ONLINE FINANCE OPTION GROWING IN POPULARITY

Crowdfunding is taking off as an alternative source of finance for British entrepreneurs, judging by the acceleration in funding that the world’s first equity based crowdfunding platform, Crowdcube, is experiencing.

In the first five months of 2013 it raised £4,400,000 for 20 businesses, compared with £840,000 for 11 pitches in the equivalent period of 2012.
“That’s a whopping 524 per cent increase,” says Luke Lang, co-founder of Crowdcube.

“In fact, we funded 25 pitches for a total of £2.7 million during the whole of last year - that’s a huge leap and we’ve smashed our targets.

“It’s fantastic to see the model taking off like this in the UK.”
“Crowdcube funded nearly £3.5 million in April and May, with eight businesses reaching their targets in May.”
14 of the 25 successful pitches this year were for £100,000 or more.

The biggest single investment through the platform is now £250,000, increasing from £100,000 previously.

Crowdcube has over 35,000 registered investors and has raised nearly £10 million for well over 50 businesses since launch in February 2011.