Apologies, it was just the banner notification and when I saw āyouāve received your Freetradeā¦ā I jumped to the wrong conclusion.
For some perspective: there are ~17,500 shareholders listed on the Companies House filings for Freetrade. Assuming Crowdcube perform the absolute-bare-minimum-legal-checkbox AML & KYC checks at 15 minutes per shareholder (i.e. it takes longer in reality) thatās 4,375 working hours (~920 standard working days, or 184 standard working weeks) of checks before complete disbursement.
Assuming Crowdcube started checks the moment the sale was announced on 16th Jan, then to have all checks completed by receipt of proceeds on 4th April would have required 17 staffmembers working full time solely on Freetrade KYC/AML checks.
Actual number of shareholders under Crowdcube will be lower, but actual KYC & AML checks take longer too, and Crowdcube will not have ~10%-20% of its headcount dedicated to just KYC/AML checks for one account.
And on the upside: this is a UK company mostly disbursing to UK shareholders, so you are not subject to all the extra delays for a US-based exit paying out: messing with the W-8BEN form, FTC delays, waiting for a physical cheque to be mailed internationally, then waiting some more for that cheque to be cleared once you can actually cash it (which depending on you bank, may end up with needing to open a a new account first with someone who still accepts physical cheques). Any cash starting to be disbursed to client accounts in the same week as it is received is blinding speed when it comes to this sort of thing by usual standards, even if not everyone is getting paid immediately.
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Another perspectiveā¦
A lot of us have been Crowdcube clients for years, we bought our shares through their platform, so they already know who we are. Some of us invested larger amounts which meant Crowdcube done additional checks at the time we invested the funds. On top of that, most of the AML/KYC processes are automated.
This also isnāt Crowdcubeās first rodeo. Theyāve handled exits before. In any case they couldāve started the prep work back in January 2025, therefore reducing any delay. Crowdcube could also have offered clear timelines, they did neither things.
Andā¦ Wilmington Trust managed to do their AML/KYC and pay out much faster, and weāre talking about some significant sums.
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As your annual refreshers should be reminding you, KYC/AML is not a āone and doneā, itās a regular and ongoing process. The last Crowdcube round was in 2023 and likely most investors last participated in an even older round (and in the worst case, one-off investors in the first round would have last had contact with Crowdcube in 2016, nearly a decade ago). If Crowdcube tried to argue KYC/AML checks for several years ago were still perfectly fine theyād be laughed out of the room, then immediately dragged back in by the FCA for failing to meet their legal requirements.
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In that case, theyāre not equipped to do the job, so they shouldnāt have been paid and entrusted to do it.
I think the issue is some have used crowdcube recently so a delay for those who havenāt in a while makes sense but not when you have recently used the platform with no faff on KYC / AML aka moneybox secondary, follow on rounds and withdrawing some cash that was sitting in the account for a while which KYC / AML is all applicable to as wellā¦
They really should have started this in advance for the list of investors under the nominee as they have this record and could have sorted this ages ago to avoid such a delay especially with how high profile / feisty this exit isā¦
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Imagine going to all of that effort to write a post and then getting the basics maths wrongā¦
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Still havenāt received mine 
11 days since Crowdcube got my money.
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I had an exit in the last quarter of last year on Crowdcube. That was a fintech as well.
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@Bob1 Whereās Bob heās head of crowdcubes finance team.
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Another great dip in Nvidia, but dont have my freetrade money yet to load upā¦
That said i think its going to visit 75-80. I better get my money before then 
I think i might ask Crowdcube for the interest i have lost out on.
If we get enough people complaining they will cave, especially if multiple people rasie complaints with the financial ombudsman, which could end up being very costly for them as each case that is investigated the business has to pay Ā£650..
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I already asked them for interest and they said no 
The rest of the message was similar to previous posts. CC basically said itās Freetradeās fault for not providing the data in time.
My money arrived this morning - I had no idea, no pre-warning, just turned my phone on and there it was.
So thatās it, Iām well and truly all done with Freetrade - been on this journey since 2018, and its over.
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Day 16(since transaction)/12 since crowdcube got the money: no money in my bank
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Crowdcube paid me too, no warning, just the money landing in my account at 3:24 a.m. Conveniently, they held it an extra day to squeeze out a bit more interest. Iām still going to pursue Crowdcube for the period they deprived me of my funds.
Guess thatās the end of an era. I might ask Freetrade to delete my Community account and all associated posts. Not entirely sure all of this has been worth it, but weāve had some fun along the way on this Community.
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Still nothing!
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it seems they are processing either based on amount or Alphabetical order
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Lol unfortunate for me if alphabetically
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I know early alphabet people and large amount people that havenāt been paid yet.
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