The 2015 CF–Crowdfunding Industry Survey report from Massolution says the market expanded by 167% in 2014, reaching $16.2 billion raised, up from $6.1 billion in 2013.

The upward curve is expected to continue this year with Massolution predicting a doubling to $34.4 billion in 2015.

The strong growth last year was due in part to the rise of Asia as a major crowdfunding region. Volumes grew by 320% in Asia to $3.4 billion raised. This puts the region slightly ahead of Europe on $3.26 billion raised, with North America still out in the lead on $9.46 billion raised, which is a 145% rise in the US.  

The research team at Massolution collected information on 1250 active crowdfunding platforms (CFPs) across the world, including high-quality data submitted directly by 463 CFPs to the 2015 crowdfunding industry survey. Post-collation research and analysis was then undertaken to produce the full report.

“Surprises materializing from this year’s research included the astounding growth in the P2P and P2B lending market in Asia, stemming largely from the Chinese market,” said Massolution founder and CEO, Carl Esposti.

Lending-based crowdfunding dominates the industry, with $11.08 billion raised in 2014, with the investment-focused rewards and equity-based sector, which typically gets most of the headlines, accounting for the rest.

The top five most popular crowdfunding categories in 2014 were as follows:

• Business and entrepreneurship remained as the most popular crowdfunding category, collecting $6.7 billion in 2014, which represents 41.3% of total volume.
• Social causes accounted for $3.06 billion of crowdfunding raised in 2014.
• Films and performing arts $1.97 billion.
• Real estate raised $1.01 billion.
• Music and recording arts $736 million.   

Further geographical break-downs on a segment-by-segment basis; trends; and CFP regional leaders information is available in the full report, which can be purchased here.