Everyone knows how hard it is to raise funding right now. But the European VC market has been even more abysmal than the US one of late, with first round fundings thin on the ground and down-rounds aplenty. So one startup has decided to jump ship from the VC merry-go-round and seek a ‘third way’ for itself.

Trampoline Systems, specialists in “social analytics” for companies, launched in the UK and the US last year but a search for a new $8 million round after an initial $5 million round in 2007 from Tudor Investments drew a blank (Tudor was hit badly by the crunch). So they turned to “crowdfunding” using a legally vetted web site to pull in investors – and the efforts are bearing fruit. Two weeks after launching the initiative they’ve now closed a $543,000 round.