Germans Warm to Crowdfunding as Resort Attracts Investors

Millionaire Jan Henric Buettner wanted to expand a luxury resort on the Baltic coast he’d built with some of the money he’d made over 20 years as a technology entrepreneur, first as head of AOL Europe and later as a venture capitalist.

Buettner had plenty of his own money, or he could have asked a bank or friends for a loan. Instead, he went to strangers on the Internet. So far, he’s raised 3.3 million euros ($4.4 million) from 800 investors on crowdfunding website Companisto.de, more than three times the minimum he was seeking and, according to the website, the most by a European for-profit organization.