Plerith works with high growth start-ups and scaling companies to plan for and deliver growth. The company asserts that it helps companies promote their business to potential funders, through its network of angel and venture capital investors depending on the stage and sector of the said business. Plerith is partnering with Newable and Bristol Private Equity Club to deliver the fund in the South West London (SWL) area and identify and invest in the most exciting high growth companies in the region. Plerith argues that its deep knowledge of fundraising, sales, strategy, finance and technology would help SWL businesses flourish. Plerith aims to provide investors access to the highest quality local companies in the SWL region.
days to go:
Stretch
investment:
Withheld
Incorporated in Luxembourg in July 2018, Glu is a friendly, free-to-use community where users can explore the 'cryptoverse'. Glu is the 'TripAdvisor' for cryptocurrencies or the 'Money Super Market' of crypto exchanges. It serves as a guide to its users through a world full of jargon, mistrust and disjointed information about cryptocurrencies. Glu is working on an integrated B2B & B2C strategy for revenue. It aims to develop B2B customers and build website traffic and then focus on B2C revenues. 41% of the proceeds will be used for product development, 26% for Operations and Customer Support, 17% for Sales and Marketing, and 16% for G&A.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£158,319
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
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
Business Finance Market (BFM) is a financial technology platform that stimulates the market towards Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) lending via data in the UK. BFM claims that SMEs are gradually being excluded from mainstream banking. The company cites that in 1988, 40% of all bank lending went to SMEs. BFM points out that lending today is closer to 4% with an estimated £22 billion funding gap to the 5.9 million UK SMEs. BFM asserts that almost 90% of SME loan applications are stuck due to a lack of choice and transparency when it comes to securing finance. BFM aspires to solve this dilemma. It states that its technology allows SMEs to experience quicker finance decisions based on true addressable market access and allows lenders and intermediaries access to its platform to help manage the end-to-end application process, improve deal flow, and deliver faster credit decisions. BFM intends to exit via a trade sale within the financial sector.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
Withheld
Equipsme is a company that aims to democratise health insurance by making it affordable for businesses. The company offers flexible fixed-price packages to employees while giving them the option to upgrade their package to avail more features upon payment. Members can speak to a general physician round the clock, have physiotherapy sessions, avail regular health checks and, if necessary, be quickly referred to a consultant for diagnosis and treatment. Members can access these features through a simple-to-use application. Since February 2018, the company has secured an exclusive 5-year insurance capacity deal with AXA PPP Healthcare and grown its members by 130.5% Year-on-Year (YoY) (to May 2020) with a 95% broker renewal retention rate. The company will use the investment to enhance its user experience and scale its marketing as it announces its partnerships with organisations such as Starling Bank and Simply Business.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£879,204
QFinds is a purpose-built hiring tool that enables employers to easily and efficiently pre-screen candidates, conduct interviews and generate employment contracts. The company asserts that it is a UK government vetted 'Kickstart Scheme' representative and can get small businesses grants to hire interns having already processed over 100 job applications. QFinds claims that its app has been downloaded 2 million+ times garnering 24,000 reviews averaging 4.8/5 stars. QFinds also points out that bad hirings cost the UK up to £6.7 billion in turnover, productivity, and training. It seeks to change this and disrupt the £39 billion recruitment market. The company has partnered with notable entities like University College London, Kings College London and Brunel University London, intending to use them as strategic partners to increase job seekers signing up to and using its app. QFinds will use the investment to grow its business across different verticals.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£222,866
