Crowdcube has unveiled its Q1 results, revealing it funded 36 businesses with a total of £24m invested by 15,405 people. The platform recruited 31,628 new investors in the period, showing the rising popularity of equity crowdfunding as a form of investment.
The largest funded pitch was Just Park, which raised £3.7m for its carpark booking service. The service works with NCP, hotels and over 23,000 private homes to make 150,000 parking spaces available around the UK for its 650,000 registered users.
The Pressery was Crowdcube’s fastest funded campaign. It reached its goal of raising £100,000 in just an hour and 40 minutes to fund the production of its almond-based milk drinks. They are now stocked in more than 20 stores including Selfridges and Daylesford Organics, appealing to a third of the UK’s population with lactose intolerances.
Five businesses raised more than £1m, comprising businesses in startup, early stage and growth modes. The majority of the companies raising their targets in the first quarter of the year were in the early stage category, with eight startups and 11 in growth stages.
Crowdcube launched mini-bonds in 2015 and two of these types of campaign were fully funded between January and March. Pocket Living and Taylor Street Baristas raised £2.8m between them.
The company expects more than 1000 new jobs to be created thanks to the success of the platform so far this year.
As a result of Crowdcube’s success, Darren Westlake, the platform’s DEO and co-founder was named as one of the UK’s most influential people by Debretts. He was also invited to be one of the key speakers at a Wired Money event later in 2015.
Take a look at Crowdcube’s full results infographic below.
