Crowdcube Shareholder Update

Transcription

1 Crowdcube Shareholder Update

2 We started 2018 with a bang, having our best Q1 to date. A record-breaking Q4 put us in a great position as we came into the new year and we ve maintained the momentum with a very healthy pipeline of businesses eager to raise on the platform. It s also now been an incredible seven years since Crowdcube was launched from a small office in the centre of Exeter. Today, we have grown the team across the UK and Spain, been named the No. 1 equity crowdfunding platform, helped over 650 businesses raise growth capital and have increased our user base to more than 500,000!

3 Contents Our record-breaking Q1 4 Beauhurst report 5 Revolut: valued at $1.7bn 6 Q highlights 7 Achievements 8 Challenges 9 Product Development 10

4 Our record-breaking Q1 Our record-breaking Q1: 1.2 million in revenue is our highest in a quarter since we launched in businesses successfully funded; more than any previous quarter 20 businesses funded in March; our best month on record Over 40 million invested into pitches on Crowdcube, an increase of 32% compared to Q and second best quarter after Q Over 30,000 investments; our best Q1 and second best quarter ever after Q4 1.3 million website visits; our best Q1 and second best quarter ever after Q4 30,000 new members joined Crowdcube, more than any previous Q1 4

5 Beauhurst report Crowdcube: the UK s Biggest Crowdfunding Site in Q1 Crowdcube helped more entrepreneurs raise more investment than any other crowdfunding platform in the UK, according to the latest data from Beauhurst published last week. It shows once again that Crowdcube comfortably leads the industry by investment amount and number of completed raises in the first quarter of Not only has Crowdcube raised the highest amount of successful investment for businesses, we ve also funded more than double the number of businesses that are crowdfunding for the first time with 32 raises versus 15 by our nearest competitor. The sheer quantity of new companies flocking to Crowdcube, allows us to give our investors more choice while helping more British and European businesses raise much-needed finance to help them grow. Read more. 5

6 Revolut: valued at $1.7bn Revolut: valued at $1.7bn Revolut, which raised on Crowdcube in 2016 just one year after they launched, confirmed last week its meteoric rise as global fintech heavyweight following investment from DST Global that values the company at $1.7 billion ( 1.2bn), following a new $250m fundraising. The latest funding round puts Revolut in the exclusive Unicorn Club, which is reserved for exceptional businesses valued over $1 billion, and is Crowdcube s second unicorn following in the footsteps of BrewDog in This is a watershed moment for the finance sector and exactly why Crowdcube was started; to give anyone the chance to invest in the next big thing. Back in 2016, just a year after the Revolut was launched, over 430 people invested more than 1 million via Crowdcube alongside some of Europe s leading venture capital firms. Now, just two years later, Revolut s valuation has jumped from $58m to $1.7bn, so those stakes are worth significantly more. Read more. 6

7 Q highlights Other first quarter highlights include: We surpassed the 400 million milestone for investment into pitches on Crowdcube, now totalling 434 million We also hit the 10 million milestone for investment via ios and Android, which now stands at 12 million Welcomed our 500,000th member Four businesses raised 1m or more, with Recycling Technologies raising the most - a whopping 3.7 million 3.1 million was invested on average each week Our strongest week saw 4.9 million invested in February We celebrated returns for investors in Zank, our first Spanish exit, which was acquired by Fintonic and delivered its 252 Crowdcube investors an undisclosed positive return on their investment 7

8 Achievements What we ve achieved this year so far Treasury Select Committee: Luke had the privilege to be invited by Nicky Morgan MP to testify as a witness for the Treasury Select Committee inquiry into SME Finance. Luke spoke candidly about the funding challenges British entrepreneurs face and proposed a number of initiatives for MPs to consider as part of their review. Women in Finance Charter: We were delighted to sign up to HM Treasury s Women in Finance Charter. The government Charter reflects Crowdcube s aspiration to see gender balance at all levels across financial services firms. A balanced workforce is good for business it is good for customers, for profitability and workplace culture, and is increasingly attractive for investors. We ll update you in the future about our progress with this initiative. Prospectus Directive Consultation: We continued to work with HM Treasury, FCA, UK Crowdfunding Association and other organisations to lobby for the prospectus limit to be increased from 5 million. Office move: We ve settled in brilliantly to our new headquarters in the heart of Exeter s city centre. 8

9 Challenges Challenges Square Pie went into administration in February, which was Crowdcube s first bond failure, after KPMG failed to find a buyer for the restaurant business. The Financial Conduct Authority hasn t published its post implementation review into peer-to-peer lending and investment-based crowdfunding regulations. We remain positive about the outcome and its impact on the long term development and maturity of the industry. Disappointingly, we re increasingly needing to combat fake news from competitors. We regularly get asked by entrepreneurs, who are frustrated and confused by the bewildering array of performance data that s published by competitors, to discard the disingenuous, demystify the data and separate fact from fiction. Unverified data can be deceptive and exaggerate performance so we re constantly telling people that it s important to refer to officially published and verified data by a reputable source like Beauhurst. 9

10 Product Development Product Development Over Q1 we remained focused on improving the onboarding experience for entrepreneurs, and empowering them to manage their pitch and drive the success of their raise through automation and online coaching. This is central to our strategy of ensuring that the platform can scalably support large numbers of entrepreneurs building and managing pitches simultaneously, and included: A new pitch dashboard, that provides clear guidance on the tasks that entrepreneurs must complete at each stage in the journey to maximise their chances of success, accompanied by data visualisation of the performance of their pitch and off-platform marketing activity A significantly improved pitch creation experience, augmented with help, best practice guides, video tutorials, and FAQs Automated s that remind entrepreneurs of outstanding tasks they need to perform in order to complete our verification process and launch 10

11 Product Development Product Development In early January, we launched our native Android app. More than 12m of investment activity has now been made using our native mobile apps, with over 30% of investments placed on the site made using either our ios or Android app. We also worked on a number of projects to improve our teams efficiency, including: A new portal for our affiliate partners, to allow them to create and manage leads in the Crowdcube pitch management system Significant improvements to the tools used by our Completions team that manage identity checks and payment capture Research into the potential for Machine Learning to assist in the identification and resolution of claims that need to be checked as part of our verification process In advance of the introduction of the new EU wide privacy regulations (GDPR) in May we implemented campaigns to inform our investors of the changes we are making to comply with these regulations and collect the necessary consents to continue marketing to them through the website and our mobile apps. 11

12 Looking forward We d like to take this opportunity to thank you once again for your ongoing support of Crowdcube. If you have any questions, please investor@crowdcube.com Here s to a great Q2! Luke & Darren Co-founders of Crowdcube