Megathread - Crowdfunding

No, it would not make sense. Because Monzo is still several years far from IPO, so it won’t be caught in the economic downturn you worry about. Moreover, early investors got in at GBP 0.5, 1, 2.5. Now, Monzo’s shares are priced at GBP 13. Customer base is 3.5M and they are expecting to reach 7M customers by next year.

They have no immediate need for cash so not sure why they would do it other than to “display” their current valuation and it’s a nice marketing exercise. Can’t see one required until at least Q3 next year or beyond. There’s a strong link between Monzo’s customer numbers and Monzo’s share value ($1000 per customer) - happy to argue the toss on that one. This suggests they will be worth $4bn at the end of Q1 next year and, assuming 7m customers then $7bn at the end of next.

It strikes me that Monzo aren’t even trying to increase numbers at the moment (they’ve had some customer support woes) - very little evidence of marketing spend currently and they seem to just be relying on organic growth (just below 40K a week). When they turn this up, when they expand abroad, it could go nuts (don’t know if US will be successful but plenty of other countries for some serious headway). I just don’t know why you would wait to get in!

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eFoldi, the producer of a compact (fits in plane hand luggage), road legal (competitors aren’t), fast (8mph vs competitors 4mph) and safe mobility scooter is back on CC in private. They’re going live tomorrow.
They have 100% delivered since their last raise with revenues rising from nothing to ÂŁ2.3m and on a 15% margin.
Raising to push further into the UK (incl TV adv on which they’ve seen great returns) and to launch into the HUGE US market.
I’m super keen on this one.

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Hello, could you please share the link? I have registered my interest and I invested in the previous round but somehow I didn’t receive the invitation.

https://www.crowdcube.com/companies/efoldi/pitches/bXdm5b

:slight_smile:

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Thank you! :wink:

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I would argue monzo valuation is not approached by investors on a as is number of customers basis but rather on an assumed future growth basis. If growth slows, per customer value would be placed far below 1000, especially as now future monetization of customers and lifetime value is unclear. About buying in post IPO, it’s entirely possible for company private valuations to be given a reality check when they go public eg uber so I understand the point about buying post IPO.

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Note eFoldi hasn’t been truly “launched” in private yet, that is happening today (I believe). The link has just been sent to a few people.

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efoldi looks quite impressive.

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Thoroughly impressive in my view. From zero sales to £2.3m in a year. Profitable. A new product about to go live… all into what UK a small market for the product.

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Good morning guys, I can only thank all the community for the sharing and contribution to this post here. Very interesting comments, great research, latest info regarding upcoming rounds… This is a fantastic post! One greatest power of Freetrade? their strong community members. :clap:

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Coinburp currently live on Crowdcube in private mode.

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Update

COWBOY

Cowboy is a smart ebike startup, based in europe. Backed by index ventures (Facebook, Skype, Deliveroo, Revolut - I could go on) and Tiger Global. Quite possibly the raise of the quarter, goes live 9am, Tuesday 10th December. Check out their pitch deck here. They will also be doing a live facebook Q&A here tomorrow at 18:30.

This may well be a raise that oversubscribes/finishes in private mode, so be sure to check it out promptly. I may be able to upload the link shortly before it goes live, so please keep an eye out on this thread :slight_smile:

I’ve tried to summarise, as concisely as possible, some key points:

Here's why you might invest
  • Great product that excels in design and innovation and tackles many cycling pain points (for example, the removable battery is a novel solution to range anxiety). As a result, consumers love it (NPS (potential for organic growth) of 70; Monzo’s NPS is 80 (was once also 70) and Freetrade’s is 60 as a reference)

  • The world is positioned well for smart ebikes: batteries and sensors are at an all time low cost, urban congestion is at an all time high, car ownership is plummeting and cities globally are investing heavily in cycling infrastructure. Urban cycling has therefore seen strong growth (see london statistics below):

  • Urban congestion and pollution due to car use is a growing problem. Micromobility, specifically cycling, is a solution to this problem. City planners, regulators and commuters are trending in favour of this (e.g. london cycle super highways, ULEV zones, congestion charge, etc):
    image

  • wtfcropped
    *Direct to consumer model cuts out the middle man (distributors) and preserves margins. Warby Parker (eyewear), Casper (mattresses), Dollar Shave Club (Grooming), even Apple are recent example of D2C model success stories, proving the concept.

  • Cowboy’s investor/partner at index ventures, Martin Mignot, is bullish on micromobility, and has an impressive track record, having backed the likes of Revolut, Deliveroo and Bird. He discusses his investment in Cowboy here (skip to 20:35).

  • Cowboy has strong growth


    It should be emphasises that Cowboy are loss making, like most high growth early stage companies, having lost 3m euros last year and 1m euros the year before that. As they are a hardware startup, particular attention must be paid to their manufacturing costs, pricing model, etc

Here's why you might not invest
  • Cowboy is a hardware startup, meaning they’re capital intensive (expect heavy dilution ) and carry risks around supply chain, etc. Where freetrade, say, can onboard customers and sell their product for the cost of engineers and server hosting, Cowboy would need to pay for staff, logistics, manufacturing, and so on. Hardware is frightfully hard.

  • Their main direct competitor, Vanmoof, has a large first mover advantage. They have 4 bikes in their product portfolio, are present in Asia, USA as well as Europe, and forecasts put their revenues at over 4x that of Cowboy’s. Check out their pitch deck from 2017 here - there’s an elusive 2019 pitch deck from a crowdfund they did this year, will update this post if i obtain it.

  • There are several well capitalised companies in the mobility space (Uber, Bolt, etc) that may well target the ebike market. Their is also a case to be made that alternative mobility models (ridehailing, escooters, shared mobility, etc) will eclipse ebikes.

  • A fair valuation would be around 8x revenue, given recent valuations/terms of similar hardware startups like Peloton or Vanmoof.

Private live

Small robot company - An agtech startup trying to automate the farming process. invest here.

31dover - Online alcohol retailer, invest here.

Efoldi - a foldable mobility scooter startup, already profitable, is crowdfunding. invest here.

Shoutout to @JBL for bringing this one to all of your attention first!

Other private live campaigns include zazu (the zambian fintech/neobank), Feral horses (art investment/crowdfunding fintech - they once offered banksy’s!) and Oriental to-go restaurant chain Hop Vietnamese

Upcoming

Allplants - Frozen vegan meal delivery company backed by Octopus ventures. Looks like they’ll raise in the new year, so not quite as soon as hoped. Check out their website in the mean time.

farmdrop - the challenger supermarket backed by Atomico, will go live any day now

Fatmap - An adventure holiday bookings platform (Much Better Adventures competitor) backed by Episode 1 Ventures (Betfair, Zoopla, Carwow) and Jaguar Landrover’s InMotion ventures (ByMiles, Lyft, Festicket). pre-register here. Definitely could be interesting.

vegankind - the UK’s largest vegan supermarket, will be crowdfunding in January. Pre-register here.

Grindsmith - A coffee chain based in manchester, will be crowdfunding. pre-register here.

Rumours

Monzo - Monzo will almost certainly crowdfund, having several strong indicators from Crowdcube and Monzo themselves, it’s just a matter of when. Monzo will send out an investor update email later this month that may (or may not) confirm a crowdfund for the coming months. Great to see the lively discussion going on in this thread.

Zego - Insurtech startup looking to offer loans to those with thin credit files (gig economy workers, immigrants, etc). Modest indications they’ll crowdfund, I’ll soon ask them myself if I can attend their networking event tomorrow! See why Balderton capital invested in them here.

Stepladder - fintech backed by Seedcamp, allowing home buyers to save a deposit 45% faster on average. See why Seedcamp invested here.

Thanks to all of you for the lively discussion :slight_smile:

News

I’ll be meeting up with Seedrs’ Chief product officer in the new year to try out beta products and talk crowdfunding. If there’s any queries you’d like me to pass on, please holler!

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8 posts were split to a new topic: Cowboy crowdfunding

Thanks for the update!! Always useful!

Any news on the Revolut rumours?

Need the Seedrs app ASAP :tired_face:

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Must of must this, what have crowdcube & Monzo said?

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Thanks for a great update, as always. If I may add to your why you should not invest section. This is a BIG red flag to me

1-2-3…10 guys :scream::scream::scream:
Are they building a water polo white male team or a product they want the world (in its entire diversity) to enjoy?

Let me guess, they have a team of female interns responsible for marketing and maybe one or two is from Asian or African ethnics?

I’m sure they can do better…

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Well first off the bottom 3 are the VC’s, which is an overwhelmingly male dominated space. Who cares what colour they are? So what we are to have quotas now for every company? They are there on merit not the colour of their skin or what sex they were born

You denounce racism and sexism and end up looking like a racist and a sexist :grimacing:

And the co-founder is Middle-Eastern :joy:

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That’s a very odd investment criteria and kinda racist.

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You can choose not to invest because they don’t have any women on the board. That may or may not be be a valid criticism depending on how they were chosen. But I wouldn’t say that’s a red flag in terms of whether they will be successful

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