While crowdfunding and online investment platforms have expanded internationally, the ecosystem remains highly fragmented across jurisdictions, regulations, and technology platforms. Reliable market data is difficult to collect, platform information is often inconsistent, and comparing markets across countries remains challenging for both practitioners and researchers.

In this session, Konstantin Boyko, founder of LenderKit and CrowdSpace, will share practical observations from building software for investment platforms and working with crowdfunding ecosystem data across multiple markets. The presentation will focus on the real-world difficulties of data collection, platform classification, transparency, and cross-border discovery in alternative finance.

The talk will also highlight areas where closer collaboration between researchers and industry practitioners could improve understanding of the crowdfunding market and support more transparent and accessible financial ecosystems.