This is a repost from the CarWow crowdfunding thread.
Emoov: $1.5mln - 150% of target raised in July 2018:
With just under a week left to go, we have reached 150% of the target that was set in its latest crowdfunding round. In the two-week period since the round has been live, £1.5m has already been invested and it is likely that there will be more investment before the round closes.
Do these startups spend retail investors’ money faster than WeWork?
Glint, the gold payment app, has fallen into administration, AltFi can exclusively reveal.
The news comes just three months after Glint announced a £5m fundraise from asset manager Sprott, and two months after Glint subsequently launched in the US.
…
Likewise Glint continued to solicit new customers on social media up until and including on Friday, similarly, customers on social media reported receiving their cards and depositing funds on Friday, despite the company having filed for administration on Wednesday.
Not forgetting Cocoon and The Chapar. Those 2 plus Sugru make up my 3 CrowdCube failures. As for the rest, time will tell. What does bug me is that some of the companies provide zero shareholder updates and there is precious little that investors can do about it. CrowdCube don’t or can’t do much about it either.
Freeagent, a cloud-based software-as-a-service accounting software company, is believed to be the first UK firm to launch an initial public offering (IPO) having previously raised growth capital through equity crowdfunding. The firm raised £1.2m from 700 investors on Seedrs in July 2015.
Note: Investing in private companies carries a huge amount of risk
Beerbods was bought by Beerhawk for a significant lower price just a year after the last crowdfunding… i think it was a 80% loss for last round crowdinvestors.
A quick look at my log shows 22 Crowdcube failures in my portfolio. There are probably a few more which have I have not updated and a load more that are dead in the water. Then there’s Solid Labs weird dilution which I don’t really understand.
I had one called Recruitive go completely bust (crowdcube). Didn’t get any communication from the company leadership, just an email from the liquidator one day.
I just started really 3 on Crowdcube & 2 on seeders currently. I feel i see a lot of business I like but very few that are investable. But this definitely shed some insight.
3-4 years. Only one successful exit so far. Wool and Gang got picked up a few months after investment. Lost EIS status and got a 5% return. Early years losses come before long term wins so I am cool with it. You can only lose 100% of your investment but you can make many multiples and that’s before considering EIS tax relief.
Slightly off-topic: who remembers this beast of a “fintech” startup called Wonga? What a of a payday lender “tech” company that “made it easy when the month was too long ”.
Pre-2007, subprime lenders/brokers technically had a sort of similar business models, only to sell the loan portfolios to banks (at a profit), who would then package them into asset-backed securities and pass them on to investors.
There was also a lack of strong involvement from the board or the company’s backers – the two main venture firms behind the business, Accel Partners and Balderton, were visibly not involved.
The fact that the company was caught sending out fake debt collection agency letters, and missing affordability criteria, suggests there was almost a total disregard for compliance.
Recruitive looks dodgy as fuck, possibly missold. They were already behind on their tax payments when raising their 2018 Crowdcube round.
They were acquired by Saas Holdings, who shared a director with Recruitive, and are thought to be related to the Recruitive MD. I’m surprised there was no follow up by Crowdcube or investors.
Extremely dodgy, I was evening getting emails from the CEO less than a month before they went into liquidation asking if I’d like to top up my shareholding.
disappearing quickly:
of a payday lender “tech” company that “made it easy when the month was too long 
”.
