UK platform Crowdcube today announced that it has raised 6M GBP of investment to further accelerate its growth. The investment is led by Numis, a UK stockbroker and corporate advisor. Tim Draper and London-based Draper Esprit have also joined this new funding round alongside existing backers Balderton Capital, one of Europe’s largest venture firms.
The investment will enable Crowdcube to accelerate growth, continue the expansion of its team, ramp up new product development including the creation of a new solution for companies going public, and invest further in its acclaimed marketing activities.
‘We’re on a mission to help more businesses raise the finance they need to grow, create jobs and deliver returns to investors. We’ve dominated the democratisation of seed-stage equity investment since we launched in 2011 and we’re determined to do the same for larger businesses. We want to put the Public back into IPO.’ commented Darren Westlake, CEO and co-founder of Crowdcube.
This round puts the Crowdcube at 51M GBP post investment.
Numis, which has raised £10bn for businesses since 2009 through more than 46 IPOs, will work with Crowdcube and the regulators to enable large high growth businesses who are ‘going public’ by listing shares on the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market or AIM, to access individual investors.
Darren added ‘Our goal is to solve the funding continuum for ambitious, high growth businesses; delivering seed-capital right through to IPO. We have a proven track record of disrupting the status quo. With high calibre new investors joining the team who share our vision of widening companies’ access to capital, this new round of funding puts us in a very exciting position.’
Crowdcube celebrated its first company exit in July 2015 when E-Car Club, which raised investment in 2013, was acquired by Europcar and delivered a multiple return to its investors. Crowdcube has attracted an investor community of nearly 200,000.
With over 70 employees in London, Barcelona and Exeter the company surpassed the amount successfully invested through the site during 2014 in the first six months of 2015.
(Source: Crowdcube blog)