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
The Big Exchange (TBE) is an investment platform and money management app that seeks to build a movement to transform the lives of millions of people by building a fairer financial system. The company aspires to help drive real change to people and the planet, whether it is lowering carbon emissions, contributing to social housing or protecting wildlife. TBE points out that its low-cost investment platform, comprehensive money management tool, and marketplace where people can find products that can have a positive impact on their lives and those of others can help in this regard. TBE has been awarded 'Best Sustainable ISA 2021' by Boring Money, 'Top Sustainable Platform for 2021' by Good with Money, and 'Best Innovation in Investment' by Financial Services Forum Innovation Awards. TBE intends to dominate the estimated £7.1 billion impact investment funds industry. They state they will use the investment received to help build a fairer financial system for everyone.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£404,064
British Pearl is a property investment platform facilitating share & loan investment in property. It is an FCA authorised investment manager which allows fractional international investment in the property without any hassle. British Pearl has won ten award nominations, three speaker engagements and has been featured in over 20 media including the Times, the Daily Mail and the BBC. With the proceeds, the company will grow the sales, increase property sourcing and develop the platform's features.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£910,132
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
Go Zero is an electric taxi service. Since its inception in 2017, the company has completed over 10,000 journeys, saved an estimated 174 tonnes of CO2, and witnessed £530,000 worth of sales. The UK taxi industry is a £9 billion-pound industry and Go Zero, with its fleet of electric taxis powered by 100% renewable energy sources, aims to be a major disruptor. The company has received 100+ 5-star customer reviews and in 2019, it added 1600 new customers to its network. In February 2020, it launched the Go Zero Network, a network of 1,000 electric taxi franchises across the UK to expand electric travel for all. Being a part of the Go Zero Network offers a franchisee the opportunity to purchase a 5-year licence enabling them to operate their own business under the Go Zero brand. It also gives them the potential to earn between £30,000 and £50,000 after costs, based on performance metrics. With the investment, the company aims to recruit a high performing team to deliver market share, focused on sales, digital marketing, social media, franchise recruitment and management.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£124,530
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
Pedal Me uses high-tech cargo bikes, trailers and trained riders to provide delivery & taxi services when needed. The company offers a solution that will out-perform motors in car-centric cities as bike-friendly measures like bike lanes are introduced. As of now, the company has 32 bikes and 45 staff in total. It has witnessed a strong MoM growth (19% on avg). The trips provided by Pedal Me has negligible carbon footprint in comparison with vans, taxis or electric vehicles. With the funds, the company will improve the technology, maintain speed with demand, develop the staff and balance the process.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£421,330
Karshare connects renters with owners, giving those with cars the opportunity to earn extra income while those in need of a car can rent from their local community. The company aims to unlock community car sharing by tapping into the estimated 10 million cars parked at UK airports each year and 38 million vehicles parked on UK streets. Karshare's platform features telematics and keyless technology allowing for cars to be booked instantly and unlocked using facial recognition. Karshare has a TrustScore of 4.9/5 and 852 reviews. It has onboarded partners such as Allianz Insurance, OCTO Telematics, Rentalcars.com, and RAC. Karshare has featured in press publications like The Times, Huff Post, BBC and Evening Standard amongst others. The company will use 25% of the investment for business operations, 45% for growing the business, and 31% for developing User Experience (UX) and functionality.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£1,444,182
