Digital Finance Fosters Inclusivity: Women and Minorities Lead in Italian Equity Crowdfunding

Digital finance is a useful tool for promoting financial inclusiveness and democratizing markets, as it broadens access to investments to those who normally shy away from it, out of mistrust or perceived lack of expertise. Women in particular are more likely than men to invest in equity crowdfunding campaigns and to allocate larger amounts on average, undermining the narrative that finance is almost exclusively the preserve of men. A similar argument can be made for ethnic minorities.

This is the finding of the study “Are Digital Financial Markets Inclusive? Evidence from Investors in Equity Crowdfunding,” conducted by a team of researchers from the School of Management of the Polytechnic University of Milan and the University of Bergamo and funded by the National Research Council (NRRP) as part of the GRINS project.

The digital finance analysis—conducted from 2016 to 2023 based on rigorous scientific evidence—considered 20,209 individuals registered on one of the largest equity crowdfunding platforms active in the Italian market, of whom 14,777 (73.1%) were investors with an average initial sum of €3,250.

Women represent 12.1% of members (2,440 people) and among investors the percentage rises to 12.6% (1,859), but is even higher in regions such as Friuli Venezia-Giulia (18%), Basilicata (16.7%), Sardinia (15.1%), Lazio (13.7%), Piedmont (13.4%), Lombardy and Valle d’Aosta (13.3%), Tuscany (13.2%).

Digital finance empowers underrepresented investors, with women and minorities leading participation and investment amounts

These figures on digital finance are much higher than those we’re used to in traditional finance, where women barely make up 6% of investors, according to an international market study conducted by Harvard University. In equity crowdfunding, women are 1.04% more likely to invest than men, and when they do, they invest approximately €505 more, equivalent to a 15.5% increase on the average €3,250 investment.

“The analysis on digital finance, one of the first of its kind conducted on a large scale, demonstrates the role of digital finance in promoting financial inclusivity , because it facilitates access to investments for those who have been underrepresented until now,” comments Vincenzo Butticè , associate professor at the School of Management of the Polytechnic University of Milan, who co-authored the study with Valerio Lo Monaco, Benedetta Montanaro, and Silvio Vismara.

“By shifting the analytical focus from entrepreneurs to investors, we examined whether groups traditionally underrepresented in conventional financial markets exhibit different participation patterns in the context of equity crowdfunding, demonstrating that women first and foremost, but also ethnic minorities, are indeed more likely to invest and tend to commit larger amounts of capital.”

“By focusing on individuals providing capital rather than those seeking it,” added Silvio Vismara, full professor at the University of Bergamo, “we believe we offer a more comprehensive understanding of how digital finance is reshaping participation dynamics, at least in Italy, which is nevertheless a valuable context given the country’s early adoption of digital finance tools. Our findings may have both policy and practical implications: regulatory frameworks that reduce administrative friction and encourage platform transparency could further increase participation.”

The study on digital finance also analyzes the platform’s members in detail from other perspectives: for example, they have an average age of 45, 7,870 (38.9%) live in metropolitan areas, 360 (1.8%) belong to ethnic minorities, 11,625 (57.5%) have a university degree or equivalent, and 4,915 (24.3%) are entrepreneurs or managers. Comparing investors with non-investors, investors are significantly older (46 vs. 41), more likely to live in a metropolitan area (39.7% vs. 36.9%), more likely to have a university degree or equivalent (59.3% vs. 52.7%), and more likely to be entrepreneurs or managers (25.9% vs. 20.1%).

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(Featured image by Vitaly Gariev via Unsplash)

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