With £66.2m invested in successful deals during the first half of 2018 on Seedrs, we have raised more investment than any other UK platform and continue to remain the choice for businesses wanting to raise larger funding rounds with an average round size of £728k, that’s 27% higher than Crowdcube according to data supplied by the platforms.
This follows on from Seedrs funding 4 out of the 5 largest equity crowdfunding rounds in 2017 and being named The Most Active UK Funder of private companies for 2017 in Beauhurst’s ‘The Deal 2017’. When it comes to the number of successful deals funded in H1 2018, the two largest platforms are neck and neck.
When looking at platform success rates of campaigns that were live in H1 and successfully funded, Seedrs had a dominating 68% in H1, that’s 21% higher than Crowdcube.
The first half of the year on Seedrs saw notable raises in the UK such as:
- Hassle-free hosting company Airsorted who raised over £7.2m from 1,273 investors, surpassing their funding target by 20%.
- Fundraising contactless payments provider Goodbox, raised over £2.6m from over 600 investors.
- Agri-marketplace Hectare raised £1.3m from 810 investors.
UK funding activity is only part of the story for Seedrs as a Pan-European platform
Seedrs continued to grow across Europe in H1 with 11 successfully funded deals from 6 different countries, showing the genuine breadth of geographical coverage of Seedrs.
Notable European deals in H1 included:
- Dutch company Agility Scales raised €760k from over 300 investors, doubling their fundraising target.
- Barcelona based CloudGuide raised €400k from 145 investors, for their global tourist app.
- Portuguese company eSolidar raised €400k from over 100 investors, in a follow-on round.
Seedrs – the platform for the journey
Seedrs continues to be the choice for businesses who understand the value of Seedrs’ full business lifecycle service rather than a transactional fundraising service like many other platforms. 23 Seedrs Alumni leveraged this value in H1 2018 and returned to successfully raise further funding rounds, this is compared to only 3 follow-on rounds completed by the closest competitor.
Seedrs Alumni are benefitting from the Seedrs Advantage Nominee which is enabling them to easily facilitate further funding rounds as they grow.
Notable follow-on rounds during the first half of include:
- Poq raised over £8.8m for their commerce platform for native retail apps.
- The platform for matching car hirers with local car owners, HiyaCar raised £2.4m.
- Supercarers, who connect individuals and families with local carers raised a further £2.6m.
Beauhurst’s ‘The Deal’ for H1 2018 shows UK number of deals level with the closest competitor
When looking at UK only deal volume as reported in Beauhurst’s latest ‘The Deal’ for H1 2018 there is no material difference in numbers with 81 vs 80 deals funded.
The equity crowdfunding industry as a whole during H1 2018, as reported by Beauhurst, saw a slight decline, down 5% compared to H2 2017. This however bucked the trend of the overall UK equity investment market which was down 37%.
Special mention is made of Seedrs alumnus, Revolut, which was the biggest UK equity fundraise so far this year. Revolut, now valued at $1.7bn, moved to Seedrs for their larger second crowdfunding round in November 2017 and shareholders have already been realising their gains on the Seedrs Secondary Market, post this latest round.
If you’d like to learn more about raising on Seedrs, contact us here.
