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
KegTracker is a company that has launched an innovative Internet of Things (IoT) enabled device that turns kegs into smart containers. The device tracks real-time location, volume, temperature and motion for each keg in order to create reports & insights that enable a sustainable supply chain. The company asserts that a lack of transparency in managing kegs has led to annual industry losses of £1.4 billion+ in theft and spoilage, £1 billion+ in poor distribution, and £500 million+ in suboptimal production and lost containers. KegTracker argues that its device can reduce these losses significantly. The company has developed a working prototype, filed a patent and received letters of interest from leading UK breweries, coffee roasters and Wales National Health Service (NHS). In 2019, the company featured in Startups Magazine and were finalists at FutureFood Awards, London & Partners BGP, and Pitch@Palace. It will use the investment to bring its product to more markets.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£511,428
Ziglu is a financial technology entity that allows a user to access both Forex and digital currencies seamlessly. The company permits a user to use any currency via its Mastercard debit card and protects the user's digital currency up to £50,000 against cyber-attacks. Ziglu is authorised by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) and is one of the first companies involved with digital currencies to be registered under the UK’s Anti-Money Laundering Regulations (AMLR). The company has achieved a 94% rating on TrustPilot, offers customers the option to send money via cryptocurrency, and previously raised £5.25 million in seed funding. Ziglu has featured in media entities like Coindesk and Yahoo Finance. It will use 30% of the investment in product development, 60% on user acquisition, and 10% on international expansion initiatives.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£3,041,878
Legal Connection (LC) is on a mission to democratise the $1 trillion legal profession, and enabling networks of legal professionals to compete with large partnership firms. The company asserts that the UK leads the world in being a friendly regulatory environment for freelance lawyers and virtual firms. LC aims to capture this sentiment and provide the aforementioned lawyers with the right technology so that they can group to provide a comparable service to large firms at a fraction of the price. LC argues that its product looks like a social networking tool but functions as a legal case and practise management suite wherein all the work takes place in secure chat rooms. Lawyers are also allowed to leverage third-party managed accounts to hold client money and execute transactions. LC was selected by Antler Venture Capital and given a pre-seed investment of £120,000. LC will use the investment to grow its user base, continue product development, and use technology to power the future of law.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£211,874
PopUp Painting (PUP) is an art company that aims to be the leader in organising experiential social painting events in the UK. The company endeavours to bring art out of the classroom and gallery into the places people meet on an everyday basis, thereby, unleashing creativity. PUP has hosted over 45,000 guests to date. Total revenues to date are £1.1 million. In the last financial year, the company generated revenues of £373,000. The COVID-19 pandemic in March led to PUP launching its online art sessions which was met with positive feedback. The company resumed hosting in-person COVID-secure events from July 2020 onwards. PUP is seeking £175,000 at a pre-money valuation of £1.3 million to launch its own Central London experiential events space and to expand its current services to reach a new product market.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
Withheld
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
Opportunity Network is a digital network that provides equal growth opportunities to Chief Executive Officers (CEO). The portal's algorithm vets prospective users, allows them to buy, sell, raise or invest in an asset, gives them the option to choose the industry they wish to do business in, and then post their requirement for the same. The user can then select the best deal for their business from a list of responses and scale profitably. The company's platform connects 32,000+ qualified CEOs in 130+ countries to $295 billion worth of commercial, financial, and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals. 86% of the deals on the portal find at least 1 counterpart in 48 hours. Opportunity Network aims to reach full scale by the end of 2020 and find 10 counterparts for 95% of the deals in 1 hour. The company has also been featured in publications such as Forbes, CNBC, Financial Times, and The Economist. It will use the investment to scale its business across various verticals.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£962,500
Publisher Discovery, using AI & Machine Learning technologies, provides recommendations to Advertisers of highly relevant Publishers in the affiliate marketing sector. The company has built a uniquely curated database of over 2 million publishers and 330,000 advertisers, which are then analysed, compared, and matched to make recommendations in ranked lists, matching the best publishers with each advertiser. The affiliate publishing market is worth 16 billion dollars per year but is still largely dominated by human-based agencies and is uniquely suited for automation. Publisher Discovery aims to capitalise on this aspect and establish itself as the market leader. The company has signed up over 50 publishers and is negotiating contracts with two large distribution partners. It is currently raising £1 million investment with £675,000 committed so far, to grow sales and operations and reach over £2m Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) in the following 12 months.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£800,000
Wedding Planner is an online wedding-planning marketplace that provides an easy way to plan and book a wedding. Around 20,000 couples are using this platform to plan their dream weddings. Besides being a pre-COVID profitable business in the UK, it is the UK's number one ranked site for 'Wedding Planner' as per Google. The website has been created by combining a digital wedding booking system, curated venues, planning tools, and supplier search options. The platform generates 8,500+ leads for venues and suppliers per quarter and has a registered base of 3,000+ venues and other suppliers. With the investment, the company will use 25% to update their booking system catering to couples and suppliers, 12% in creating new and tested standardised contract templates between the couple and the supplier, 13% in developing a partnership with a wedding insurance provider, 30% as substitution funds for supplier and venue subscriptions frozen during COVID-19, 13% in continuing the platform's growth in Sweden, and 7% in costs associated with fund-raising.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£25,010
Artfinder is the art world's first certified B corporation that is on a mission to create a world where art benefits everyone. Operating in the $55 billion+ wall décor and online art market, the company is backed by Wellington Partners, and private investors in the UK, US and Switzerland. It has 60,000 customers, 6,000 artists and a collection of 470,000 artworks. The company believes in establishing direct contact with artists to select or commission work and negotiate prices. Customers have rated the company highly with 4.8+ Trustpilot reviews. The company will use the investment to supercharge its growth, grow its team and improve its platform.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£834,056
