Hey everyone,
I wanted to give everyone a big update on our crowdfunding round on Tue 25th June. All of this is important, so if you’re planning to invest, read on.
First up, the private mode will be longer
We recently talked with Crowdcube. They’ve modelled their expectations for our round and to be absolutely safe and ensure it goes smoothly, they’ve recommended a longer private mode to manage demand. We agree.
So the great news is that private mode will last longer: from 8am-12pm. We go public for everyone on Crowdcube at 12pm as planned.
Remember: private mode is for Freetrade customers (get the app and sign up now!) and previous investors only.
We’re doing private mode in batches
We’ve also agreed to batch up the private mode for customers and previous investors into 8 random groups. Each batch will get a unique private link at 30 minute intervals (8am, 8:30am, 9am, 9:30am, 10am, 10:30am, 11am, 11:30am). Each link will only work for the people/emails in its batch.
We’ll email you today with the time we’ll send you the link based on your batch. We’ll send you the link itself on the 25th via an in-app message - or an email if you’re a previous investor but not a customer.
Each link will only work for 30 minutes so all the batches get equal space. If you miss your slot, you’ll have to wait until 12pm.
Very important: You’ll only be able to access the page with your private mode link if you’ve got an account on Crowdcube with the same email we have for you (and logged into Crowdcube with that account).
The rules and limits in private mode
We’re reserving the full £3m of EIS for private mode. We’ve also decided to put in some limits to make sure everyone gets a fair shake. We’ve divided the £3m equally between the 8 batches. That means:
- £375,000 total limit per batch
- And we’ve also decided a £5k limit per person
When we go public at 12pm, we remove all limits and if you invested in private mode, you can invest more.
Bear in mind, per Crowdcube rules, you can only make two individual investments throughout the entire pitch i.e. you could do 2x £2500 investments, but not 3x £1000 investments.
Sign up on Crowdcube now
To reiterate, if you’re planning to invest, create your Crowdcube account now with the same email you use on Freetrade/the email we have for you as a previous investor. That’s the only way you’ll be able to access your private mode slot.
Valuation
Our final remaining detail for this round.
We consider this an extension of the crowdfunding on 25th April. So these things are the same:
- The pitch deck (bar a few numbers)
- The pitch video
- The plans for the money we raise
However, we’ve also grown a lot since the last round on April 25th:
- Our customer numbers have risen to well over 30k
- We’ve taken our first steps to international expansion
- We’ve started rolling out our Free Share referral programme
- We’ve shipped more product features, like Collections
- We’ve been working on additional permissions from the FCA to become a full-scope firm, which would set us up to be the first stockbroker in the world to offer fractional shares in UK and EU stocks. We have more news coming on this 1st July.
So we believe it makes sense to increase our valuation.
The valuation for the round will be £43m.
This is the pre-money valuation (i.e. the valuation before the money we raise in the crowdfunding next week). The post-money valuation from the round in April was £38m, so there is a 13%, or £5m increase in the valuation from two months ago.
We’ve tried to strike a balance between recognising the growth in the business but also make sure those that missed out last time can get in at a similar price.
We hope everyone has a great day on the 25th and we’re doing everything we can to make it as fair, open and stress-free as possible for all of you.
We think this approach does the trick.
