Equity and mini bond crowdfunding site Crowdcube has announced it experienced a 246 per cent growth in 2014, with more than £35m raised over 12 months for 105 companies.
Crowdcube co-founder and CMO Luke Lang said: “We have continued to grow our business faster and deeper than we expected and are leading the market in terms of funds raised and innovative new investment offers such as our Venture Fund and Mini-Bond.
“But the crowning glory was when the UK Government recognised equity crowdfunding as an effective way to finance small businesses by giving Crowdcube £5m to invest in London’s top start-ups. This not only highlights our reputation as Britain’s number one source of finance for entrepreneurs, but it validates the entire crowdfunding model,” he continued.
The UK-based company has gone up against huge players in the space, such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Seedrs and Crowdfunder, while beating them all to become the platform on which the fastest completed crowdfunding campaign happened. £1.2m was raised in just 16 minutes, which was 12 times faster than the previous record holder.
In addition to financial growth, Crowdcube members almost doubled from 65,000 to 122,000, demonstrating the nation’s growing interest in funding innovative local companies.
The company hopes to grow further in 2015, boosting its mini bond offering, which has so far funded Chilango’s project, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage and Tim Smit’s Eden Project with the latter two projects surpassing their targets in less than 36 hours and five hours respectively.
After the success of its first advertising campaign, which appeared on London Underground stations and black cabs in London, Crowdcube will invest in more marketing this year as it pursues its goal to remain to be the biggest equity crowdfunding platform in the UK.
