ESG and Crowdfunding Platforms

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors have acquired great relevance for investors in recent years. This paper examines the intersection between ESG and crowdfunding, one of the most popular types of fintech. Using data on the population of 508 platforms established in the 37 OECD countries between 2007 and 2020, we document that platforms with higher levels of ESG criteria are more likely to survive over time. Results are robust to different measures of ESG and endogeneity concerns. The importance of ESG criteria depends on cultural differences, as it is more pronounced for those platforms operating in countries where the level of power distance is lower.