UK equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs has been named as Britain’s most active investor in private companies.
A new report, The Deal Q1 2016, by independent research firm Beauhurst, shows that equity crowdfunding continues to dominate private investment, with Seedrs continuing to lead the market in the space as the most active investor in the UK.
Seedrs is ranked number one in a number of categories of investment, including most active investor and top tech and top business and professional services investor in the UK. It was in the total number of deals funded during Q1 of this year that Seedrs really moved away from the competition, with 37 individual fundraisings according to Beauhurst, a leading source of objective deep data on UK startups and scale ups.
This means Seedrs now has a 52 per cent share of the UK equity crowdfunding market. Its closest competitor, Crowdcube, has 42 per cent according to Beauhurst. All other platforms together have 6 per cent.
Standout funding rounds on Seedrs so far this year included the UK’s fastest growing P2P lender Landbay which recently announced a partnership with Zoopla and overfunded to 160 per cent reaching GBP1.6 million with 407 investors; FinTech50 2015 member, annual travel ticket subscription service CommuterClub, which overfunded to almost 200 per cent hitting GBP1.2 million with 174 investors; and Houseology, the tech-driven interior design service aimed at simplifying the home design process, which reached GBP1 million with 183 investors.
Seedrs has now funded more than 350 deals since launch in July 2012, and based on global ranking system Alexa, has significantly more people using its platform than any other UK equity crowdfunding platform.
Earlier this year, Seedrs was named a Bloomberg Business Innovator 2016, an accolade that recognises “the people changing how the UK lives, works and thinks,” as well as joining Tech City UK’s Upscale Programme of 30 of the fastest-growing UK tech companies.
Jeff Lynn, CEO & Co-Founder at Seedrs, says: “We are delighted to be named the most active investor in the UK and to have funded more deals than any other platform. It is a great start to what looks set to be a record breaking year. Seedrs has also taken market share from our closest competitor with 52 per cent of all UK equity crowdfunding activity.
“The equity crowdfunding industry continues to grow rapidly, and the numbers and types of businesses choosing to use this solution alongside traditional fundraising methods continues to expand substantially.
“Seedrs has become the first of port call in providing funding for these businesses, and we have campaigns ranging from GBP20,000 to more than GBP3 million being funded through Seedrs. We have very much opened the conversation about early-stage investment as an asset class, and we believe that it is an asset class which can form an important part of almost any investor’s portfolio.”
