Holiday weekends are often times for celebration, tasty food, and self reflection. Historically, these are also popular times for new financial activities like charitable giving, investing, and increased spending. But how does the online private market fare during holiday weekends? Are investors more or less active at these times? This Chart of the Week considers trends in the amount raised on holiday weekends from Christmas 2020 through Thanksgiving 2021 for companies raising equity capital through Regulation Crowdfunding.
The largest amount raised during a holiday weekend was during Labor Day, September 2021. During Labor Day weekend, $6.7 million was raised – 15.8% of the total $42.5 million raised during September. The holiday weekend that contributed least to the overall month’s funding was Thanksgiving 2021. While more than $2.6 million was raised that weekend, it only made up 6.2% of November 2021’s total amount raised. From our sample set, October 2021 had the highest amount raised at $47.3 million. However, the weekend for Indigenous People’s Day does not seem to have been a major driver of that total – at just under $4 million, it only made up 8.4% of October’s total.
Overall, holidays don’t appear to have a strong impact on investor behavior. Over the past year, holiday weekends accounted for 6% to 15% of a given month’s total capital raised. Considering that the four days of a holiday weekend make up about 12% of a month’s total days, these amounts are fitting. Additionally, it is difficult to determine why certain holiday weekends leveraged more investing in online private markets than others. A few factors might include marketing efforts, tax deadlines, and the need to spend money on food and gifts during certain holidays.
Note: all data used for the Chart of the Week comes from the KingsCrowd database and represents a snapshot of the crowdfunding market.
