Dennis Bruntje is research assistant at the Media and Communication Management Group at Technische Universitat Ilmenau, Germany. Together with his team he has conducted a wide range of studies related to crowdfunding, media management and entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the Group advises and scientifically supports various crowdfunding platforms, projects and start-ups. Dennis is head of the Scientific Work Group on crowdfunding at the European Crowdfunding Network. In his PhD thesis he focuses on intermediation by platforms in equity-based crowdfunding. He has several years of experience in business financing, from establishing a venture capital company, his research and initiating a local start-up initiative.

Oliver Gajda is the founding Chairman and Executive Director at the European Crowdfunding Network, Belgium. He is a member of the European Crowdfunding Stakeholder Forum at theEuropean Commission and Advisory Board member at Förderkreis Gründungsforschung e.V. (FGF). He works as hands-on operational and strategic consultant with innovative businesses. The past decade, Oliver has worked with venture capital, microfinance, technology and social entrepreneurship in both commercial and non-profit settings in Europe and the USA. As former journalist, he started his career in the early 1990s in the publishing and business information industries. Oliver holds Masters degrees from Solvay Business School and from the University of Hamburg and studied at SEESS (UCL) in London.

Introduction.- Status Quo of an Emerging Research Field.- Regional Examinations on Crowdfunding.- Analysis of Specific Application Areas in Crowdfunding.- Selected Case Studies on Crowdfunding Practice.