Equity Crowdfunding, è un mero strumento finanziario o un approccio alla creazione di valore per le startup? Un punto di vista di imprenditori e investitori.

The great advances in Information Technology (IT) has completed changed the way to manage and invest in to new ventures. For instance, crowdfunding's success is generated by the increasing investors' confidence in this alternative way of financing new ventures. Although, there is still the lack of confidence due to information asymmetry derived by insufficient financial data and disclosure of risks and real returns. Additionally, investors cannot be able to forecast a proper risk analysis which is the first cause of business failure. Alongside, the campaign's social media is getting more relevance in a decision making process of investors. In this context, the present research offers from both a theoretical and an empirical point of view of a crowdfunding process. Empirically, such process is described by a holistic case-study of an innovative start up, Aimage, which allows also to understand the role of investors and entrepreneurs in the value creation process. Moreover, the thesis provides interesting insights on the main reasons of successful crowdfunding activities in order to define the best practices and emphasize the need of overcoming information asymmetry. Indeed, Aimage is a young dynamic Italian high-tech start-up founded in Turin in 2017. The core business relies on artificial intelligence (AI) services in digital marketing solutions. This case study is developed by the observation, administration of questionnaire and interviews of Aimage crowdfunding campaign, running from 20th June to 5th October 2020, along with the involvement of the researcher in the decision making process of the crowdfunding campaign and the relative activities such as business plan and pitch preparation, campaign planning, and marketing strategy among others.