Crowdcube’s Luke Lang on what sort of people invest on crowdfunding platforms May 20, 2015 1. Smart money invests over lunch The most popular time to invest is at lunchtime and straight after work, between 5-6pm The online investment model is perfect for professional people who can find, review and invest in a variety of businesses, at a pace that suits their busy lifestyle. The majority of our investors [...]
Whisky investment platform WhiskyInvestDirect raises £1m through crowfunding May 18, 2015 An online start-up that allows whisky-lovers to invest in premium bottles of the tipple said yesterday it has raised over its initial target of £1m on Angels Den, an angel-led crowdfunder. WhiskyInvestDirect was set up by Paul Tustain, the founder of online gold trading platform BullionVault, and former Diageo commercial director Rupert Patrick to allow [...]
Retail app Octer quickly raising major second round of crowdfunding May 17, 2015 Mobile shopping app Octer has returned to the equity-based crowdfunding platform Seedrs, to raise a second round of funding. It is aiming to bring in a total of £700,000, in exchange for 7.48 per cent equity, giving a total valuation of £8.6m. The valuation has been agreed by key investors, and Octer’s principal investors have [...]
The right trousers: Aardman’s David Sproxton talks risk-averse TV and crowdfunding Morph May 17, 2015 You may have seen several giant Shaun the Sheeps around central London recently. Fifty of the woolly critters are gracing the capital’s public spaces, raising money for children’s hospitals across the country. “Shaun in the City” forms an arts trail for fans, and also coincides with the launch of Shaun’s first movie. For David [...]
A crowdfunding campaign is trying to save us from life-threatening asteroids May 14, 2015 If a huge asteroid slammed into the Earth with crushing force tomorrow, it could swiftly bring an end to all humankind. Luckily, that's not going to happen – our asteroid analysis and predictive techniques are advanced enough to tell when a devastating impact might happen in the near future. But that's not to say [...]
Ask the crowdfunding industry: Founders James Codling and Dillen Iyavoo on inflated valuations May 6, 2015 The growth rate of equity-based crowdfunding has been impressive. Research by Judge Business School and EY has shown that, between 2012 and 2014, volumes grew from €5m to €111m in the UK, rising four-fold last year. But while more and more individuals are considering both equity and debt-based crowdfunding as a novel but viable investment [...]
Currency affairs: FreemarketFX founder Alex Hunn on launching on crowdfunding platform VentureFounders April 29, 2015 London is the biggest market in the world for FX trading. In 2012, the UK’s daily FX turnover averaged nearly $2 trillion, according to data from TheCityUK. Alex Hunn has a background in the industry. A former Credit Suisse First Boston and Deutsche Bank vice president and director respectively, in 2011, he started building [...]
The London crowd: Will Meyer of Brother Cycles on what it’s like to crowdfund a business in the capital April 23, 2015 People can get quite passionate about their bikes,” says Will Meyer, co-founder with his brother James of Brother Cycles. “Many [Londoners] enjoy the fact that they’re riding something born in their home city”. Their company builds bespoke high-quality bikes and sells them via its website and through over 30 independent bike shops. Since launching in [...]
Peer-to-peer lender Assetz raises £3m from crowdfund site Seedrs April 20, 2015 A pair of peer-to-peer sites came together in a funding operation yesterday which underlines the growing clout of the alternative finance sector. Lending site Assetz raised £3m through equity fundraising site Seedrs. It takes the total raised by debt crowdfunders on Seedrs to more than £4.5m. The debt firm had planned to raise £2m on the [...]
Beyond the frontier: Emerging Crowd founders take crowdfunding to emerging markets April 15, 2015 Next week, a new crowdfunding platform is set to launch: Emerging Crowd. In the industry, it’s a first – because it will give retail investors in the UK the opportunity to directly buy shares and bonds in emerging market SMEs. At the same time, it will be the first time that emerging market entrepreneurs will [...]