Despite the relative infancy of the crowdfunding industry, Crowdcube has already delivered financial returns to investors; with a number of exits from businesses that have funded on Crowdcube.
To date, there have been nine positive exits for investors on Crowdcube:
- E-Car Club, the UK’s first entirely electric car-sharing club for businesses and communities, raised £100,000 from 63 investors on Crowdcube in 2013. In what was the first full equity crowdfunded exit, E-Car Club was acquired to Europcar, Europe’s leading car rental and mobility company in 2015. The sale delivered positive returns for investors. Read more.
- Camden Town Brewery, one of London’s biggest breweries, raised £2.75m on Crowdcube in 2015, following investment from over 2,100 investors. Just eight months later the company was acquired by AB InBev, the world’s biggest drinks company, delivering investors a multiple return on their investment. The sale delivered positive returns for investors.
- Disruptive global DIY fashion brand Wool and the Gang, which raised funding in 2015, was acquired by BlueGem Capital Partners who have also invested in the likes of Liberty London and Mamas & Papas. The sale in 2016 delivered positive returns for investors.
- BrewDog, which raised over £800k via an equity raise on Crowdcube, offered shareholders (including existing Equity Punk investors) the opportunity to sell 15% (max 40 shares) in its latest funding round.
- Celixir (formerly Cell Therapy) offered its backers an opportunity to realise a proportion of their initial investment with a share buy-back, which gave investors a 2.7x return on their original investment in 2014.
- Mettrr Technologies (formerly Sole Trader) became the first company to provide financial returns for its crowd investors through a secondary share sale on Crowdcube in April 2017. Investors, who backed the tech startup in 2012 on Crowdcube, received a 9x return on their original investment.
- Movem, an online property rental company where tenants can discover, review and compare rental properties, was acquired by Barbon Insurance Group in 2018. Crowdcube investors in the company's 2016 crowdfunding campaign realised a 2.6 return on investment.
- bidstack, the in-game advertising software company, is now listed on AIM. At the time of this FAQ's publication (September 2018), investors were able to realise a 5x return on their investment made in 2015.
- Revolut offered their investors two opportunities, in 2016 and 2018, to realise returns on their investments through secondary offerings. In 2018, investors were able to realise a 19x return on their original investment. The total financial return for investors from both of Revolut's secondary offerings is now £1.76m.
A further ten businesses have also exited, giving investors a return equal or in some cases, lower than their original investment.
AltFi Data’s ‘Where are they now?’ report, which was published in November 2016, claimed Crowdcube’s portfolio of funded businesses achieved the highest internal rate of return (IRR) of 13.27% (increasing to 25.75% with EIS and SEIS tax relief), when compared to the industry average of 8.55%.
