Crowdcube, the world’s largest equity crowdfunding platform, is celebrating more than £500 million in pledged investment on the platform.
The funds pledged to businesses has resulted in more than 700 successful raises, for start-ups to sizeable scale-ups including fintech unicorn Revolut, digital, mobile-only bank Monzo and BrewDog, the British multinational brewery.
One common trait among the growing number of scale-up raises is increased participation by venture capital firms.
Six VCs including Balderton and Index Ventures took part in the Revolut raise, Passion Capital contributed to Monzo’s raise, and Draper Esprit participated in a raise for POD Point, the UK leaders in electric vehicle charging.
The majority of pledged investment via Crowdcube’s platform – 60 per cent – comes from high net worth and sophisticated investors. The platform has also opened up opportunities to everyday investors that have been able to invest in startup, early, and growth-stage businesses more easily.
“We can see that investor demand is continually growing, with over £95 million of the £500 million pledged being invested in 2017 alone,” said Luke Lang, co-founder of Crowdcube.
“Two record quarters mean we’re on track to exceed that figure by some margin this year.
“We’re connecting investors with growing businesses across the UK and overseas, in a way never previously possible; that is exactly what Crowdcube set out to do.”
Crowdcube has investors from more than 100 countries, and in 2018 so far, over 13 per cent of investments have come from outside the UK.
Last year £6.5 million was invested via Crowdcube from non-UK Europe, and that figure has already been exceeded in 2018.