Program Overview

Alternative Finance Course

Course Description

The Alternative Finance course introduces key models and approaches related to raising finance from sources alternative to bank lending, including crowdfunding, invoice trading, venture capital, business angels, and fintech platforms. This course is designed to help participants navigate the world of Alternative Finance and Fintech, providing both basic and advanced knowledge on a wide range of topics.

Target Audience

The course is primarily intended for financial advisors and business consultants but is also useful for managers of funds and crowdfunding platforms, business angels, venture capitalists, incubators, business development agencies, associations, entrepreneurs, startuppers, individual investors, and policymakers.

Course Details

• Language: English
• Length: 3 Weeks
• European Qualifications Framework Level: EQF 5
• Thematic Area (ISCED-F Classification): 0311 – Economics; 041 - Business and administration > 0412 - Finance, banking, and insurance
• Total Workload: 12 hours

Intended Learning Outcomes

By actively participating in this MOOC, participants will be able to:

1. Categorize different types of alternative finance providers based on their characteristics and funding models.
2. Analyze real cases of venture and debt financing to identify key success factors for SMEs and startups.
3. Assess the legal and compliance challenges in crowd-investing and P2P lending.
4. Design a credit scoring model to evaluate SMEs' credit risk in alternative finance.
5. Examine the role of FinTech actors and digital platform technologies in shaping the alternative finance landscape.
6. Evaluate the potential of distributed ledger technologies and initial coin offerings for financial innovation.

Prerequisites

No prerequisite knowledge is required.

Activities

Participants will have the opportunity to discuss course topics and share ideas with peers in the forum. The forum is freely accessible, and participation is not guided.

Course Faculty

The course is taught by a diverse group of experts in the field of alternative finance and fintech, including:

• Ronald Kleverlaan
• Guglielmo Pascarelli
• Stefano Molino
• Massimo Bianchi
• Mattia Vico
• Jacopo Anselmi
• Alexandra Gropp
• Alessandro Lerro
• Fabio Allegreni
• Giovanni Cucchiarato
• Paolo Landoni
• Giancarlo Giudici
• Mattia Ciprian
• Andrea Boaretto
• Luca Ferrais
• Roberto Esposito
• Ronnie Ramlogan
• Jonatan Pinkse
• Dimitri Gagliardi

Assessment

The final grade for the course will be based on the results of answers to assessed quizzes. Participants have an unlimited number of attempts at each quiz but must wait 15 minutes before retrying. Successful completion of the course requires scoring 60% or higher in each assessed quiz.

Certificate

Participants can achieve a certificate in the form of an Open Badge by reaching at least 60% of the total score in each assessed quiz and filling in the final survey.

Information about Fees and Access to Materials

The course is absolutely free of charge and completely online.