Crowdcube, a crowd funding equity platform, has raised $9.3 million from stockbroker Numis, Tim Draper and his London-based VC firm Draper Esprit, and existing backer Balderton Capital. After the new investments worth around £6m, Crowdcube is now valued at £51m. The additional funding will allow Crowdcube to offer new companies the ability to secure investors before going public, bringing IPO investment opportunities to the users of the platform.
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with the addition of IPO options, Crowdcube now offers customers investment options in bonds, funds, and VC rounds. Crowdcube co-founder and CEO Darren Westlake told Techcrunch:
“We want to put the ‘public’ back into IPO.”
Since the launch of the platform, more than 200,000 people have made investments that total £100m since 2011. In the past, Crowdcube has been used for raising capital for small businesses and cash-driven brands. With the addition of IPO options, Crowdcube will likely attract some larger companies to offer public investment opportunities for users of the platform.
Crowdcube represents yet another shift towards the decentralization of technology and the financial industry as a whole. As digitization continues to take place and new innovations arise, consumers are given great financial power and options that were not previously available to them.
Tim Draper is well known in the cryptocurrency community as a large investor, and it’s no surprise that he has taken interest in another crowd funding company. Draper’s expansive portfolio of investments covers a broad spectrum of technology and applications. Crowdcube gives companies of all sizes the potential to raise funds before their launch, rewarding backers with a variety of choices in return for their investments.
With the addition of IPO options, Crowdcube will likely further expand and bring in some larger businesses that want to crowdfund their start-up.
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Images via Crowdcube and Pixabay.