Crowdcube hits £100m investment milestone
Crowdcube has become the first investment crowdfunding platform to raise £100 million and has now helped 290 businesses secure investment from the crowd. 109 businesses, including 14 overseas companies, have raised £50 million collectively in 2015 alone, with Crowdcube amassing a dominant 52% market share in the UK, according to data released by Crowdsurfer in August. Crowdcube also affirmed its position as the largest and most active investment platform in Europe as it nears 200,000 registered investors, with more than 70,000 people signing up to the award-winning site this year.
Investors through Crowdcube have received financial returns in excess of £600,000 so far in 2015, following the equity sale of E-Car Club to Europcar in July and multiple mini-bonds, including Eden Project and River Cottage, making their first interest payments to investors. Award-winning invoicing app for trade professionals, Powered Now, which is currently overfunding after surpassing its initial £350,000 target was the business that took Crowdcube through the £100 million ceiling.
The last 12 months has seen a growing trend toward more established and VC-backed businesses using Crowdcube to raise finance with a dozen companies raising over £1 million. This trend has combined with more proven, high calibre management teams, which have previously founded or held executive positions at eBay, Zoopla, Poundland, easyGroup, Ask Jeeves, MTV Europe, Amazon Europe, ASOS, Innocent Drinks and Made.com, seeking growth funding on the site either instead of, or alongside, traditional sources of finance.
Businesses raising over £1m include:
JustPark’s pioneering parking app backed by Index Ventures and BMW i Ventures raised £3.7 million in March 2015.
Award-winning Camden Town Brewery raised £2.4 million to help fund building a new brewery in London.
Sugru got stuck in by raising £3.4 million to expand markets globally for its mouldable adhesive and attracted an investment of £1 million, the largest single investment to date from an existing member of the crowd.
Former top executives from Zoopla, eBay and Gumtree raised £2 million for Adzuna, the VC-backed job site listed as one of London’s top 10 hottest start-ups.
The world-renowned Eden Project secured £1.5 million in just 20 hours to build new educational facilities.
easyProperty, the most recent addition to Sir Stelios’ easyGroup secured £1.4 million seed capital in 2014.
Crowdcube also celebrated its largest single private investment of £1 million in July, which was invested in Sugru after the member signed up in 2014.
Darren Westlake, CEO and co-founder of Crowdcube says:
“Funding more than £100 million from our growing investor community of 200,000 are significant landmarks for investment crowdfunding. They clearly demonstrate how Crowdcube has the biggest and most active investor community in the world.”
Westlake added: “Enabling people to invest in some of Britain’s brightest companies, alongside world-renowned venture capital firms and acclaimed angel investors, on Crowdcube is now commonplace. Crowdfunding is now sitting alongside venture capital, angel investing and traditional debt financing as a mainstream channel for funding rather than an ‘alternative’.”
This month, Crowdsurfer published data which shows that so far in 2015 Crowdcube has secured British businesses more funding than all the other players combined, with an impressive 52% market share. In addition, Beauhurst named Crowdcube ‘Top Equity Investor’ following its performance in the first six months of the year where 74 deals were successful to the tune of £39 million.
About Crowdcube:
As the world’s first and most successful investment crowdfunding platform, Crowdcube enables entrepreneurs to bypass the traditional business angel, venture capital or bank finance routes, giving them more control and access to more investors. For investors, Crowdcube provides them with a way to cherry-pick a stake in an innovative business that traditionally would have been restricted to corporate investors. In addition, they can now benefit from a fixed return per annum by lending money to more established companies offering a mini-bond on Crowdcube. Crowdcube is authorised and regulated for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
