I was lucky to make a profit, but seeing VCs take the biggest slice after all the grassroots hype leaves a bad taste.
I joined pre-launch testing and meetups, and it felt genuine and community-led. There was hope this platform would be different, but this proves it’s just the same story.
Crowdfunding’s always a gamble, but VCs taking more? That stinks. Who should we move to—212?
I wonder how many people would have put money in to a fundraising at £1.60 a share considering where freetrade are today I would have given it serious consideration.
Vanguard
Yep, that and different crowdfunding rounds were worth different amounts. I had also technically invested 3 times (twice in one round) but only claimed relief for 2 of them becaues I forgot about the third, so only just sent that off last year and still waiting to hear back (assuming it hasn’t been lost).
Damn Dave, you must really have put in a lot in the very early rounds for it to be matching Nvidia! And yeah I learned my lesson from this too. I had also invested in Nutmeg around the same time who ended up being the better choice out of the two (despite Freetrade fanboys insisting FT was the better choice). Can’t say I ever saw that one coming at the time.
Did you receive an email from Freetrade to advise they were being bought out ?
No email at my end yet.
Thanks
G
In my honest opinion crowdfunding should be banned by the FCA. When I bought shares here I didn’t ever think that an exit would see VC’s receiving 118% more than crowdfunding investors. It’s just outrageous.
A sale is a sale, everyone should receive the same value per share.
I’m disgusted in Freetrade to be honest. Invested for over 5 years to make around 10% on my investment. Freetrade is meant to be a success story but it looks like the guys at the top are the only ones to benefit from this deal. Poor poor.
What price are IG paying per share? Approx 160m but not sure how many shares in issue. Also what was the issue price for the funding last year? Cheers
Ok the face of it is this is disgraceful
From the email:
The amount owed to A Ordinary and B Investment shareholders is an estimate. The exact proceeds you will receive depend on, amongst other things, the total transaction costs, which are paid from the total consideration.
It’s an absolute disgrace. Look at the valuations Freetrade raised at in the last few rounds. They knew damn well that the company was nowhere near that, but hey, they saw an opportunity to take a lot of money and use an inflated valuation to take that money in exchange for a smaller share of the equity. I had read the warnings of crowdfunding and the predatory behaviour from founders who use such platforms to take advantage of retail investors, but part of me wanted to believe Freetrade was different. Clearly, I was wrong. The only saving grace for me personally is that I didn’t put enormous amounts of money into this company (due to the scepticism I have mentioned above), so whilst my loss may be chunky as a percentage, the absolute figure won’t hurt me much.
It’s amazing to look back on this journey. Unkept promises, time and time again. European expansion, not to mention Australia and beyond. Freetrade was going to go for it, or at least we were told. Likely lies told to add to the hype and the insane valuation at the time. Now what do we have to show for it? An expansion into Sweden of all places that failed and wasted our money. Nothing ever happened in Australia either or anywhere else in Europe. Most of the cash raised has been burnt through and investors have nothing to show for it. Milked by the founders and then cast aside. There were warning signs that investors were being taken for a ride, the biggest one for me was the refusal for nearly two years to get any updates and results from management, something that most certainly would not have been the case for the institutional investors. Rather than fulfil the promises made and chase the vision sold to us, they sold out, likely making themselves rich in the process and leaving most of us holding the bag.
If I ever see the names of any of these founders on any startups in the future, lord knows I won’t go near that business with a barge pole. Good riddance.
who were the founders?
I’m not happy at all.
Ok, i didn’t have many shares of Freetrade via crowdcube, but I was happy to wait long term to get some sort of profit for my belief in the company. I didn’t expect this and to be losing most of my money that I invested.
I’ll now wait and see how the new owners move this company forward before deciding if I stay with them.
Congrats on the exit @Viktor and @adam, you are now cash-rich multi-millionaires.
However, your financial gain comes at the expense of many people who supported you and helped you to get this far.
The fact that the VC firms get an awfully disproportionate share of the pie despite arguably contributing the least to what was primarily a grassroots efforts through crowdfunding and a user referral program leaves a sour taste in the mouth.
Feeling pretty awful for the folks who backed Freetrade in one of the last four funding rounds.
Disgrace. Why not allow the investors to keep their shares?
I will feel wrong staying on this platform.
I absolutely despise 212 personally but would like to know of the alternatives.
With the amount of people moving companies, I honestly hope they don’t turn off the transfer button, there will be uproar. It actually wouldn’t surprise me as they did it during the GME saga.
Oof, how long before this topic gets shut down? 
