Bee Good is a British company that specialises in award-winning natural skincare products made using local honey, propolis, and bee wax. Its range of products is certified cruelty-free and they are sold via Amazon across Europe and locally in Waitrose, UK. The company saw 45% of its online buyers returning to buy again. Bee Good is profitable and positioned for growth; its website drives high margin sales year on year which were up 69%+ in Jan 2019. The company is working towards expanding its range and promoting British bees and beekeepers.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£255,080
Richard Brendon is a prominent British design brand that values master craftspeople by creating a platform for contemporary and timeless tableware collections that challenge the expected. It has received extensive media coverage since 2013 including the FT and NY Times. The company has sold to more than 120 B2B customers in 15 countries. It has seen a growth of 75% since 2015 amounting to £2.5m sales to date and more than 3,000 orders delivered. Richard now plans to take his brand global. It has enjoyed a CAGR of 75% from 2015 to 2019, with revenue of £1.12m in 2019. The company plans on opening up new markets, creating four additional collections over the coming years to develop existing channels and territories.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£250,350
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
Established in 2011, Crowdcube has become the market leader in the equity crowdfunding sector. The company has a 40% share of the UK market with over 620,000 investors registered on the platform that have invested more than £561m in pitches. This has resulted in nearly 800 successful campaigns and Crowdcube's revenue increasing by 33% from H1 2017 to H1 2018. Funds are being raised to scale the business by expanding further in the UK, as well as overseas.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£7,918,180
World of Expats is a business designed to support expats with the tools, services and information they need to make the most of their live as an expat.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£49,153
Nourish is a company that makes snacks free from refined sugar, gluten, and dairy. The company's mission is to become one of the UK's most popular free-from brands. It aims to provide a range of delicious treats and snacks to consumers, athletes and those with specific dietary needs, ensuring that they possess sustained energy. The company's products are stocked by retailers including, Ocado, Wholefoods, Planet Organic, and Daylesford. Its online sales grew by 740% in April 2020. The company has featured in publications like Ooh Magazine, VeganLife, and Natural Health. It became 'Organically Certified' in 2017 and 'Safe and Local Supplier Approval (SALSA) Certified' in 2018. Nourish will soon launch its new product line in the next 12 months. The company will use the investment received to build the team, continue to raise brand awareness by investing in more price promotions in stores, and undertake geo-marketing campaigns.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£133,207
The Asset Exchange Ltd is an asset-backed lender within the UK used car finance market providing cars and loans to borrowers who are unable to use traditional lending sources for vehicle finance. They use compliant Hire Purchase Agreements which provides customers with high levels of consumer protection.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£63,064
Cloud-based SaaS software with the purpose of efficiently generating corporate management reports to reduce operational costs and improve data quality. Synapse's service can be implemented into pre-existing financial reporting systems to produce automated reports, even in large companies. Customers include Lloyds Bank, who have signed a 2-year term and the Bank of England have contacted Synapse to potentially integrate the system.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£894,056
Using artificial intelligence to accurately match a person's CV with a business's job requirements. Recruitment Smart have developed SniperAI, a tool created by specialists and a researcher from Carnegie Mellon University to quickly search and scan the ideal candidate for a specific job role.
This technology can be integrated into a company's job listings to automatically screen submitted CVs and returns a suitability score. In addition, as HR departments are under constant scrutiny to provide information on equality in the workplace, SniperAI can offer a list of appropriate candidates without bias. Recruitment Smart will generate revenue from initial set-up costs and licensing the product to businesses.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£272,650
White Peak Distillery (WPD) is a whisky distillery that aims to change the way whisky is made and create authentic flavours. It has so far invested £1.4 million in tried and tested plant equipment producing 400,000 bottles of maturing whisky. The company aims to become a contender in the $60 billion global premium whisky market. WPD has received 'Gold Awards' from The Wizards of Whisky World Whisky Awards. It has come out with programs to monetise its maturing whisky including its Cask Sales program, Temperance Club membership and its Prologue 2.1 release 2-year aged single malt spirit, that has been received with positive feedback. WPD has also been awarded visitor business in The Peak District, which receives 13 million+ visitors per annum, boosting its Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) model. It will use the investment to grow its business across different verticals.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£1,301,320
