Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance Launches First Industry Study for Middle East & Africa

For full article and link to study click here: http://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2016/06/87301-cambridge-centre-alternative-finance-launches-first-industry-study-middle-east-africa/

Inaugural Middle East & Africa Alternative Finance Benchmarking Study.

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School is launching its first Middle East & Africa Alternative Finance Benchmarking Study. This study on alternative finance follows the successful publication of reports on Asia-Pacific, the Americas, the UK and Europe. The empirical research is widely viewed as the standard in measuring all forms of alternative finance including crowdfunding, peer to peer (marketplace) lending, rewards based and other new forms of finance outside of the traditional financial system.

Recent benchmarking reports covering the Asia-Pacific region and the Americas depicted a rapidly growing ecosystem of internet finance. Asia, with China fueling the dramatic growth, stands as the largest alternative finance market in the world at over $100 billion in 2015. The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance reports have become well-established touchstone documents that have aided policy makers around the world to grasp better the changes occurring with the finance sector today.

This will be the fifth in the series of reports in that the Cambridge Centre and its research partners have produced to document and distill the rapid growth of alternative finance markets around the world.

The Cambridge Centre states that the completion of this study covering the Middle East and Africa will provide a standardised global database covering alternative finance activity and market developments across Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe. This report will also move beyond P2P and crowdfunding and explore regional market trends such as Sharia-compliant finance, payments, microfinance and micro-insurance.

The Middle East & Africa Alternative Finance Benchmarking Survey launches today (June 28, 2016) and is scheduled to close on July 28th with the aim to track the transaction volume, year-on-year growth and latest trends within alternative finance across these regions.

The results of the research will be made freely available to the public in the Middle East & Africa Alternative Finance Alternative Finance Benchmarking Report, due to be published in mid-September 2016. All findings shall be presented in an aggregate form either by country, region or alternative finance models and no individual platform data will be divulged.

All crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending and other alternative finance platforms, operating in the Middle East and Africa are invited to contribute to the survey below. All participating platforms will be prominently acknowledged in the benchmarking report.

The leaders and founders of these distinguished research partners have offered their strong endorsements and support for the 1st Middle East and Africa Alternative Finance Survey.

Joe Huxley – FSD Africa

“Crowdfunding remains relatively nascent in Africa, but momentum is gathering. Already, there are 69 platforms doing business in Kenyan, Rwanda, Tanzania and South Africa, of which 15 are located in these markets. Reports like this by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance are critical. They provide the market intelligence necessary for policy-makers, platforms and crowdfunding participants to work together to create the right momentum to drive the industry forward.”

Davinia Cogan – GVEP

“The CCAF provides the burgeoning crowdfunding industry with the gold standard in data and analysis. After showcasing growth and trends in Europe, the Americas and Asia, we’re excited to collaborate for their upcoming report showcasing the alternative finance market in Africa and the Middle East – which to date we know very little about. The alternative finance market has the potential to open doors for social enterprises operating in emerging markets, where accessing capital from traditional financiers is a challenge.”

Lars Kroijer – Allied Crowds

“Alternative finance is a rapidly growing industry globally with phenomenal potential to more effectively distribute and allocate capital to unserved and underserved customers in developing and emerging markets. Allied Crowds is proud to be collaborating with Cambridge University and we support and endorse this research analyzing the size and growth of the industry in the Middle East and Africa.”

Jason Best – Crowdfund Capital Advisors

“Crowdfund Capital Advisors has worked in both Sub-Sarahan Africa and the MENA regions and we are very pleased to support The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance in this next phase of their incredibly valuable surveys of the global online finance industry. We hope that crowdfunding platforms in these regions will collaborate openly with Cambridge in their research. Given The Centre’s prior excellent reports covering other regions of the world, we look forward to another piece of the highest quality research from this important institution.”

Andrew Dix, CEO of Crowdfund Insider

“The research from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance is unmatched in the study of new forms of finance. The benchmarking information generated by Cambridge is not only constantly referenced by our writers but is an invaluable asset for policy makers and regulatory officials as they begin to understand the profound economic value of alternative finance.”

Peter Renton, Chairman of Lendit Conference

“The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance has established themselves as the world leaders in research of the marketplace lending industry worldwide. In their latest survey they are turning their attention to the Middle East and Africa and once again are breaking new ground with the first research into these important regions. As always LendIt and Lend Academy are very pleased to be research partners of the University of Cambridge.”

The link to the benchmarking survey is below

Survey Link: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/AltFin_MiddleEast_Africa

For enquiries about the Middle East & Africa Alternative Finance Benchmarking Survey, please contact: Tania Ziegler at t.ziegler@jbs.cam.ac.uk or Kieran Garvey at kjg44@cam.ac.uk at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, University of Cambridge Judge Business School.

The survey is led by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at the Cambridge Judge Business School and a range of expert partners including Allied Crowd, the FSD Africa, GVEP, Crowdfund Capital Advisors, LendIt and our exclusive media partner – Crowdfund Insider.