AxiaFunder is a commercial litigation funding platform that offers investors access to pre-vetted cases. The platform aims to connect eligible investors like sophisticated retail investors, high-net-worth, and typically institutions with claimants seeking funding. Launched in January 2019 with the first case fully funded within seven days and the third in 7 hours; 5 cases financed to date, attracted over 355 registered investors so far including several institutions and has featured in several prominent publications including the Financial Times, Times and City AM. Also, they have won the 'Best Commercial Litigation Crowdfunding Platform 2019' award by Wealth & Finance. AxiaFunder plans to use the proceeds to make key hires particularly to strengthen its case origination, further development of its platform and marketing to build the AxiaFunder brand and grow its investor base.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£256,780
BMM Networks is a company specialising in providing electric vehicle charging solutions throughout the UK. Currently, there are about 250,000 electric vehicles (EV) in the UK, with the hope that it will increase to 1 million by 2022. But this transition requires dependable and safe On-Street and Workplace charging stations. The UK Government, through the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV), has dedicated over £900 million of funding to expanding EV usage, of which £500 million is in scope for the BMM charging point business model. With the help of its delivery partner, BMM Energy Solutions Limited, BMM Networks has engaged with several local authorities to develop charging solutions. The company is one of the 10 approved framework providers for OLEV funded projects. Within this setup, OLEV will fund 75% of the installation cost or £5,000 for each charging point, leaving BMM to fund the balance of £1,250 per charger. This will enhance the coverage of charging points thereby boosting EV sales. The company is seeking £1.375 million of equity funding to boost its brand identity and business opportunities.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
Withheld
Launched in 2015, Gone West plans to disrupt the commercial forestry sector by adopting regenrative forestry systems in place of traditional ones, thereby creating environmental and social benefits. The company has planted millions of trees and has become pretty good at it. The company's product development team is engineering solutions for environmental problems, such as its Green Light app. The company's business model is structured to provide diverse yet interconnected revenue streams. Gone West has been self-funded to this date with increasing year-on-year revenue growth since launch. With the proceeds, the company will invest 30% for operations, 20% for Marketing, 5% for Business Innovation, 20% for Forestry Services, 15% for Product development, 10% for Plant and Protect.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£159,300
Sol-Gel Materials and Application (SGMA) is a sustainable technology company that is using its new sol-gels to create sustainable solutions to plastic environmental waste. The company has researched and developed a non-plastic, non-toxic coating for products, from food packaging to electronics, that is water and oil resistant yet recyclable. Its product is the world’s only biodegradable, compostable, and recyclable (BCR) solution. The company's founder and CEO, Dr Fanya Ismail, has won the award 'Women in Innovation 2019' by Innovate UK and the company's work has been covered by BBC South East Today. The company plans to function as an IP management company, sub-contract manufacturing to chemical firms moving from bulk to advanced materials, and outsource distribution to partners, whose packaging customers serve brand owners.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£611,040
Go Zero is an electric taxi service. Since its inception in 2017, the company has completed over 10,000 journeys, saved an estimated 174 tonnes of CO2, and witnessed £530,000 worth of sales. The UK taxi industry is a £9 billion-pound industry and Go Zero, with its fleet of electric taxis powered by 100% renewable energy sources, aims to be a major disruptor. The company has received 100+ 5-star customer reviews and in 2019, it added 1600 new customers to its network. In February 2020, it launched the Go Zero Network, a network of 1,000 electric taxi franchises across the UK to expand electric travel for all. Being a part of the Go Zero Network offers a franchisee the opportunity to purchase a 5-year licence enabling them to operate their own business under the Go Zero brand. It also gives them the potential to earn between £30,000 and £50,000 after costs, based on performance metrics. With the investment, the company aims to recruit a high performing team to deliver market share, focused on sales, digital marketing, social media, franchise recruitment and management.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£124,530
Nextfin is an FCA approved aggregation and rating portal for equity and debt crowdfunding investments.
AIM is shrinking, legacy stock markets are too expensive to maintain and do not serve the requirements of SMEs, banks are closing branches, lending less and are paying little or no interest to investors. As a result of this, there is a huge growth in equity crowdfunding and P2P lending which has seen the launch of hundreds of alternative lenders & platforms that has created a new c.£3bn marketplace, expanding at 66% p.a. There is no single portal or trusted ratings index for investors to compare on a like for like basis and no secondary market to facilitate exits.
* NextFin is the new trading name of Business Agent Ltd
The solution
NextFin aggregates equity and debt crowdfunding investments to create the alternative finance marketplace. This makes it easy for investors and lenders to find and compare opportunities by presenting all investment offerings in one place. With the addition of a free of charge ratings service investors will be able to view ratings of every equity crowdfunding pitch, every P2P site, and every equity crowdfunding site. NextFin’s technology will constantly track these companies and investments providing the investor real-time intelligence on which to base investment decisions. The platforms and entrepreneurs will be self-promoting and marketing their ratings driving thousands of visitors a month to the NextFin site, in the same way, businesses refer their potential clients to Trip Advisor and Trustpilot. There is an estimated 10 million website/platform visitors per month across the whole of the alternative finance market. NextFin is targeting to direct 5% of this highly profiled traffic to its platform from which it will earn between £5-£8 per click from advertisers and partners. In addition, an in-house brokerage service also earns between 1%-6% commissions on loan placements. A future revenue stream (not featured in the financials) will be developed once visitor traffic reaches critical mass. This will see Nextfin being able to realise the full value of its captured ratings data and visitor traffic by launching a secondary market, which is estimated to be a £5bn marketplace.
NextFin is raising £500k at a pre-money valuation of £2M to: • Develop P2P and Equity site ratings• Expand the management, infrastructure and marketing resource• Increase visitor traffic to 6m a year via rating referrals
Owing to the size of the market and rapid growth of the industry, enterprise valuations in alternative finance are based on visitor traffic, market share and registered users. Recently published valuations of companies with visitor traffic of over 6m per year are in excess of £70m. NextFin is the market-leading aggregator and has first-mover advantage. It has the potential to exceed these valuations because it is the whole of the market aggregator and is currently the only ratings service provider as it grows to achieve 500,000 visitors p.m.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£274,057
Pedal Me uses high-tech cargo bikes, trailers and trained riders to provide delivery & taxi services when needed. The company offers a solution that will out-perform motors in car-centric cities as bike-friendly measures like bike lanes are introduced. As of now, the company has 32 bikes and 45 staff in total. It has witnessed a strong MoM growth (19% on avg). The trips provided by Pedal Me has negligible carbon footprint in comparison with vans, taxis or electric vehicles. With the funds, the company will improve the technology, maintain speed with demand, develop the staff and balance the process.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£421,330
Elemental is an agricultural food technology company that converts 78% of beef processing waste into sustainable fertiliser. The company claims that its technology can potentially reduce global beef CO2 emissions equivalent to 50 million cattle. Elemental asserts that its technology has been developed through extensive R&D and protected by patents in 60+ countries. The company raised £1.5 million on Crowdcube in late 2019, signed agreements for 14 projects in the UK and Europe using its technology, built a demonstrator plant and agreed to install its technology on commercial terms at 6 UK abattoirs. The company states they will use the investment to operationalise their first plant by December 2021 and grow their business across different verticals.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£1,395,801
Karshare connects renters with owners, giving those with cars the opportunity to earn extra income while those in need of a car can rent from their local community. The company aims to unlock community car sharing by tapping into the estimated 10 million cars parked at UK airports each year and 38 million vehicles parked on UK streets. Karshare's platform features telematics and keyless technology allowing for cars to be booked instantly and unlocked using facial recognition. Karshare has a TrustScore of 4.9/5 and 852 reviews. It has onboarded partners such as Allianz Insurance, OCTO Telematics, Rentalcars.com, and RAC. Karshare has featured in press publications like The Times, Huff Post, BBC and Evening Standard amongst others. The company will use 25% of the investment for business operations, 45% for growing the business, and 31% for developing User Experience (UX) and functionality.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£1,444,182
ClearWaste is a price comparison website for waste removal and a provider of enforcement services to councils across the UK. The company argues that the cost to local authorities and taxpayers for cleaning up fly-tipping in England in 2016/17 was £57.7 million and is now thought to exceed £100 million. ClearWaste is on a mission to combat it through its app and web platform utilising reporting and prevention methodologies. The company links consumers with govt-registered waste removers backed by a £1k no-fly-tipping guarantee. ClearWaste argues that the UK waste industry is worth over £6.8 billion and supports more than 103,000 jobs. It aims to be a contender in this segment. ClearWaste has featured in press entities such as BBC, ITV, Channel 5, Sky, Times, and The Guardian. It was also a finalist at the National Recycling Awards 2020. ClearWaste will use the investment to develop its sales and marketing functions and further raise brand awareness.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£199,599
