Anyone adding to there small robot company shares? Its the only one i am bothering with. Decided i will add to this one only. Its the one i think will make it. Hopefully big time.
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Chip is running a new crowdfunding round starting today, for A-ordinary shareholders initially, then opening up to a wider audience.
Raised ÂŁ1.3M so far today.
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Last one for the crowd to invest in apparently. They reckon they might finally get some form of institutional investment soon.
Not sure I believe them after all the time theyâve said theyâll be getting institutional investment these last few years.
Whatâs the valuation?
Good website and wanted to like Farewill but I didnât go to them for a will. Their will terms and conditions felt really punchy in protecting their liability from everything, admittedly 4 years ago so it may have changed since.
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Looks like everyone is raising at the moment (not surprised Chip are back again without an institutional on boardâŚ), anyways Trustportal are back to crowdcube (private phase at the moment) and they seem to be doing very well.
Anyone have any thoughts on the Roomix pitch?
Iâm quite enthused by it, very early stage but seems to have some traction and a decent investment case.
Roomix is raising ÂŁ180,000 investment on Crowdcube. Capital At Risk.
Roomix looks very interesting: itâs a great idea, and I think partnering with creators is a great customer acquisition strategy. Typically, the âItâ in DIY does a lot of heavy lifting: DIY can often mean âDo [design, planning, purchasing and assembly] Yourselfâ and so Roomixâs value-add of design + planning + purchasing is very compelling â shrinking the It down to just assembly.
They are, ultimately, an online store, so the valuation is quite high given that theyâve not really achieved anything just yet, however, they have the backing of real investors (through the founderâs personal network) so I think the valuation is reasonable â i.e: the founders havenât plucked it out of the air for the crowd, itâs a valuation at which real investors are investing at. High valuation, but within the realms of reasonableness.
My concern is that they say ââŚwe are raising to develop our technologyâŚâ and theyâve already hired a CTO⌠but this is not a technology company. Theyâre an online store. They might just be using âdevelop our technologyâ as shorthand for âmake our website betterâ and if that is the case, thatâs fine, but Iâd be very nervous that theyâre falling into the trap that so many venture-backed startups fall into. They should not develop any technology, they should not even need a CTO[1], they should spend every penny on building the business and zero pennies on building technology. If work is needed to increase conversion through their website, they should pay a Shopify agency.
So, in conclusion, if theyâre building Roomix as an online store then at that valuation with that team and those investors, theyâre one of the better crowdfunding propositions. If they building Roomix as a technology business, and are going to start hiring developers to develop technology then theyâre just going to create a money pit thatâll swallow every last margin (and more) on selling DIY packs.
[1] A business, even one that isnât developing technology, will often benefit from having a technical leader who can contribute guidance and direction â the choice to use Shopify, for example, is one that a good technical leader can contribute meaningful insight to â but âCTOâ as a role in an early stage business is typically seen as a person responsible for building out a technical organisation. Roomix CTO Peteâs bio on the campaign says that he is ââŚexperienced in growing high performing product & engineering teamsâŚâ combined with the stated aim of ââŚraising to develop our technologyâŚâ leads me to worry they may well think that the next steps are to raise money and hire a bunch of developers.
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My goodness me did you dodge a bullet @Melch248 and @Barrakuda I think when you say âlucky enough to have invested in the first roundâ I hope you have sold them all and made a nice profit . I implore you with all my heart to stay away from this company. They have been raiding Seedrs twice a year for about 5 years. The owners had a seedrs raise in 2021 and helped themselves to ÂŁ2 million. Who in their right mind trying to build a successful company takes money out. They have no USP there are many bamboo toilet paper companies with the same product who sell cheaper loo roll. They had an ASA about 6 months ago with a valuation of ÂŁ82 million and now they are saying thst they are valued at ÂŁ85 million. They must be about the only company on earth that has increased in value. I will say no more!
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Cheeky Panda is back for another funding round (on Seedrs) at a pre-money valuation of ÂŁ85,543,200.
They sell toilet paper, tissues etc made from bamboo.
I gave their previous raises a miss, and their new valuation seems very optimistic given the current market conditions.
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@Barrakuda I was about to invest in the last funding round and in the end I didnât. I regret it, as it is certainlyban interesting company and as you say, they have done peetty well over the last year.
The current funding round isnât going too well is it? 12% of target with 4 days to close.
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@Melch248 I was lucky enough to invest in the first one but missed the opportunity to invest directly in the previous series b.
They seem to have this open exclusively for now and not sure there was even a pre reg or email to existing cc shareholders yet, so might just be one open to select investors for 5 days before they put it out to everyone else (they have the link on the site though so not very exclusive https://www.trustportal.org/crowdfunding-coming-soon). Only saw the link whilst doing a check up of my portfolio / whats new etcâŚand saw the link
I would guess once the 5 day phase is done they will then release to everyone else for 14 days (hopefully that will bring the traction once everyone has access / existing investors get notified).
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Where do they get the valuations from? MadnessâŚletâs see the metrics.
What makes you think that? What metrics have you used to come the conclusion? Thanks.
That statement was based on the ones i have invested in. Should have said that.
Great insight, thank you. Really appreciate the value add and explanations about role of the CTO - Iâm very new to start-up investing.
I believe youâre right, that they are trying to develop a technology-focused business (or at least, thatâs how theyâre pitching it). I would definitely prefer it if they werenât.
Iâm going to make a small investment as I still love the concept and how theyâve gone about creating the platform thus far. I also donât think theyâre going to invest as heavily in tech as youâre concerned they might; their pitch talks about their 3 growth phases:
âPhase 1: Expanding project range, expanding segments
Phase 2: International Expansion
Phase 3: Add on services and membership modelâ
which sounds like theyâre planning to be sensible about anchoring the business with e-commerce growth.
A great source of additional insight into these campaigns is the discussion forums because the answers arenât subject to Crowdcubeâs âdue diligenceâ so the founders are often more open. Since my previous comment, theyâve posted some answers on the discussion forum that have provided more insight into their plan, so Iâll use this as an opportunity to share more thoughts.
Via Reviews, preferential terms and other questions:
I think itâs easy for people to get caught up in considering âtechnologyâ as inherently valuable, but technology is just a means to an end, one of many possible means, and itâs the end that really matters for investors. If a farmer pitched for ÂŁ1m to hire a bunch of automotive technicians to build combine harvesters, people would rightly ask, why are you building combine harvesters? Whatâs the goal? How does that goal best serve the business? Does hiring people to build combine harvesters best achieve that goal?
The idea that Roomix can âbuild technologyâ and then âwhitelabelâ it without thought for the end betrays, I think, a definite naivety amongst Roomix about what theyâre going to achieve and how theyâre going to get there. People buy technology because of the ends, for example, organisations buy Salesforce in order to maximise the income generated from their customer relationships and Salesforce is the best way to meet that need⌠companies donât buy Salesforce because they want âtechnologyâ.
Roomix says in the same comment, âDIY projects of course require tools and materials so theyâll alway[s] be an e-commerce elementâ and thatâs what gives me the most pause. If they saw the development of the technology they describe as the most effective means to generate sales of DIY products, it would be a coherent strategy, but theyâre describing e-commerce as just an âelementâ when it should be their raison dâetre. If their technology doesnât exist to generate e-commerce sales, what does it exist to do? How are they going to make hard decisions about capital allocation: given the choice between a feature thatâll generate 10% more e-commerce sales or a feature thatâll generate 20% more âcomplete DIY projectsâ, what are they going to choose?
I think their ideas for their technology are pretty good, for example, providing an augmented-reality preview of what a DIY project will look like is a really great idea, and Iâve personally used such a feature offered by Made.com which was crucial in helping secure my purchase⌠but as the death of Made.com has shown, even if you have great features, and great products, and great volume, there are much bigger challenges.
Anyway, thatâs enough time on my soapbox. Roomix have some great ideas, and Iâll stand behind my earlier assessment that theyâre one of the better crowdfunding propositions, but they desperately need a coherent business strategy that is not based on hand-wavey âtechnologyâ concepts. If they would commit to e-commerce, I think theyâd be a good bet.
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Invest ÂŁ100 in Farewill and get 3 free wills worth ÂŁ270. Now thatâs a great deal. Closes today.
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Too right, it got me investing in them for that alone, much better than some socks that go to a charity shop. Also EIS, so a real bargain for ÂŁ100 and low risk for those who want to limit risk.
Great timing for me, thanks. Even with the MSE discount itâs ÂŁ99 for a single will with Coop, so this is a billy bargain frankly, and I get to invest in something which may do very well indeed.
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