer and Megan Blair as Secretary. Board appointments are published in the Moniteur Belge, as Belgian association law requires.
Oliver Gajda founded ECN in 2013 and also leads EUROCROWD BV, the advisory company that has run the commercial activities since 2024. Francesca Passeri, who served on the executive board of ECN from 2020 to 2023, now works with EUROCROWD as an associated expert.
The EU crowdfunding regulation ECSPR
The European Crowdfunding Service Providers Regulation gives platforms one license for crowdfunding in all EU member states and sets common rules for investor protection. ECN took part in the development of this regulation, and its analyses track how national markets have changed since the regime came fully into force.
EUROCROWD argues that the regulation has removed barriers without creating a single market, because cross-border activity has barely changed. In this view, the limit of 5 million euros per offer is not the main constraint today, and platforms first need more deal flow, more investors and more operating capacity.
Licensed crowdfunding platforms in Europe
The ESMA register listed 246 licensed crowdfunding service providers in 23 countries on 16 January 2026, as an overview by EUROCROWD shows. France leads with 61 entries, followed by Italy with 42, Spain with 27, the Netherlands with 21 and Lithuania with 16. Crowdfunding in Germany counts six entries in the register, two of them for the same platform under different spellings.
EUROCROWD adds its own transparency benchmark per platform, based on the public compliance disclosures as they stood in July 2025.
Upcoming fintech and finance events in Belgium
Three years of ECSPR: findings
In July 2026, EUROCROWD published the report ECSPR at Three Years: A Single Market Still in Formation on behalf of ECN. It combines the market reports of ESMA for 2023 and 2024, an assessment of compliance disclosures by platforms and the notifications of member states on admitted instruments under Article 2(3).
The report finds that cross-border activity stays at around 8 percent of total ECSPR funding and has barely changed since the start of the regime. Markets with many established platforms and with crowdfunding laws from before ECSPR perform best, while the admitted instruments show no measurable effect on activity or compliance quality. The report names data protection and operational resilience as the real risks for platforms.
EUROCROWD BV and EU programs
ECN took part in projects under the EU funding programs FP7, CIP, Horizon 2020, Erasmus+ and LIFE. Many of these activities continue at EUROCROWD BV, which supports programs under Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ with workshops, training, applied research and guidance on EU frameworks. EUROCROWD BV has its office in the SQ North building at Boulevard du Roi Albert II 4 in 1000 Brussels.
European Crowdfunding Network and Finance Loop
Crowdfunding platforms, banks and investors in the Finance Loop network ask how the ECSPR license, investor protection and cross-border offers work in practice. Finance Loop discusses these questions in its Investment & Digital Assets track, at events in Frankfurt and other European cities.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, tokenization, stablecoins, and DeFi. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.