Cuckoo is an internet broadband provider. The company claims that incumbent internet providers treat customers with poor customer service, high prices, and complicated contracts. Cuckoo aims to change this by providing users with fair and transparent prices, simple contracts, high-quality routers, and responsive customer service. The company is currently developing its website and billing engine ahead of launching with its first customers in the second quarter of 2020. Cuckoo's business is in the pre-revenue stage. It expects to start generating revenue in May/June 2020 when they launch their broadband service. Cuckoo will use 50% of the investment towards paying salaries to staff, 25% as technology development fees, 10% as professional fees, 5% as rent, and 10% as AOB. Cuckoo's exit strategy is via a trade sale or listing in the United Kingdom.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£69,622
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
Balkerne is a tech start-up providing software as a service to the property and insurance sector. They have developed SmartResilience, a real-time loss prevention software platform, which helps insurers and the insured understand the value at risk. Insurers spend £1.3bn a year on commercial property claims and £2.3 on domestic property claims, work on squeezed margins and struggle to differentiate with the competition. Balkerne provides customers with pre-emptive, bespoke information and actionable advice, allowing insurers to minimise claims, uninsured losses and improve the customer experience. Moreover, they helped businesses reduce their long term property risk through proactive mitigation and make insurance affordable. Their SmartResilience platform has been developed with the technical ability to integrate with both Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure Cloud. The company is registered on the AWS Partner Network and with Microsoft for Startups. Modular functionality is core to the platform, with the ability to seamlessly scale to meet customer requirements.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£150,000
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
Glug provides a platform for businesses to let customers order from a digital menu and have them served to the table or pick up from the bar. It points out that its system is designed to be user friendly and easy to set up wherein restaurants or bars can upload and digitalise their menu and can be discoverable within 24 hours. Consumers can discover the restaurant, book a table, place an order, and browse for offers and discounts, amongst other features using the company's community app. Glug asserts that more than 16,000 users have ordered food and drinks through its app in less than four months since the company's launch. It intends to become a contender in the UK dining and pub market that is a £40 billion+ industry. Glug argues that more than 20,000 users have downloaded its app from the App Store and Google Playstore. It will use the investment for marketing, hiring, technology development, attract 1.5 million users and onboard 1,000+ venues over the next 12 months.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£73,114
Lux is a premium alternative that rewards high-spending customers, without devaluing restaurants’ brands. Powered by the latest card-linking technology, LUX offers premium reward schemes that give users up to 10% of their restaurant spend back as luxury rewards. So far, Lux has attracted more than 50 restaurants including JKS & Mews of Mayfair and Browns. Moreover, accountants, banks, law firms and consulting firms have accepted to distribute LUX. The company will use the funds to grow the customer base and the business.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£241,580
Outfts is a fashion marketplace that serves retailers, influencers, and consumers merging the traditional marketplace concept with expanding social features. Users can shop via storefront, creator profiles, shoppable social feed, or search and product listings. Outfts is focused on 'Female First' creators. Outfts claims to bring together a growing collection of more than 55 retailers, combining over 3000 brands and over 1 million products. The company live tested its private beta, with three carefully selected clients namely, H&M, Urban Outfitters and MATCHESFASHION, and multiple influencers. It has acquired over 50 more high-profile clients, including Coach, Kenzo, MANGO, Harvey and many more. Outfts says it will use the investment to hire key personnel, manage operational expenses, manage marketing initiatives, oversee its app development, and expand outside of the European market, beginning with the US.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£198,047
EMERGEiQ is a cloud-based platform targeted towards Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and large corporate organisations. The company plans on having an extensive suite of algorithms that simplifies Data Science (DS) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) at low cost, across all sectors. EMERGEiQ asserts that its analytics can help businesses improve operational productivity, cut costs, and eventually generate more revenue. It has worked with companies across a variety of sectors such as finance, medicine, stock market, and insurance. The company will use will 30% of the investment for R&D, 25% to purchase software and hardware to improve platform capabilities, 25% to market its new product line, 10% as working capital, and 10% as miscellaneous expenses.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£150,000
Zoom 1hr is a hyperlocal last-mile delivery service delivering food, convenience and retail goods within one hour. The company is currently operating in West Midlands, Wales, and bordering English counties. It aims to become a contender in the online food delivery market that is projected to reach over £5 billion in 2021. Zoom 1hr has witnessed 70,000 app downloads, processed over 280,000 orders through its platform, and gained an annual turnover of £665,000 in 2019-2020 at an order growth rate of 108%. Zoom 1hr argues that its list of partners consists of local, national and international stores including Subway and KFC. It has also secured a contract with Co-Op to be its third national last-mile delivery partner, currently servicing 61 stores. The company will use the investment for New Area Mobilisation (NAM), product and website development, key hires, and team expansion.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£595,084
DMD has made its digital content distribution enterprise in the last two years. Along with that, it has developed a global cinema TVOD (Transactional Video On Demand product). The company has built a long-term distribution partnership with OTT companies, telephone/IPTV and major cable that lead the wealthiest portion of the Pay TV market, providing service to 17 million two-way homes in 19 nations in Latin America. DMD's revenue has increased by 93% YoY 2017-2018, which will help the company in reaching EBITDA breakeven in Q3 of 2019. DMD has established relationships with distributors and leading sales agents in Europe and the USA. With the proceeds, the company will acquire bigger commercial films, increase its global footprint by launching the company in Asia, Africa, and Europe, and supplement its current output with classic titles.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£145,000
