Lock up periods are usually targeted at larger shareholders, employees and founders. There really isnāt a precedent for crowd investors that Iām aware of?
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As @GMCay said, on an IPO Freetradeās AA specify a lockup period not exceeding 180 days. The exception being the shares sold to an underwriter. The lockup is applicable to all shareholders.
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Any lock up period stop the prices crashing immediately and then setting in motion a negative spiral, a busted IPO is in nobodyās interest.
It also give funds time to distribute/ decided on their plans so theyāre on the same footing as founder and individuals
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As someone else mentioned, a lock up serves to prevent the market from being flooded: early crowdfunding participants will often hold more shares than recent employees, so you would expect if employees are restricted then crowdfunding participants would be too (if thereās a comparable amount of shares held). As far as I know, Freetrade gave up quite a lot of equity in the crowdfunding (especially early rounds)[1] so depending on the amount of shares issued since, crowdfunding shareholders could quite possibly represent a larger proportion of the ownership than employees or founders.
I think whatās most likely is that if Freetrade elects to do something special for crowdfunding investors, it would be to allow them to sell their shares as part of the IPO rather than just issuing new shares ā that sort of arrangement isnāt uncommon, but it does introduce some complexity, and could mean that anyone who opts not to participate is then be subject to a lock up. I can see reasons why they would do that (it helps crowdfunding participants realise their gains as soon as possible) and reasons why they wouldnāt (all your investors liquidating as soon as they can is a bad signal to the market) so I wouldnāt be surprised either way.
[1] Thereās 64,098,873 66m issued shares held by >12,000 shareholders, of which founders + institutional investors appear to be <50%. Employee equity is typically issued as options which wouldnāt necessarily be represented in these figures so Iām just guessing employees represent 20% based on personal experience of employee equity (which could be totally inaccurate for Freetrade). That would mean ~30% is held by crowdfunding investors which is more than enough to expect a lock up if the IPO was the typical IPO.
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As many people here are newbie investors best to make it clear that In the case of an IPO: as of now no special disposal rules or provisions exist for Freetrade crowd investors. All investors are subject to a lock period not exceeding 180 days. Anything else is speculation at this time.
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Was there ever a firm answer about whether the parasites at Crowdcube would be hitting Freetrade investors with a Success Fee on their holdings (whilst obviously never partially reimbursing investors in failed startups with a Failure Rebate) ?
At the moment I donāt have an exit strategy. Iām hoping that Freetradeās internal platforms are as good as theyāve claimed in the past and that they can follow Starling bankās lead and offer their software as a service for other share dealing platforms to use/launch with.
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@Cashcow Sadly a Freetrade senior management representative said something that was ambiguous. The whole thing is probably very embarrassing for Freetrade because it makes a mockery of what Freetrade stands against - cost burdens that its customers should not have in share acquisition and disposal. Yet Freetrade shareholders may have been compromised in the last round. Freetrade management, is not stupid, I am sure recognise the hypocrisy and they also recognise that the FCA would take a dim view of the communication around this. It explains why Freetrade management did not step in and answer some explicit questions that were asked on the forum.
Regardless, I donāt see how Crowdcube can get away with it. They stated something which is open to interpretation. I wonāt repeat all the arguments here. Again I think that an official complaint to the FCA is in order and it may be one recourse available to shareholders. This complaint canāt happen until a charge is made.
There is a second possibility: there is nothing stopping you selling your shares to anyone at any price you want (including a loss). Remember if at all CC is due anything it would be based on a crystallised profit. They would be due nothing at all if you sold your shares or transferred your shares to a trusted third party at cost price or less. And you can buy anyone else shares at any price. The point is that person who acquires the shares has no agreement with Crowdcube and consequently ā¦ yes you got it.
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So what youāre saying @bitflip is we need to arrange a switcharoo.
Iāll sell @CashCow all my shares for exactly what I paid and vice versa. If both of us happen to them sell them on the public markets and gift each other the money ā¦ 
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Are these shares in Freetradeās Nominee account rather than Crowdcubeās. I think Adam said they were. In that case how can Crowdcube police this sort of thing or even know when you sold and how much for?
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Exactly. Public markets donāt come into it. Ensure that the Registrar of the shares registers the new ownership. This is why I previously asked who the Registrar is - I have not received a definitive answer to this question.
Public markets donāt come into it until after IPO. But I would make the change before any IPO.
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The Freetrade manager I mentioned before said in his message (on the Freetrade community forum) that Freetrade would inform CC.
Nevertheless, should I sell my shares or acquire them (privately), prior to an IPO, I donāt see what legs CC have to stand on. If I acquire your shares, and do so without the involvement of CC, I have no obligations to CC as I never agreed to pay anything to CC at any point.
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Yay, cost price share swapsies all round! Screw you Crowdcube for not playing fair.
You guys can all trust me. I wonāt cash them all in and buy a speedboat. Cows get seasick.
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My sentiments exactly. Iāll hold on for the IPO, if Freetrade can begin to deliver on some of its promises. If not, then I will try to derisk.
At six figures, FT is now one of my largest holdings. I donāt have many liquid assets, so Iām looking to change that this year. If they can get the ball rolling once again then Iāll look to liquidate other assets.
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still some work to do before an IPOā¦
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I wonder what this will do for things like the Colin Furze sponsorship on you tube - does this mean his old videos will also need to come down/be edited to remove the sponsorship references?
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My exit: the MOON! 
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I donāt even know what an IPO is 
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Funny enough thatās what happens to me 
but today and today only I thought I would say it before googling 
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Iāll take any excuse to use LMGTFY but the preview has ruined the joke somewhat. Maybe Iāll stick to Rick rolling people
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