In the FinTech family: How crowdfunding is propelling peer-to-peer platform Assetz Capital forward April 8, 2015 Back in 2010, it became clear to the co-founders of Assetz Capital that the banking system was broken. So we set out to make a difference – not just to help restart business lending, but to make a long-lasting change for the better. The desire to develop a platform where businesses could access much-needed funds, [...]
Caught in the act: Why Facewatch has turned to crowdfunding April 1, 2015 I have always wanted to raise investment through crowdfunding, because so much of what my company Facewatch does is based around empowering individuals to help themselves and others to reduce crime. That’s why we want to encourage lots of ordinary people to share in what we believe is going to be a great British success [...]
Forget the media darling equity: Debt is the biggest area of UK crowdfunding March 31, 2015 City A.M. published an article last week entitled Crowdfunding: A brief history. It acknowledged that there are four types of crowdfunding – donation, rewards-based, debt and equity – and yet the entire piece focused on equity crowdfunding. At the end of last year, Cambridge University and Nesta released a report called Understanding Alternative Finance. It [...]
Crowdfunding: A brief history March 26, 2015 It’s transforming the prospects of small businesses, but it’s still early days for crowdfunding in the UK. By the middle of this month, the Scottish National Party had raised nearly £35,000 on crowdfunding website Crowdfunder. It’s not the only party to turn to crowdfunding to bankroll its General Election campaign – over the past three [...]
Index Ventures backs Daniel Gandesha’s tech start-up Property Partner March 23, 2015 Index Ventures, the venture capital firm behind Just Eat and Candy Crush Saga-maker King Digital, has given £5.2m backing to a crowdfunding platform that allows retail investors to tap into the UK’s residential market. Property Partner, founded by the ex-head of startup investment at BSkyB Daniel Gandesha, gives smaller backers the chance to invest sums [...]
Let’s get ethical: Abundance’s Bruce Davis on what crowdfunding is offering investors with a conscience March 18, 2015 Are we becoming more ethically aware when making investments? According to recent research conducted for Triodos Bank, more than one in 10 Brits say that they plan to remove any investments they hold involving fossil fuels over the next 12 months. And among 18 to 34-year olds, the proportion rises to 40 per cent. But [...]
Diary of a Crowdfunder: Crowdfunding the medicines of the future March 11, 2015 Venomtech’s Steve Trim explains why he’s looking to raise £350,000 on SyndicateRoom. While working as a drug discovery scientist at a pharmaceutical company in 2009, an idea was brewing in my mind concerning a problem I was facing. The problem was how to make new drugs to cure pain which had fewer side-effects and worked [...]
Former Dyson boss Martin McCourt to advise VentureFounders March 9, 2015 Montagu Private Equity director and former chief executive of Dyson Martin McCourt will act as a senior advisor to VentureFounders – a UK-based equity crowdfunding platform. McCourt brings with him more than 35 years’ experience in manufacturing, design marketing having spent time at Mars, Duracell and Toshiba. He spent 15 years at Dyson. He is also [...]
Britain’s quiet FinTech revolution has begun – and we’re determined to back it March 9, 2015 Whisper it, but there is a quiet revolution going on in British banking. If you don’t work in the financial world, you may never even have heard of the UK’s burgeoning financial technology or “fintech” sector. And you almost certainly won’t know about the opportunities it offers. So what is fintech? For me, it is [...]
City A.M. partners with Crowdnetic to launch crowdfunding site CityAMCrowdwatch.com March 5, 2015 City A.M. has partnered with Crowdnetic for the launch of its suite of UK crowd finance data. It features information on private UK-based companies publicly raising capital online through securitiesbased crowdfunding portals. Through CityAMCrowdwatch.com, investors can track a comprehensive listing of UK private offerings from leading platforms including Property Moose, Angels Den, Crowd for Angels, Fireflock, [...]