KfW and Frankfurt-based fintech CrowdDesk launch pilot partnership for municipal crowdlending in Germany

• KfW supports platform as conceptual sponsor
• Alternative form of municipal financing diversifies creditor structure und allows for citizen participation
• Partnership begins 11^th July 2018 at www.leihdeinerstadtgeld.de

As a conceptual sponsor, KfW Group supports new options for financing municipal projects: the crowdlending platform LeihDeinerStadtGeld operated by CrowdDesk GmbH brings municipalities and citizens/companies together for the purpose of financing municipal infrastructure projects. The idea is based on the concept of gathering financial resources from many different supporters in order to finance projects. With crowdlending, the transfer occurs in the form of credit.

On 11^th July 2018, the partnership will commence on the website of LeihDeinerStadtGeld
(www.leihdeinerstadtgeld.de). There, municipalities can present their financing plans within the context of project campaigns. Along with an extensive profile of the project to be financed, credit conditions and background information are published, including periodic news updates. Citizens and companies can make their investments in project financing within a secure area of the platform.

During a two-year pilot phase, KfW aims to employ its network in the search for pilot communities in need of support for their plans to finance municipal infrastructure projects (such as building a child daycare facility) using the LeihDeinerStadtGeld platform. The goal of the pilot partnership is to make crowdlending for municipalities in Germany more widely known, and to gather experience with this alternative form of municipal financing.

Dr Ingrid Hengster, member of the KfW Executive Board and responsible for, among other things, the promotional bank's municipal financing, announced that, "From the perspective of KfW, crowdlending for municipalities can be a practical, supplementary instrument for cities and communities for the purpose of financing public infrastructure projects. It diversifies the creditor structure while establishing a new form of citizen participation. The citizens receive the opportunity of supporting a meaningful local project and an alternative financial investment with fixed interest. Together with CrowdDesk GmbH and the municipalities and citizens that have expressed interest, we would like to conduct a pilot partnership with this innovative financing instrument over a period of two years."

"In recent years, crowdfunding options have developed into an important source of funds for small and medium-sized businesses. The cooperation between CrowdDesk and KfW has been designed to make crowdlending another standard component of every treasurer's financing scenario," ex-plained Johannes Laub, co-founder and Managing Director of CrowdDesk.

About LeihDeinerStadtGeld

The social credit platform LeihDeinerStadtGeld.de was developed in 2011 by the company LeihDeinerStadtGeld GmbH as the world's first crowdlending platform for municipalities. The company was renamed CrowdDesk GmbH in 2015 and is headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

LeihDeinerStadtGeld is currently a platform brand of CrowdDesk GmbH. As a provider of technical financial services and in its role as an investment broker, CrowdDesk GmbH is focused on the implementation of citizen-oriented project financing and is a specialist in the consulting, marketing, implementation and administration of crowdfunding solutions.

Press contact CrowdDesk:
Doan Tran
Telefon: +49 (0)69 2547 413 0