Ah yes I see what you meant now  Sorry.  I looked into crowd funding and also learn about it at university.  They have rules one of which is you are not allowed to make offers of paying back the backers.  If he used funding circle he would have to pay back because that is a loan backed by the public and not a bank so a far more cost effective way to not only borrow the money but also get people to invest because they like the idea rather than a bank manager who just going to look at the numbers and apply risk management to come to a decision.  It is pretty safe against scams.