Project Imagine (PI) is a startup focused on financial equitability for all. The company aims to build a financial service that doesn’t profit from short term unsecured debt, but one that grows with its customers and does everything it can to help them achieve their financial dreams. PI launched a current account, smart budgeting, saving tools and access to investment products from the likes of Blackrock and Vanguard in January 2019 in the UK consumer market. It has raised over £18 million to date. The company was named one of the UK’s 'Top 10 Best Banking Apps' by finder.com and recognised alongside Samsung and Apple in the technology section of the Global Brand Awards as the 'Best Innovation in Fintech'. It will use the investment to become the go-to platform for managing a user's money, bring together diverse fintech innovation from around the world into one common standard, and retain the most driven execution talent to boost company profits.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£2,160,625
epaysecure is a secure payment system, which offers comprehensive payment and benefit options, and allows all the services the consumer demands to be offered in one card and e-account. The prepaid business purchasing in European markets is estimated to be $700 million. The company operates in an e-banking and financial services marketing sector that helps clients by identifying new markets and bringing in new ideas to develop them through reloadable products and e-Wallet platform. The funds will be used for staffing, set up costs, other overheads including property marketing and general office costs.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£168,340
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
YellowWood Adventures Limited is an adventure travel company that pioneers in small group adventures in destinations like Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Lebanon, Ladakh, and soon, Oman. The company believes in supporting local economies, discouraging littering and adopting sustainable tourism, and supporting charities while taking its clients on tours. The global adventure tourism industry is projected to reach $1,626.7 billion by 2026, and the company finds itself as a suitable contender in this category. YellowWood has been featured in publications such as The Telegraph, Times, CNN & NatGeo. The company will use the investment to expand its team and marketing budget, enhance its products catalogue, and structure its website to further communication with its clients to boost its business.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£61,810
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
SkiYodl is a technology-led business that intends to transform the knowledge of people who live in the mountains into an online marketplace of handpicked accommodation and experiences. The company's growing network of in-resort fixers aims to bring customers the best resort discovery and handpicked accommodation, so they can book the exact trip they are looking for. SkiYodl asserts that it has generated £350,000 in booking revenue since its inception, built a community of 30,000 followers, and has a registry of 2000+ handpicked properties in the Alps. It will use the investment to expand into more locations, increase its property portfolio across the Alps and into North America and Japan, build the SkiYodl App and pocket concierge, and expand Yodl Group beyond SkiYodl and HUSH to include SunYodl and CityYodl.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£778,159
Racingbreaks.com is a digital racing and experiential platform enabling users to plan and book every aspect of their racing experience, whether that’s a ticket to a local racecourse or a unique 'Round the World Trip' to the Melbourne Cup. The company intends to offer users a single point of distribution for the fragmented racing sector, allowing customers to book everything in one place. Racingbreaks.com has earned £4.38 million worth of sales in 2019 witnessing a 300% growth in sales between 2017 to 2019. It claims that over 50,000 customers have booked with Racingbreaks.com, with the company having signed key partnerships with over 50 racecourses. The company claims that renowned horse racing jockey Frankie Dettori has invested in the company and is the face of the brand. Racingbreaks.com will use the investment to re-develop its website and platform, create a new racing app, develop new ticketing Application Programming Interfaces with more racecourses, and expand its platform globally.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£375,530
Patch is a modern plant shop for contemporary plant people. It helps in finding the most suitable plants and delivering them to the door. The company has delivered over 2,50,000 plants to over 82,000 customers in Paris and London. Patch has witnessed solid growth at +124% vs last year, reaching £4.48m in revenue. The company has a 4.6-star rating on TrustPilot and, it has been featured in The Times, The Telegraph etc. The funds will be used to expand across Europe, eliminate the middle-man and expand into the B2B market.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£2,412,150
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
Not In The Guidebooks (NITG) is a travel agency that believes in making tourism sustainable and enjoyable for travellers and local communities. NITG has raised a £250,000 seed funding to build its platform and connect with local partners. It's contracted agent partners include British Airways, Mid counties Co-Op, Spear Travel, and Intele Travel, amongst others. The company is set up as a global collective, ensuring 10% of its profits go to its local partners. NITG has also acquired and integrated Go Learn To, an experiential holiday provider focusing on immersive learning experiences. The company will use the investment to build a team to create content, secure new partnerships, build consumer brand awareness with a strong social media presence, and develop technology with geolocation and live availability to enliven trip itineraries.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£128,899
