James Murdoch uses some examples to illustrate both the full potential of success but also the reality of risk from companies in his portfolio.

A crowdfunding bond in partnership between leading rewilding charity Trees for Life and Triodos Bank UK has raised £2 million in less than 48 hours. It will be used to part-fund the world’s first rewilding centre in the Scottish Highlands.  The bond offer was launched on the evening of Monday 13 September and reached its target on Wednesday – making it Triodos Bank’s fastest ever crowdfunding raise to reach £2 million. The average investment size was £4,800, with 8% of investors based in Scotland.

Lime Global Ltd, the UK’s leading provider of online-only affordable and accessible digital healthcare top-ups, has raised £474,838 from 209 investors via crowdfunding platform, Seedrs – exceeding its initial target of £400,000 at 117%. 

Aberdeen based EBar is raising a glass after closing a £670,000 equity round that will accelerate the roll-out of their self-service drinks dispensing technology to busy venues across the UK & Europe. The funding was led by the Seedrs crowdfunding platform and Irish events entrepreneur Robert O’Dowd, with follow on investments from Jenson Funding Partners, Equity Gap and Gabriel Investment Syndicate.

James Murdoch discusses his reduced appetite for investment these days and analyses some of the reasons behind this decision.

ikigai, the new premium fintech bringing self-care to personal finance, has closed its successful Crowdcube campaign raising £1,905,993 overfunding by 158%.  The funds raised will see ikigai continue to invest in its team and accelerate its product roadmap, which aims to integrate exceptional banking design, best-in-class financial technologies, and high-touch relationship management. ikigai will also continue to iterate their product, introducing new features that will redefine the way young and affluent users bank, empowering them to spend, save, and invest in line with their personal and financial goals.  

Curve, the fast-growing financial super app, has closed the largest ever equity raise on Crowdcube, breaking multiple records during the campaign. The raise closed last Thursday, hitting nearly £10m in funding from 11,795 investors.  In another record, Curve was the fastest ever company on Crowdcube to raise £6m, which it did in just 2 hours 49 minutes after it went live on 25th May. The fundraise has also been Crowdcube’s most popular in 2021 and far outstrips the total of £6m Curve raised during its 2019 crowdfund

Ivan Hoo, Co-founder of Inverse, shares his golden rules for entrepreneurs thinking about launching into a fund raising campaign.

Environmental fintech Tred has successfully cleared its target of £400,000 fundraise on Crowdcube, overfunding to more than £1 million and attracting investment from more than 1,000 individuals.

James Murdoch shares his assessment of a year in Equity Crowdfunding.

Bilal Gokpinar, Professor of Operations, Technology and Innovation at the UCL School of Management looks at the benefits of Equity Crowdfunding beyond the purely financial.

Crowdfunding is traditionally viewed and understood to be a tool to raise funds for start-ups. Indeed, reward crowdfunding, where individuals donate to a project with the expectation of receiving a non-financial reward in return, has been successfully used to raise money in the early stages of financing for start-ups. This view of crowdfunding is beginning to expand. With established companies such as P&G, Coca-Cola and Lego now using reward crowdfunding, they have uncovered that it is potentially a powerful tool to capture valuable and honest customer input during product development.

MunchFit, healthy food provider to luxury gym Equinox and elite studio Barry’s Bootcamp has closed £1.2m through a recent crowdfunding campaign via Crowdcube, after attracting substantial investor interest.