Christmas is a time for both giving and receiving, and what better way to do both than to invest in an exciting new startup?

Thanks to the popularity of crowdfunding sites, it is now easy for both businesses and individuals to invest in ideas that they’re passionate about. We’ve had a look through the top crowdfunding sites, and come up with five of the best business campaigns to support.

Twickets - affordable ticket resale

The current state of the ticket resale market isn’t good for anyone. Ticket touts are taking advantage of event organisers and reselling their tickets at absurd prices.

Twickets saw an opportunity to provide fans with a legitimate platform for the resale of tickets that is fair to the organisers as well. By preventing tickets from being sold at anything other than face value or less, Twickets protect themselves (and fans) against the exploitation of touts.

Thanks to this, they are already the official resale partners of several big names, including Adele, One Direction, and Crystal Palace FC.

You can invest in Twickets, and find out more about the opportunity, through their Seedrs.com page.

Cookoo - helping you buy and sell home-cooked food

Ever since Airbnb first saw success, entrepreneurs have tried to bring that success to new industries. However, while some apps have made it easier to get a takeaway or restaurant meal, none have allowed people to interact in an innovative way.

Enter Cookoo. This site, launched in early 2016, has a growing roster of home cooks who make fresh meals in their own kitchens that can be bought by people looking for a healthier, more natural alternative to traditional food outlets. They also cater to a lot of dietary requirements that traditional food outlets don’t.

If this looks like a business that you want to support, you can find out more information and invest through Crowdcube.

Book My Garage - bringing comparison and online booking to garages

Building a successful business is all about doing something better than everyone else, or doing something that no one else is doing (that customers want to pay for). The after-sales garage market is one industry that was crying out for a business to lead its march into the digital world.

Book My Garage recognised that garage customers want to make bookings online, and that they have no way of comparing different garages’ price offerings. In response, they built a website designed to both of these things, making it easier than ever before for customers to get the best deals on their garage services.

The company has undoubtedly uncovered a new opportunity in their field, and if you want to support them, you can invest through Seedrs.

Quintus - cashless systems for vending machines

With so many of us relying on cards and devices for payment, traditional vending machines are in a bit of a tight spot. How do machines that only take cash survive?

Quintus Systems have developed a way of retrofitting existing vending machines so that they can take cashless payment as well as cash. Although the company has been going over 20 years, they are now raising money for the development and implementation of their new tech that could be a real winner for the hospitality industry.

If you want to support Quintus or explore further, check out their Crowdcube page.

SoundOut - computing the future for retail clients

Data is king in the business world, and if you don’t have access to data or a good way to use it, you risk falling behind the competition.

SoundOut is a company that offers to ‘fuse the worlds of crowdsourcing and machine learning’ to help their clients get a better understanding of their product and audience, which enables them to plan more effectively for the future and increase their revenue. Quite simply, they’re allowing retailers big and small access to cutting edge technology.

SoundOut can be crowdfunded through Seedrs.