Currency affairs: FreemarketFX founder Alex Hunn on launching on crowdfunding platform VentureFounders April 29, 2015 London is the biggest market in the world for FX trading. In 2012, the UK’s daily FX turnover averaged nearly $2 trillion, according to data from TheCityUK. Alex Hunn has a background in the industry. A former Credit Suisse First Boston and Deutsche Bank vice president and director respectively, in 2011, he started building [...]
The London crowd: Will Meyer of Brother Cycles on what it’s like to crowdfund a business in the capital April 23, 2015 People can get quite passionate about their bikes,” says Will Meyer, co-founder with his brother James of Brother Cycles. “Many [Londoners] enjoy the fact that they’re riding something born in their home city”. Their company builds bespoke high-quality bikes and sells them via its website and through over 30 independent bike shops. Since launching in [...]
Peer-to-peer lender Assetz raises £3m from crowdfund site Seedrs April 20, 2015 A pair of peer-to-peer sites came together in a funding operation yesterday which underlines the growing clout of the alternative finance sector. Lending site Assetz raised £3m through equity fundraising site Seedrs. It takes the total raised by debt crowdfunders on Seedrs to more than £4.5m. The debt firm had planned to raise £2m on the [...]
Beyond the frontier: Emerging Crowd founders take crowdfunding to emerging markets April 15, 2015 Next week, a new crowdfunding platform is set to launch: Emerging Crowd. In the industry, it’s a first – because it will give retail investors in the UK the opportunity to directly buy shares and bonds in emerging market SMEs. At the same time, it will be the first time that emerging market entrepreneurs will [...]
In the FinTech family: How crowdfunding is propelling peer-to-peer platform Assetz Capital forward April 8, 2015 Back in 2010, it became clear to the co-founders of Assetz Capital that the banking system was broken. So we set out to make a difference – not just to help restart business lending, but to make a long-lasting change for the better. The desire to develop a platform where businesses could access much-needed funds, [...]
Caught in the act: Why Facewatch has turned to crowdfunding April 1, 2015 I have always wanted to raise investment through crowdfunding, because so much of what my company Facewatch does is based around empowering individuals to help themselves and others to reduce crime. That’s why we want to encourage lots of ordinary people to share in what we believe is going to be a great British success [...]
Forget the media darling equity: Debt is the biggest area of UK crowdfunding March 31, 2015 City A.M. published an article last week entitled Crowdfunding: A brief history. It acknowledged that there are four types of crowdfunding – donation, rewards-based, debt and equity – and yet the entire piece focused on equity crowdfunding. At the end of last year, Cambridge University and Nesta released a report called Understanding Alternative Finance. It [...]
Crowdfunding: A brief history March 26, 2015 It’s transforming the prospects of small businesses, but it’s still early days for crowdfunding in the UK. By the middle of this month, the Scottish National Party had raised nearly £35,000 on crowdfunding website Crowdfunder. It’s not the only party to turn to crowdfunding to bankroll its General Election campaign – over the past three [...]
Index Ventures backs Daniel Gandesha’s tech start-up Property Partner March 23, 2015 Index Ventures, the venture capital firm behind Just Eat and Candy Crush Saga-maker King Digital, has given £5.2m backing to a crowdfunding platform that allows retail investors to tap into the UK’s residential market. Property Partner, founded by the ex-head of startup investment at BSkyB Daniel Gandesha, gives smaller backers the chance to invest sums [...]
Let’s get ethical: Abundance’s Bruce Davis on what crowdfunding is offering investors with a conscience March 18, 2015 Are we becoming more ethically aware when making investments? According to recent research conducted for Triodos Bank, more than one in 10 Brits say that they plan to remove any investments they hold involving fossil fuels over the next 12 months. And among 18 to 34-year olds, the proportion rises to 40 per cent. But [...]