CrowdToLive is a Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulated financial technology company that seeks to revolutionise residential property financing and investment. It claims that 4 out of 10 young homeowners in the UK have had their mortgage applications rejected. CrowdToLive intends to change this by facilitating a circular flow of finance between buy to let investors and the homebuyers. It argues that its platform allows buyers to own their homes without incurring debt and lets investors reap the rewards of the housing market without the hassle of tenant management. The company claims it has built a community of over 7,000 users, submitted over 2,600 properties for a value of circa GBP 600 million, and is a part of accelerator programmes such as Virgin Start-Up Accelerator Programme and Barclays Eagle Lab Accelerator Programme. CrowdToLive intends to use 10% of the investment to support international expansion, 15% towards business development, 40% towards hiring key personnel, 25% towards upgrading its IT infrastructure, and 10% towards marketing.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£339,744
Nexus is a digital platform that empowers users to take control of their health and wellbeing. It states that long-term health conditions like diabetes and cancer will account for over 50% of global health spending by the end of 2021 with depression becoming the leading cause of disability. Nexus aims to address this situation via its app. It argues that its app will offer users health coaching, telemental health, products, and services to transform their lifestyle. Nexus claims that the app can track progress via self-entered user data and is being designed to connect with apps and wearables to inspire life-long behavioural change. Nexus has prepared a pilot for an NHS Trust endorsed by Boston Scientific with a collaboration agreement to roll out the app to 30,000 NHS users. Nexus was one of 100 startups chosen to pitch at the World Business Angels Forum 2020. The Company says that it will use the investment to support Phase 2 of its tech build, grow further in the UK, and start its expansion in the UAE.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£280,360
TheCarCrowd is a Passion Asset Investment (PAI) platform that intends to address the lack of investment options for the 8 million UK millennials by allowing them to take a real equity stake in a classic car and benefit from the potential appreciation. The company argues that classic cars appreciated 194% over 10 years up to Q4 2019 as per expert reports. TheCarCrowd points out that its portal allows interested investors to buy shares in cars from just £20 and unlock the benefits of potential appreciation. The company asserts that its business idea has found traction amidst users with over 620 investors registering on the portal since the company's launch in November 2020. TheCarCrowd will use 12% of the investment for Public Relations (PR), 48% for marketing, and 40% for working capital.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£379,108
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
Honcho is the UK’s first reverse auction marketplace for financial services that is revolutionising the car insurance market. In a reverse auction, the company works by inviting insurance providers to bid against one another. For just £1 a bid, insurance providers can go head to head to give the customer their best price and helping the latter to avoid any hidden charges and commission. Honcho's first major £830,000 funding round closed in March 2018 with support from crowd investors plus Maven Capital Partners. The company has just launched its first partner integrations, bringing its services to consumers of two major employee benefits platforms plus a major affiliate network. Honcho was selected for the 'Tech Nation Fintech programme 2019.' Honcho will use the investment to diversify its investor base and bring itself to a platform with support for Insurtech businesses, launch offers in other sectors, evolve its role as Platform as a Service (PaaS), and enhance marketing initiatives.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£1,433,325
Service Robotics Ltd is a unique service designed to help older adults live independently in their own homes. This game-changing service offers voice-enabled face-to-face human support through an adorable intelligent Genie robot. The company's roadmap includes IT integration to turn the home into a cocoon of wellness, health, and companionship. The company has been actively piloting the GenieConnect® platform solution since 2018. Service Robotics Ltd won its first contract in November 2019 from the NHS/SBRI programme. GenieConnect® has agreed on pilot projects with 3 care and retirement organisations, applied for an Innovate UK grant in March.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£569,430
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
Rebel Energy (RE) is an energy supplier on a mission to address inequality and provide everyone with easy access to clean and affordable energy, to eventually eliminate fuel poverty. RE claims that fuel poverty led to 16,500+ cold-related deaths in the UK in 2018. RE argues that as the UK home electricity market enters a phase of growth in a post-COVID world, it will be focused on offering reliable customer service and develop strategies that help people who are struggling with their electricity bills. The company has applied for a B Corporation accreditation. RE asserts that its customer support systems are automated and can handle multiple queries simultaneously. It plans to offer a weekly direct debit payment option. RE will use the investment to grow its business across different verticals.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£503,810
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
eDrinks is on a mission to help the hospitality industry harness the power of technology and social media. It has come out with digital drink tokens redeemable in partner pubs and bars. Users can gift and receive the tokens from friends, family or even a stranger and redeem them in pubs and bars using the 'MyRound' app. eDrinks has acquired over 2000 users over 1.5 months through organic social marketing, of which, 1011 are active ones. It has also availed the Commercial Partner Membership (CPM) of the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA). The company is also developing its proprietary 'Bar Tab' redemption app to make it easy for independent venues to scan and redeem eDrinks contactless. eDrinks will use the investment to create marketing campaigns, app development, and hiring personnel.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£116,195
