Crowdcube helps start-ups raise £100m in investment

Investment

Crowdcube has hit a new milestone, helping start-ups raise over 100m in investment, with more than 20 of the 290 businesses on the platform having raised 1m individually.

Powered Now, a professional invoicing app, pushed Crowdcube past the goalpost after surpassing its target last month.

The site, the first to reach this milestone, currently has 200,000 registered investors, with 70,000 of these signing up in 2015 alone. This has helped it to amass a 52 per cent UK market share and the title 'Top Equity Investor' from Crowdsurfer in August.

Darren Westlake, CEO and co-founder of Crowdcube, said: "Funding more than 100 million from our growing investor community of 200,000 are significant landmarks for investment crowdfunding. They clearly demonstrate how Crowdcube has the biggest and most active investor community in the world.

"Enabling people to invest in some of Britain's brightest companies, alongside world-renowned venture capital firms and acclaimed angel investors, on Crowdcube is now commonplace. Crowdfunding is now sitting alongside venture capital, angel investing and traditional debt financing as a mainstream channel for funding rather than an 'alternative'."

According to data from Crowdsurfer, the Exeter-based platform is the number one equity investor in the UK, beating Seedrs, Angels Den and Seedcamp, among others.

Back in July, it was revealed that VC investment in UK start-ups had hit an all-time high, with a record 960m raised in the first half of 2015 according to London & Partners group. More than 1,000 tech investment projects were started in London between 2005 and 2014, growing by 46 per cent since the Tech City UK programme was launched.

Caroline Preece

Caroline has been writing about technology for more than a decade, switching between consumer smart home news and reviews and in-depth B2B industry coverage. In addition to her work for IT Pro and Cloud Pro, she has contributed to a number of titles including Expert Reviews, TechRadar, The Week and many more. She is currently the smart home editor across Future Publishing's homes titles.

You can get in touch with Caroline via email at caroline.preece@futurenet.com.