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
Hop is a Vietnamese fresh food concept showcasing a passion for Vietnam’s rich and vivid culture, food, and street atmosphere. It has 5 multi-format sites across London ranging from 700sqft “mini-HOPs” to a 3,000sqft “HOP Café”. HOP has completed sales of c.£3.8m in 2018 and is serving an average of 12k customers every week. The company has an agreement with Vita Mojo to launch digital screen ordering technology. HOP is raising funds to grow the brand across the UK.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£1,457,110
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
Honestly Good Smoothie Company specialises in making 100% organic pre-portioned smoothie ingredient packets delivered directly to a customer's doorstep. Users can avail their kits via a weekly, fortnightly, or monthly subscription plans. Each recipe is developed by a chef and approved by an independent nutritionist. The ingredients are delivered in ready-to-blend kits in recyclable, compostable, and reusable packaging. The company has more than 25 recipes and has sold over 30,000 smoothie kits. The company has been featured in publications such as Forbes, and Pebble magazine. With the investment, the company aims to introduce re-usable packaging by June 2020, offer more data-driven personalised plans, introduce another 20 recipes, build its digital marketing strategy and subscriber base.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£119,321
Drop Drinks creates vintage beverages with a distinctive taste. Theses beverages are inspired by traditional British sweets like Pear Drop and Cherry Drop. The company has sold more than 10,000 units since its launch in 2018. With more than 9,000 followers on social platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, Drop Drinks aims at increasing its product range to become a popular and leading drink brand domestically and grow globally. The company is now raising funds to increase production, execute an extensive go-to-market strategy, and hire key staff.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£127,690
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
Flooring Hut is a UK-based technology company that aims to disrupt the UK flooring industry valued at £2bn in 2017. Touted as the smarter way to buy new carpets & flooring, Flooring Hut has made 24,000+ online sales across domestic and trade sectors by building a huge network of independent installers. The company's USP is to connect a disjointed market and allow customers access to value products, samples, leading brands and a suitable, vetted local installer to perform the work. The key to its success to date has been a consistent and reliable mix of pricing, availability, and selection. Till date, the company has 786 registered trade customers, 140+ Flooring Hut Installer Network of members, and 12,000 products available for sale. With the proceeds, the company will develop its self-service platform functionality for customers and expand its reach on social media and affiliate marketing.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£57,077
One Year No Beer (OYNB) is a community support platform that helps people change their relationship with alcohol. It argues that despite drinking being a part and parcel of most work, social and family gatherings, excess drinking leads to 3 million deaths per year, causes 5.1% of all diseases and costs £52 billion to the UK economy alone. OYNB intends to change this by helping customers choose a plan from its subscription-based models that consist of a 28-day, 90-day and 365-day challenge to stay away from alcohol. The platform has empowered 80,000+ people in 90 countries through its challenges, earned revenue worth £2.2 million in 2020, and witnessed an 85% growth in Alcohol-Free Challenge (AFC) sales between February - June 2021. OYNB has featured in the BBC, ITV, and Men’s Health, to name a few. It also has an online presence of 230,000+ social media followers. The company states it will use the investment to consolidate its growth and improve its technology to become a stronger brand and reach millions globally.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£932,654
Miso Tasty is a Japanese inspired food brand that specialises in the production and sale of Miso, a delicacy of Japan. To maintain authenticity, the company sources its key ingredients directly from Japan and has experience of over six years in manufacturing a range of delicacies such as Miso Soups, Miso Pastes, and Meal Kits. Led by an award-winning entrepreneur, author, and creative chef Bonnie Chung, Miso Tasty has established itself into the UK's top two supermarkets -Tesco and Sainsbury's. It's products have been featured in publications such as The Guardian, Daily Mail, and The Sunday Telegraph. Celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver mentioned Miso Tasty on his TV show. The brand has also launched a collaboration menu with Masterchef Winner Tim Anderson's restaurant, NanBan. With the funds received, Miso Tasty will put more efforts into brand awareness within the UK, launch product ranges such as marinades and sauces that delve deeper into Japanese cuisine, recruit more staff and capital resources to further the brand's business.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£384,088
Notes is a well-established coffee shop and wine bar concept with nine locations in central London. They pride themselves in being able to source and roast at their own roastery in Canning Town which provides over 1.4m cups of coffee a year. By serving high volumes of their single-origin speciality coffee, Notes have doubled their revenue to almost £5m by just opening shops in four locations since 2015.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£1,194,330
