Investment crowdfunding aims to broaden participation so that it represents the values of the whole of society, not just its wealthiest members. (We have nothing against rich people, we just like people.)

We read a lot about the gender imbalance in investing, and the factors that make women less likely to participate, and therefore less likely top be visible and successful. Here's a new one that we haven't thought about before.

Peer-to-peer lending is no-go zone for forty per cent of people, who say they will not take any risk at all with their money, even if interest rates are so low they are eating into their capital.  This is a major educational problem for the industry, and some financial advisers are calling it 'delusional'.

Source: Humble Grape

If you bought Humble Grape the first time they raised equity on Seedrs in 2014, your shares would  now be worth eight times as much. That's the company's own valuation, and we're not sure how easy it would be to find a buyer if you wanted to sell, but the'res no doubt the wine importer has expanded and diversified over the last three years.

Security around crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending usually means financial security: knowing that client funds are segregated, that a business has made adequate provisions for liability, and due diligence has been done to ensure that a platform's offerings are realistically priced.

Today we look at a different of security risk: question of hacking, computer intrusion, data theft and other actions that might compromise the integrity of a platform's systems and procedure.

The collaborative economy was tipped to be a key factor in reviving  the human face of capitalism. Now one of its flagship brands may be about to crash. What does it mean for the future of platform business models?