Leading crowdfunding platform Crowdcube has secured £6m of investment to accelerate growth and put in place a new solution for companies looking to go public.

Crowdcube already has an investor community of around 200,000 and employs 70 people across offices in London, Barcelona and Exeter. Since its launch in 2011 more than £100m has been successfully invested on the platform.

The latest investment will be put towards further recruitment, improving its current offering and adding to its suite of services – including the new IPO provision.

Lead investor Numis, which has raised £10bn for businesses since 2009 through more than 46 IPOs, will work with Crowdcube and the regulators.

Their primary aim will be to enable large high-growth businesses who are ‘going public’ by listing shares on the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market or AIM, to access individual investors.

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Founder and CEO Oliver Hemsley praised Crowdcube for creating “an impressive business model and technology platform”.

“Numis has a long track record of helping companies access funding for growth and this investment in Crowdcube will put it at the centre of the entire investment chain, from initial start-up capital all the way to IPO,” he continued.

“We are very excited to be part of an innovative fintech solution to help the public markets evolve and connect retail investors directly with fast growing businesses.”

Crowdcube CEO and co-founder Darren Westlake added that the business is “on a mission to help more businesses raise the finance they need to grow, create jobs and deliver returns to investors”.

“We’ve dominated the democratisation of seed-stage equity investment since we launched in 2011 and we’re determined to do the same for larger businesses. We want to put the public back into IPO,” he said.

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