THE sharing economy represents the biggest disruption to markets since the industrial revolution, a start-up boss has claimed.

Benita Matofska, behind world-leading Brighton tech platform Compare and Share, said models such as crowdfunding were “democratising” the economy and are a “good deal for everyone”.

Typical examples of the sharing economy, also known as peer-to-peer or the collaborative economy, include rental accommodation platform airbnb, taxi hire service Uber and TaskRabbit, which links freelance ‘taskers’ with people who do not have time to carry out the tasks themselves.

The vision is to help consumers and companies access and exploit the world’s £3.5 trillion worth of spare goods and become the equivalent of eBay.

Benita, chief sharer at Compare and Share, said: “It all started when I tried to book a family holiday and got 15 million hits.

“While trawling through all these websites I thought ‘there’s got to be a better way. Why can’t we put everything in one place?’

“The sharing economy is a good deal for everyone.

“It is the biggest disruption to the economy since the industrial revolution.”

The platform made crowdfunding history by tripling its £50,000 target and winning backing from high-profile investors such as corporate strategist Oliver Rothschild.

Some 80% of a £100,000 target has already been raised for a second round of funding on Crowdcube to develop the platform.

It is predicted that by the end of 2015 £4.4bn will have been raised via crowdfunding in the UK.

Benita said: “Crowdfunding has obviously experienced a huge explosion in the last year.

“It’s become mainstream and is completely disrupting the financial sector, it is democratising it.

“Entrepreneurs can bypass banks and access a whole collective of small investors.

“Not only are you raising capital you are building a network of support around the business.”

“You are really able to leverage the collective intelligence of the crowd.”

The start-up founder won the Natwest Venus Entrepreneur of the Year 2014 and Google’s Black Box Connect programme which saw her and ‘chief geek’ Nick Tong fly out to Silicon Valley with access to Google founder Eric Schmidt.

The next phase for Compare and Share will be to find £1.1 million of Series A funding to “take it to the next level”.

Benita added: “My vision has always been to build a global brand here in Brighton.

“There’s a vibrant tech scene and I think there’s every reason to be here. Not everything has to be from London or Silicon Valley.”