This wiki previously recorded “which commercial crowd platforms fund co-ops is unestablished”. Checked again on 2026-09-10 against the two platforms a German community project would plausibly reach: the answer is that they mostly do not, and the reason is structural.
- GLS Crowd (GLS Crowdfunding GmbH, since 2017, “über 100 Millionen Euro” invested): the live and archived project lists are renewable energy, batteries, food and mission-driven companies — no Wohnprojekt, no Genossenschaft. Its Finanzierung page names Wohnprojekte among GLS Branchen, but the platform’s own entry bar is a minimum crowd volume of €500,000, an existing equity base, and a demonstrated “Proof of Market” — a growth-company test a housing group fails by construction.
- WIWIN funds Wind, PV, sustainable startups and “energieeffiziente Immobilien” — i.e. developer-issued real estate, not resident-owned co-ops.
- Licence reality: both operate as “vertraglich gebundener Vermittler im Sinne des § 3 Abs. 2 Wertpapierinstitutsgesetz (WpIG)” under Concedus GmbH, not as ECSP-licensed Schwarmfinanzierungsdienstleister. So the German market rides on WpIG/VermAnlG paperwork, and the ECSP Regulation 2020/1503 €5 m ceiling is a European frame rather than the route these platforms advertise.
Related
- direktkredit-recht — the thresholds that decide platform vs direct
- syndikat-direktkredit — the channel that actually carries German projects
- gls-bank-financing — the bank behind the platform, a separate and better door
- gmbh-ggmbh-project, eg-cooperative — plausible Emittent forms
Detail
- The regulatory ceiling that does apply: VermAnlG § 2a raises the prospectus-free ceiling to €6 m per Emittent per 12 months — but only through a licensed platform, with per-investor caps of €1,000 / €10,000 / up to €25,000. A group needing €300k from 40 supporters gains nothing from that machinery and pays platform fees for it.
- Practical conclusion: for a resident-led project, Direktkredite raised directly under the Bagatellgrenze remain cheaper and more controllable than a platform. A platform becomes interesting only above roughly €500k and with a commercial component (energy, Gewerbe, Pflege) a retail investor can price.
- Open question (not a fact, sharpened): no German ECSP-licensed platform was found today with a completed co-op or resident-led housing raise. The gap is now “evidence not found on the two leading green platforms”, not “unknown”. A survey of the full BaFin/ESMA ECSP register was not completed.