Earlier this year, Trampoline Systems, a London-based technology company founded in 2003, realised if it was going to further expand the business, it would need some more money. So it sounded out a few venture capitalists. But, says Charles Armstrong, one of the company’s founders “it soon became clear that it would be tough to raise finance this way”.

So Trampoline hit upon another route: “crowdfunding” – raising small stakes from a large group of investors, particularly through online communities and social networks.