And it’s the biggest one yet…
The best decision I’ve made as CEO was to crowdfund our initial capital on Crowdcube.
It set the stage for everything that came after. Our first 143 investors were the seed that started the now 30,000-strong Freetrade community.
The capital gave us the runway to join an accelerator and build a functional prototype, and that growth set us up for a further £1.1 million round just seven months later, also on Crowdcube.
After each raise, our growth has skyrocketed! 💪
It’s not just about raising capital to take our business to the next level. It’s also an opportunity to bring in thousands more passionate shareholders who want to change the rules of investing.
We’ll be opening the round up to our community first and then to all Crowdcube investors who want to get in on a truly transformative fintech company.
With live trading on iOS just around the corner, Android next and then crypto this is a truly pivotal raise.
There’s no way we’d rather do it than through crowdfunding.
As a startup your funding choices are largely crowdfunding, angel investing and VCs (or bootstrapping of course).
For us crowdfunding was and is the best option.
First up, it empowers you to judge and optimise your product/market fit. If people want to own part of your company, it’s a good sign they want to use your product.
Since we’re an investment platform, we tested our fit with exactly the kind of progressive, innovative investors who are our customer target.
Our 1,200 investors are also customers, evangelists and ambassadors. If we can grow that to 10,000, that’s amazing for us.
Those investors also bring a huge, diverse well of knowledge and experience.
Our larger investors include managers of some of the world’s most successful funds, technology entrepreneurs with nine-figure exits under their belts, and City professionals from top tier law, consulting and accounting firms.
Our smaller ones are ambitious up-and-comers who don’t want to wait to gain access to awesome, high growth companies.
For us, crowdfunding represents the best of stakeholder capitalism. The dynamics are almost like a dry run of going public: you democratise your ownership and you’re accountable to thousands of people.
Of course, unlike owning something already public, your investors still get in during the big growth phase. 🚀
There is no better way to fund a seed-stage business than through equity crowdfunding. And there’s no better way for investors to get into incredible companies at the ground floor.
We’re proud that we haven’t waited to IPO to be owned by thousands of people.
We’d love for you to join us! 🔥
~Adam Dodds, CEO
