CrowdCube to Launch Scottish Office

Exeter-headquartered crowdfunding platform Crowdcube will this week open its first office in Scotland.

The new base, in Edinburgh’s Silicon Walk, will be led by Craig McKenna. The move follows a survey conducted on behalf of Crowdcube by YouGov, which found that more than a third of Scottish investors had heard of crowdfunding but 70 per cent still used banks or stockbrokers to fund a start-up business.

“Scotland has a very strong entrepreneurial and investment culture, but there has been no strong crowdfunding presence in the region until now,” said Darren Westlake, chief executive of Crowdcube.

“Scottish companies are no different to any other start-up in looking for ways to finance their business – and like any other business, they have found it increasingly difficult to raise money through traditional routes like banks during recent tough economic times.”

In 2013, legal process outsourcing firm, NewGalexy, became the first Scottish company to raise funds through Crowdcube.

It secured more than £220,000 – double its £100,000 target – to help develop its services to large international corporations and law firms.

Westlake added: “It’s interesting to see that although the passion for investment is there – according to YouGov one in five of those who would consider investing in a British start-up would stump up between £2,000 and £5,000 – crowdfunding is not an obvious choice at the moment.

“We need to change this and make crowdfunding a serious alternative.”