News blog

EIS Crowd 23 May 2017

  • BY: Andrew Hore |
  • POSTED: 23/05/2017 |

Research firm Beauhurst has published its UK crowdfunding index for the first quarter of 2017.
A total of £47m was raised in 82 deals and the majority were seed deals. The research covers the Crowdcube, SyndicateRoom, Seedrs, VentureFunders and Allbright. The peak number of quarterly deals was above 100 in the third quarter of 2015.
Seedrs finalised 35 deals, the highest number of any platform, but Crowdcube generated £23m from 29 deals. Seedrs raised £9.3m. VentureFounders raised an average of £1.5m per company and it was responsible for the largest fundraising - £3.3m by Lightpoint Medical.
One in ten of the companies that have raised money since 2011 have gone bust and a further 1% are described as zombies. There have been 13 exits (1%).
 
Crowdcube has completed its first secondary share trade for one of the companies on its platform.
Artificial intelligence-based website developer Mettrr Technologies, which was previously known as GetSiteTracked.com, first raised money in 2012 and the trade provided a nine times return on the initial investment. An initial 25 investors invested £100,000 and in 2016 a further £1m was raised. Ten investors generated £50,000 from the sale to an angel investor – 17 of the initial investors still have a stake. Two other investors raised £250,000 from selling shares outside of the platform.
Another one of Crowdcube’s companies, Celixir has bought back shares from investors.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Solaris Photonics, which is developing systems to multiply the output of solar panels, has raised £265,000 of the £600,000 it is seeking – at least £100,000 comes from solar farm operators. The minimum required level is £400,000. The issue is EIS eligible.
Based in Imperial College, the main product is the Solaris Photonics Multiplier, which is a power electronics device that can be retrofitted to solar panels to increase their output by up to four times. The plan is to sell this product to solar farm owners, potentially generating a revenue share from the additional power generated. The technology can also be integrated into solar systems by manufacturers.
Alkaline Photovoltaic (APV) is a thin film PV cell which can be used to transform an existing surface into a solar panel. The cost is expected to be 13 cents/watt, which is cheaper than existing alternatives. This would be licenced to solar PV manufacturers.
There is also a prototype product that reduces the impact of shading.
The business is pre-revenues. The company is currently valued at £2.4m. The closing date for the offer is 15 June.

Alphaco Technology Ltd owns the IP to convert waste streams into oil. The business is already profitable and it wants to raise up to £1m with a minimum subscription level of £500,000.
Alphaco believes it has the only commercial scale, proven technology in operation in the EU. Alphaco builds and sells reactors that convert the waste streams into oil via a process of pyrolysis. The first two reactors were sold in 2014. The technology has been used to produce more than 50,000 barrels of oil.
In 2016, revenues were £4.5m and EBITDA £450,000. The current market valuation is £8.9m. The issue is EIS eligible and the closing date for the offer is 15 June.
 
Moldable glue company Sugru has raised £2m via Crowdcube and it believes that this will help it move into profit in 2018. There are plans to launch a new formulation that can be sold to children. In 2015, Sugru raised £3.39m.
 
The Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA) has published the first edition of its quarterly publication ZeitgEISt. The spring edition includes articles on what the coming year could hold for EIS and SEIS and a Q&A with a EISA member.
 
Investor relations services provider Proactive Investors is holding a seminar on 25 May to promote its proposed £5m EIS-eligible fundraising. The cash will enable Proactive Investors to expand in the US. The business generated revenues of £3.8m in 2016, with around two-thirds coming from annual fees paid by companies for media services. The seminar commences at 6pm at Chesterfield Mayfair Hotel, London. 

© 2024 Aim Micro. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Browse by issue
All issues
Popular tags
All tags

betbrokers, financial, gold, health, leisure, media, mobile, resources, services, technology

AIM Micro feeds

Keep up to date with articles published at AIMMicro.com. Subscribe to AIM Micro RSS Feeds