Seedrs is one of the most prominent equity crowdfunding platforms in the UK and has financed businesses to the tune of over £400 million since its launch. Here, we look at the companies that met their target on the platform in October 2018.
TruRating:
How much raised: £1,852,611
Number of investors: 356
Who are the investors: Investors on crowdfunding site Seedrs
For what: The money raised will be used to help achieve its break-even point in 2019
- TruRating is revolutionising consumer insight, using point of sale to collect mass, accurate feedback
- Uses both an in-store and online point of payment to ask every customer a single question
- Achieve 90 per cent response rates in-store, and 50 per cent online
- Collected 38 million ratings and 2bn data points from over 2,000 merchant outlets in 6 countries
- Raised £21 million in investment to date
Smarterly:
How much raised: £1,602,400
Number of investors: 535
Who are the investors: Investors on crowdfunding site Seedrs
For what: The money raised will be used to accelerate sales and marketing activities
- Smarterly is helping people save and invest directly from payroll
- Promoting the benefits of healthy savings habits via people’s employers
- Employers promote Smarterly as an employee benefit – staff can save directly from their pay
- Automated service
- Now have over 25 corporate clients engaged, including Samsung, OVO Energy and Rolls Royce Engineering
Welendus:
How much raised: £993,104
Number of investors: 540
Who are the investors: Investors on crowdfunding site Seedrs
For what: The money raised will be spent on adding new operational team members and continued development to add new functions
- Welendus is a P2P short-term lender shaking up the short-term credit market
- FCA approved
- Offers short-term loans of about 100 days
- Helping financial inclusion
- Investors are able to choose their own returns from 5 per cent to 15 per cent
- Minimum investment threshold of £100
- Business is live, trading and revenue generating
- Over 13,000 users and 850 issued loans
- Funded over £200,000 of short-term loans
Further reading on crowdfunding
- Top 10 crowdfunding platforms for businesses in 2018
- 10 steps to crowdfunding your business
- The secret to raising six-figures via crowdfunding
ManiLife:
How much raised: £744,727
Number of investors: 442
Who are the investors: Investors on crowdfunding site Seedrs
For what: The money raised will primarily be used to expand the team
- A craft peanut butter brand focused on masterfully roasting and blending the best peanuts
- Comes from one farm in Argentina, with no added products
- Once imported, the team roast, blitz and blend fresh weekly in their London ManiFactory
- Sold in over 1,200 stores
- Stocked in many renowned high street retailers – this includes Holland & Barrett, Marks & Spencer, Booths, Selfridges with many more to come including Ocado
- Food service partnerships that will feed ManíLife to roughly 750,000 people/year – this includes Gousto, HelloFresh, Mindful Chef, CrossTown Doughnuts, Mae Deli and Pod Restaurants
- Winner of 2 Quality Food Awards including a ‘Gold Q’ for ‘Best in Ambient’=
Tagsmart:
How much raised: £504,133
Number of investors: 296
Who are the investors: Investors on crowdfunding site Seedrs
For what: The money raised will be spent on launching an online trading platform for trusted art
- Tagsmart is the company behind the pioneering application of synthetic DNA tags to authenticate artworks
- Generate Certificates of Authenticity, which resolve recurring problems of fraud, forgery and loss
- As of May 2018 had over 23,000 artworks on the platform from nearly 250 artists
- Only 8 per cent of the global art market is online
- Now building a trading platform that enable buys to buy and sell verified artworks
- Featured in the 2017 Deloitte Art & Finance Report
Trezeo:
How much raised: £465,854
Number of investors: 344
Who are the investors: Investors on crowdfunding site Seedrs
For what: The money raised will be primarily used primarily to onboard and service initial pilot customers and partners
- New fintech startup focused on delivering financial stability to self-employed workers
- Helping out the gig economy
- Trezeo is a business account aimed at the self-employed providing customers with a regular, defined income
- Trezeo’s income smoothing service turns unpredictable income streams into reliable and regular payments, with no interest or hidden fees involved
- However, time and time again, the key challenge facing the self-employed is uncertainty around security of income and fluctuating earnings, which have wider financial implications around savings and accessing financial products, most notably getting access to affordable credit
Maison Sport:
How much raised: £408,839
Number of investors: 96
Who are the investors: Investors on crowdfunding site Seedrs
For what: The money raised will primarily be used to impact customer retention and word of mouth revenues
- Maison Sport is a marketplace connecting skiers with independent ski instructors – a next generation ski school
- Available in over 130 ski resorts across France, Switzerland and Italy
- Customers can choose an instructor based on real reviews, whilst saving 50 per cent on the lesson price
- Over 350 instructors signed up and live
- Nominated for the 2017 World Travel Awards Travel Innovation Award
Candy Mechanics:
How much raised: £408,650
Number of investors: 240
Who are the investors: Investors on crowdfunding site Seedrs
For what: The money raised will be used to fuel expansion through partnering with major chocolate brands
- Candy Mechanics is partnering with chocolate brands to bring 3D personalised chocolate gifts to market
- Consumers can now design and fist their own chocolate creations
- Offers partners the opportunity to enter the fast growing personalised gifting marketing place both online and in store
- Lead product is a 3D chocolate lollipop of a face created in a few minutes
- Also produces luxury chocolate gift cards
Fancy Dress Worldwide:
How much raised: £313,557
Number of Investors: 203
Who are the investors: Investors on crowdfunding site Seedrs
For what: The money raised will be primarily raised to grow stock and purchase crucial equipment
- Fancy Dress Worldwide aims to provide customers with the best quality costumes and accessories via the fastest shipping possible
- Over 380,000 orders
- Orders from over 80 countries
- 20,000 products
- Revenues of £1.76 million
- Founded by the man behind the Fancy Fresher pack
ARION:
How much raised: £264,037
Number of investors: 596
Who are the investors: Investors on crowdfunding site Seedrs
For what: The money raised will be used to initiate its next product batch and to expand its marketing focus into the US
- ARION is the next-generation wearable that helps runners improve their technique to run faster, longer and safer
- Ultra-thin pressure-sensitive insoles slip unnoticed into almost any running show, and transforms it into a running lab
- ARION’s AI coach analyses technique and identifies strengths, weaknesses and injury risks
- Easy to understand real-time feedback
- Sold more than 1,000 unites in 1st year of launching
The Brook:
How much raised: £169,484
Number of investors: 293
Who are the investors: Investors on crowdfunding site Seedrs
For what: The money raised will be used to set up a production kitchen and develop the product
- The Brook makes plant-based delicious and nutritionally rich meals for the health-conscious
- Creators of a number of vegan restaurants
- Now looking to launch a range of ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook meals
- Voted as the 2018 Time Out Best Restaurant in Hackney
- More than 5 years experience serving thousands of customers