CrowdAboutNow - Risk and return review
CrowdAboutNow - Returns and loss rates
Investment maturity
CrowdAboutNow – Platform statistics 2026
125000
investors
CrowdAboutNow – Pros & Cons
About CrowdAboutNow
What it is
CrowdAboutNow is a Dutch crowdfunding platform in Utrecht, running since 2009. Private investors lend money to small local businesses, such as restaurants, breweries, coffee roasters and shops, which are often backed by their own customers. Its home page shows €139 million raised (October 2026), and 1,699 campaigns had started by June 2026. Most money-making campaigns are loans; some offer shares, and many others are pre-sales that pay back in products, not money.
How it works
You choose campaigns yourself, usually from €50 (some from €5), and pay by iDEAL. Each loan has its own fixed interest rate and term, from a few months to more than ten years. Before a campaign goes public, the business must raise 30% of its target from its own network. CrowdAboutNow checks the entrepreneur's identity, company registration and criminal record, but says it does not judge whether the business plan is financially sound: the crowd decides. Only 5.29% of the 32,132 applications became campaigns (June 2026).
Returns
CrowdAboutNow publishes no figure for what investors actually earned. Recent loan campaigns offer fixed interest of 3% to 6% a year (2026), and the platform tells entrepreneurs the rate averages 4% (October 2026). This is what a loan pays if the business repays in full, before any defaults. Independent tracking of one investor's portfolio points to about 2% a year over five years (to April 2025), after several loans failed. Share campaigns pay only through dividends or a sale of the business, and pre-sale campaigns pay no money at all.
Losses and defaults
The platform publishes no loss figures: no euros lost, written off or recovered. What it publishes are counts of failed campaigns. By 29 June 2026, 98 of its 1,000 loan, combined and share campaigns had defaulted, or 9.8%. A default means the business stopped meeting its obligations, for example through bankruptcy. Its yearly figures count businesses with a running loan that defaulted in the year: 4.2% in 2023, 4.9% in 2024 and 2.1% in 2025. These count campaigns, not money, and recent campaigns that have not had time to fail lower the total.
What secures your money
Nothing secures most loans. CrowdAboutNow asks businesses for no collateral, there is no guarantee, buyback or reserve fund, and many loans are subordinated, which means they are repaid after the business's other lenders. If a business stops paying, the platform first tries to agree new repayment terms; at best you get your money back later. If that fails, it puts the investors in touch with each other so they can start debt collection themselves: CrowdAboutNow cannot file a claim for you. The platform publishes no figure for what has been recovered. In plain words, your money depends on the business keeping going.
Who runs it and its licence
The platform is run by CrowdAboutNow B.V., Utrecht (Chamber of Commerce number 30286818). It is authorised by the Dutch regulator (AFM) as a crowdfunding service provider under the EU rules, licence 32000012, since 3 April 2023; before that it held Dutch licences from 2013. Investors' money passes through an outside payment provider, Online Payment Platform (OPP), kept apart from the platform's own money. The company is small and loss-making: its 2025 accounts show equity of about €619,000, raised by issuing new shares, accumulated losses of about €467,000, and staff down from 18 to 16. It raised €8.9 million for businesses in the first half of 2026, down from about €11 million in the first half of 2024. We found no regulator action against it.
Fees
The platform is paid mainly by the businesses it lists. We could not confirm the current charges for investors on its own pages in October 2026, so check the costs shown on each campaign before you invest.
Getting your money out
You can cancel within four days of investing. After that there is no market to sell your loan or shares, and leaving early needs the business's written agreement, which rarely happens. Your money comes back only through the loan's repayments, which can run for many years (the platform cites seven- and twelve-year loans), or, for shares, a sale of the business. The platform advises putting no more than 10% of your free investable money into crowdfunding.
Our view
Return: Low — the only figure is the 3% to 6% a year that recent loans offer; nothing realised is published. Risk: High (higher means more risk) — about one campaign in ten has defaulted, most loans have no security where comparable platforms take it, the platform does not judge business plans, and it publishes no loss figures. Risk-return: Very Low — a low return for a high level of risk.
Regulation
License / Regulation: CrowdAboutNow B.V. (Chamber of Commerce 30286818) is authorised by the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) as a crowdfunding service provider under the EU crowdfunding regulation (Regulation (EU) 2020/1503), licence 32000012, since 3 April 2023. Its earlier Dutch licences (2013 to 2023) ended on that date. No compensation scheme covers investment losses.
Functionality
For Investors
Useful Information
Yes. CrowdAboutNow B.V. holds a licence from the Dutch regulator (AFM) as a crowdfunding service provider under the EU rules, number 32000012, since 3 April 2023. Regulation does not protect you from losses on a loan.
An outside payment provider, Online Payment Platform (OPP), handles payments and repayments and keeps them apart from the platform's own money. Once a loan is paid out, your money is with the business you lent to.
Usually €50 per campaign; some campaigns accept from €5.
Recent loans offer 3% to 6% a year; nothing on what investors actually earned is published. By June 2026, 98 of 1,000 loan, combined and share campaigns (9.8%) had defaulted. The platform publishes no loss figures: no euros lost or recovered.
For most loans, nothing. The platform asks for no collateral, there is no guarantee, buyback or reserve fund, and many loans are repaid after the business's other lenders. If a business stops paying, investors must organise debt collection together; the platform cannot claim for you.
No. Apart from the four-day reflection period, there is no market to sell, and early exit needs the business's written agreement, which rarely happens. Some loans run seven or twelve years; shares have no end date.
The platform is paid mainly by the businesses. We could not confirm the current investor charges on its own pages in October 2026; check the costs on each campaign before investing.
If a business fails, you may lose part or all of your loan, and getting anything back is up to the investors acting together. If the platform stopped, money in transit is kept apart by the payment provider, but running the remaining loans could be complicated; no compensation scheme covers losses.
Only partly. It checks identity, company registration and criminal record, and requires 30% of the target from the entrepreneur's own network. It says it does not judge whether the business plan is financially sound.
