Purpose

Belonging to the financial technologies’ companies, equity-based crowdfunding platforms offer investors the opportunity to become shareholders through the purchase of small equity stakes of new innovative ventures. This paper aims to investigate gender-related differences in the behaviour of investors in firms seeking equity financing in Latin America.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a unique database, with combined information from different equity crowdfunding platforms in Brazil, Chile and Mexico, the authors study the population of 492 projects between 2013 and 2017. To analyse the relationship between investors’ gender-related differences and equity crowdfunding investment, this paper applies Poisson regression.

Findings

Results suggest that the probability that an investor finances a firm is based on gender bias. Investors prefer firms led by entrepreneurs that are similar to them in terms of gender. Furthermore, the authors find evidence that both female and male investors are risk-averse and are more likely to invest in the equity of firms that are older and offer a higher percentage of equity. However, female investors are associated with firms that are on average older and offer 0.02% more equity.

Practical implications

These findings have implications for crowdfunding platforms managers when selecting their target companies and policymakers when defining political actions to promote greater use of equity crowdfunding among female entrepreneurs and decrease barriers hindering women’s access to investment.

Originality/value

Unique in its proposition and data usage, this study sheds light on the relationship between investors and entrepreneurs in the Latin American equity crowdfunding market.

中文翻译：

---

解决股权众筹中的性别偏见：拉丁美洲投资者投资行为的探索性研究

目的

股权众筹平台属于金融科技公司，为投资者提供通过购买新的创新企业的少量股权成为股东的机会。本文旨在调查在拉丁美洲寻求股权融资的公司的投资者行为中与性别相关的差异。

设计/方法/方法

使用独特的数据库，结合巴西、智利和墨西哥不同股权众筹平台的信息，作者研究了 2013 年至 2017 年间 492 个项目的人口。为了分析投资者的性别相关差异与股权众筹投资之间的关系，本论文应用泊松回归。

发现

结果表明，投资者为公司融资的概率基于性别偏见。投资者更喜欢由性别相似的企业家领导的公司。此外，作者发现证据表明女性和男性投资者都厌恶风险，并且更有可能投资于较老且提供更高比例股权的公司的股权。然而，女性投资者与平均年龄较大且股权多出 0.02% 的公司相关联。

实际影响

这些发现对众筹平台管理者在选择目标公司和决策者在确定政治行动以促进女性企业家更多地使用股权众筹并减少阻碍女性获得投资的障碍时产生影响。

原创性/价值

本研究在其主张和数据使用方面独树一帜，阐明了拉丁美洲股权众筹市场中投资者与企业家之间的关系。