Upload
others
View
3
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Fundraising Presentation
www.crowdforangels.com
Be an Angel, Fund a UK Company
Crowd for Angels (UK) Limited (Company number:03064807)
is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority
(Reference number:176508) 1
2
Forward looking statements A pitch may contain forward-looking statements or assumptions which inter alia relate to future projections, prospects and developments. Forward-looking
statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as “believe”, “could”, “envisage”, “estimate”, “intend”, “may”, “plan”, “will” or the negative of
those, variations or comparable expressions. Any such statements are based on trends or expectations at the time of writing and are subject to risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes to differ materially from those expressed or implied by those statements. Such statements should be regarded
as illustrative expressions only which are believed to be reliable at the time of writing but should not be taken as implying any indication, assurance or
guarantee that such trends or expectations are correct or exhaustive or will continue in to the future. Each reader must make their own independent
assessment of the information provided in a pitch and seek independent, relevant and specialist professional advice prior to placing any reliance on it. These
risk warnings are not a substitute for that professional advice and any such reliance is placed at your sole risk. The Company makes no judgement or opinion
of the likelihood of targets being achieved.
Loss of capital
Many small companies may fail. If you invest in the company, rather than seeing a return of capital or a profit, it is possible that you will lose some or all of your
invested capital. You should not invest more money in the Company than you can afford to lose without altering your standard of living.
Illiquidity
Investments in small companies will be highly illiquid. It is very unlikely that there will be a secondary market for the shares of the company. This means that
you are unlikely to be able to sell your shares until and unless the company lists its shares on a securities exchange or is bought by another company. Even for
a successful company, a listing or purchase is unlikely to occur for a number a years from the time you make your investment.
Rarity of dividends
Small companies rarely pay dividends. This means that if you invest shares in the company , even if it is successful, you are unlikely to see any return of capital
or profit until you are able to sell your shares in the company. Even for a successful company, this is unlikely to occur for a number of years from the time you
make your investment.
Dilution
Investments in shares of the company are likely to be subject to dilution. This means that if the company raises additional capital at a later date, it will offer new
shares of the company to the investors, irrespective of whether you accept any such offer, the percentage of the Company that you own will decline. Any new
shares issued may also have certain preferential rights to dividends, sale proceeds and other matters, and the exercise of these rights may work to your
disadvantage. Your investment may also be subject to dilution as a result of the grant of options (or similar rights to acquire shares) to employees of, service
providers, or certain other parties connected with, the Investee Company.
Diversification
Investing in shares should only be done as part of a diversified portfolio. This means that you should invest relatively small amounts in multiple companies
rather than a lot in one or two companies. It also means that you should invest only a small proportion of your investable capital in either of these asset classes,
with the majority of your investable capital invested in safer, more liquid assets.
RISK WARNING
3
Crowd for Angels (UK) Limited owns Crowd for Angels (www.crowdforangels.com), one of the UK’s
leading crowdfunding platforms for both debt and equity funding.
Operating since January 2014, we have built up an efficient and robust technology driven platform and
are now looking to aggressively increase our investor base. Our goal is to offer innovative and
appealing products to investors in order to provide funding to ambitious small companies. We support
both public and private UK companies through all stages of their lifecycle, from seed to pre-IPO and
when listed. We do this through equity funding under the SEIS and EIS initiatives and through debt
funding via our mini-bonds, convertible loans, loans with warrants and secured loans.
Through a user-friendly platform combined with a sound system of procedures, Crowd for Angels aims
to offer high levels of member experience and satisfaction. Our investors get the opportunity to
connect, capitalise and share the growth prospects of small companies at no additional cost to
themselves.
Crowd for Angels (UK) Limited (Company number: 03064807), is authorised and regulated by the
Financial Conduct Authority (Reference number: 176508).
In April 2015 it acquired Crowd For Angels Limited, the developer and owner of the technology platform
used by the company.
INTRODUCTION
4
Debt
Our debt products are used to fund
both listed and private companies
through mini-bonds, convertible
loans, loans with attached
warrants, and secured loans.
PRODUCTS
Equity
Our equity products consist of the
sale of shares in a company in
order to finance a special
requirement, and offer investors tax
relief via the SEIS/EIS schemes,
subject to individual circumstances.
This provides a very important
incentive for individuals, while the
companies who are trying to
fundraise also benefit greatly.
Crowd for Angels provides both equity and debt based crowdfunding products. Through our
sophisticated platform investors can invest as little as £25 in companies they believe in and share
in their success.
Crowd for Angels is available on multiple devices
5
PRODUCT INNOVATION
We have made improvements to the standard equity and debt products by:
1 Providing innovative minimum and maximum
funding goals which allow entrepreneurs to lower the initial barrier to securing funding.
Providing clear and transparent information on
our products to investors regarding pricing,
valuation, type of investment and number of
shares being issued.
Using a nominee service to mitigate investor
disputes and keep paperwork to a minimum.
Offering our services to companies of any size,
from start-up to pre-IPO and beyond.
Charging no fees to investors throughout the
process. 2
3
4
5
6
SUBSTANTIAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO DATE
1. We were one of the first crowdfunding platforms in the
UK to achieve authorisations from the Financial
Conduct Authority (FCA) to carry out crowdfunding
activities for both debt and equity products. We have
also been approved by HMRC to be an Innovative
Finance ISA manager.
2. Over two years we have developed a sophisticated
platform, www.crowdforangels.com, which has the
capacity to increase functionality and cater for a variety
of crowdfunding models and jurisdictions.
3. Proven the model with successfully funded pitches. To
date we have listed 27 pitches on our platform, three of
which are currently fundraising and seven that have
successfully hit their target..
A UK Leading Crowdfunding Platform
4. Proven our marketing ability by consistently
being in the 4th position in web traffic for
equity crowdfunding platforms in the UK
according to Alexa (figures as at 23rd March
2016). We have achieved this despite a
limited marketing budget and are confident
that further in this area investment will bring
exponential growth.
4. Our commitment to innovation, service and
quality has been recognised through
features in a range of media such as City
AM, Mail on Sunday, start-ups, Asian Voice,
ScreenDaily, The Telegraph, Crowdfund
Insider, crowdsourcing.org and shareradio.
7
Our current marketing methods have been tried, tested and proven to grow our user base, deliver
conversions and attract pitches to the platform.
In order to further improve returns it is our intention to grow the user base, achieve a lower user
acquisition cost and raise the average investment size. We believe we can do this through delivering
quality pitches, aggressively targeting professional and institutional investors and by focusing on
channels that deliver cost effective traffic.
We primarily target ABC1 males who are aged between 35 and 55. These individuals will have
previously made investments via more traditional methods and may also be members of other
alternative investment platforms. Our content has been aligned with this target market in mind and we
will continue to focus on this market for the foreseeable future.
In addition, a large part of our marketing comes from our own users: our companies bring their
networks and our investors refer their friends, creating a virtuous circle which is a major driver of
growth.
As our current distribution channels have proven effective we will increase our spend on these
significantly.
It will also be critical to diversify our marketing spend and expand on opportunities that we have
identified. Therefore we will look to work with a PR consultancy, expand our business network by
engaging and partnering with more professional firms such as fund managers, brokers and IFAs and
through engagement with investors at events.
MARKETING
8
In April 2014 the Financial Conduct Authority
began the regulation of UK crowdfunding, in an
attempt to stimulate and protect the industry.
The regulations gave the crowdfunding sector the
ability to scale and offer real competition to the
banking and SME finance sector. It also creates a
significant barrier to entry for new companies
looking to enter the industry.
Crowd for Angels achieved FCA permissions to
carry out crowdfunding activities in January 2014.
We have identified 13 other equity platforms in the
sector, of which only 5 do both debt and equity
funding. Whilst competition exists, we believe we
are well positioned for substantial growth on the
back of a burgeoning crowdfunding market.
MARKET CONDITIONS
According to a recent report from
innovation charity Nesta the UK market for
alternative finance was worth an estimated
£3.2 billion in 2015. The total value of all
equity crowdfunding investments grew by
295% compared to 2014, from £84 million
to £332 million.
In 2015 a total of £6.2 million was raised
via debt based securities equating to a
growth rate of 47.6% on the £4.4 million
raised in 2014.
Nesta also indicated that for peer-to-peer
business lenders surveyed in the report,
they anticipated a 27% increase in their
volume because of the Innovative Finance
Individual Saving Account.
9
Crowd for Angels earns income by charging
companies fees on the funds they raise. We
take a percentage of the total amount raised
from each successful pitch. For equity deals
this is 6% of the raised funds and for debt
deals this ranges from 3.5% to 4.5%. In
addition, companies pay us 2% on amounts
converted into equity and on warrants
exercised.
We also have the first right of refusal on any
subsequent fundraising for companies which
we successfully raise money for.
We have a secondary source of income
through selling our knowhow and making our
platform available to non-competing funders.
MONETISATION STRATEGY
10
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES
We now see excellent opportunities to further develop our crowdfunding activities and expand into
related areas.
The government has announced that it intends to allow crowdfunded debt securities to be held in
an Innovative Finance ISA from Autumn 2016. There will be a final round of consultation in June
2016 before the rules are introduced.
We believe we are one of only six platforms that can offer these products. We have been granted
approval by HMRC to become ISA managers and thus give our investors the opportunity to invest
through the new Innovative Finance ISA (IF-ISA). This opens up a large potential market for us,
with 13 million ISAs being opened in the 2014/15 tax year. We also note that, according to the
Financial Conduct Authority, there are £160 billion of funds in the UK earning the same or less than
the 0.5% Bank of England base rate. With the IF-ISA offering higher returns we expect huge
interest in this new product.
We are currently developing a secondary market feature, upon which investors will be able to buy
and sell investments that have been purchased on the Crowd for Angels platform.
We are exploring the possibility of launching a fund to invest in a portfolio of debt securities in pre-
IPO and listed companies.
SUCCESS KEY FACTORS
crowdforangels.com
Scalable
• Electronic delivery via the internet,
• Internationally accessible
• Documentation, payment and KYC all automated
• Platform can be adopted for new & diverse product range.
• Low and centrally located support services
• White label available for multi-jurisdictions and can be adapted for a variety of new
products
Capital efficient
Low overheads resulting in favourable operational gearing
• A small team needed to support the platform
• Low acquisition and transaction cost
• Understood customer behavior
• Leverage well established channels
• Fully developed software.
Unique selling points
• Model uses unique features such as a price per share as well as Minimum and
Maximum fundraising target
• Offer both equity and debt based securities
• Debt products for listed, pre-ipo and private companies
• Approved as an ISA manager
• A fund managers portal for funds
• Authorised as an ISA Manager 11
12
Expanding our registered user base is core to our business model and growth, therefore an injection
of capital would facilitate an increase in the quantity and breadth of our marketing.
Our budget assumes if the maximum fundraising is achieved that we will spend c.70% of the funds
raised on marketing. Year 1 will see a c.7-fold increase in the marketing budget compared to historic
levels and a 9-fold increase in Years 2 and 3.
Crowd for Angels has built up a very lean and efficient operational structure. The increased
marketing spend, combined with significant internal capacity for taking on more investment pitches,
means that we expect to benefit significantly from our strong operational gearing.
Achieving the maximum fundraising would be sufficient to meet our budgets for the next three years.
If only the minimum fundraising is achieved this would be sufficient for Year 1 of the business plan
only. However, we would expect to raise additional funds after Year 1 once the viability of the
business model has been proven.
PURPOSE OF FUNDING
13
APPENDIX 1
Alexa 23rd March 2016
Crowd for Angels (UK) Limited
8 Little Trinity Lane, London, EC4V 2AN
Tel: 0207 437 2413
Email: [email protected]
www.crowdforangels.com
“Crowd for Angels (UK) Limited (Company number:03064807) is authorised
and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Reference
number:176508).”
To invest, please visit:
https://crowdforangels.com/investi
nus
14