Startup Life/Funding/News/ Crowdfunding platforms Crowdcube and Seedrs agree to merge Crowdcube will acquire Seeders, with Crowdcube’s shareholders owning 60% of the combined business. By Freya Pratty 5 October 2020 Crowdcube Team Crowdcube Team \Startup Life Faced with tougher funding conditions, these are the options for startups in 2023 By Sifted 22 March 2023 Startup Life/Funding/News/ Crowdfunding platforms Crowdcube and Seedrs agree to merge Crowdcube will acquire Seeders, with Crowdcube’s shareholders owning 60% of the combined business. By Freya Pratty 5 October 2020 Crowdcube and Seedrs, two equity crowdfunding platforms based in the UK, have agreed to merge to become “one of the world’s largest private equity marketplaces.” The terms of the deal have been agreed — Seedrs’ current chief executive Jeff Kelisky will serve as combined chief executive of the new company, whilst Crowdcube founder Darren Westlake will become executive chairman. The merger still needs to be approved by the UK’s Competition and Market Authority, which is expected to be completed in late 2020 or early 2021. “By joining forces, we’ll be able to harness the best of both companies as we accelerate our shared mission to create the world’s largest private equity marketplace,” wrote Seedrs’ Kelisky. Through the merger, Crowdcube will acquire the outstanding share capital of Seedrs. Existing Crowdcube shareholders will own 60% of the combined company, and existing Seedrs shareholders will own 40% of the combined company — reflecting the comparative valuation of both companies. The two platforms are amongst the leading equity crowdfunding platforms. Since 2011, over £2bn has been invested into campaigns on the two platforms combined and, together, they’ve secured funding for over 1,500 companies. Revolut, Brewdog and Perkbox are amongst the companies to use the platforms. In April of this year, however, Seedrs reported seeing 20% less funding on the platform than the average across the previous three years. “Activity, both in terms of campaigns going live and volumes of investments, has slowed a bit from what we would normally expect,” Seedrs chairman Jeff Lynn told Sifted. “The 20% drop… was primarily from startups not going live,” he explained, with numerous campaigns perhaps anticipating reduced investor appetite. Kelisky, Seedrs’ chief executive who will take on the same position across the merged company, said in a statement that the new company will focus on innovation and new products. “Going forward, the combined company will aim to deliver new innovations and products that will make it significantly easier, more affordable and valuable for ambitious businesses to raise growth finance.” Related Articles IP financing: What it is, and why your startup might need it Sponsored by Aon Click here to read more Brunch with Roxanne Varza By Amy Lewin Click here to read more European tech has record quarter with €9.3bn VC investment By Maija Palmer Click here to read more 3 things founders need to think about before negotiating a Series A round By Maija Palmer Click here to read more Most Read 1 \SVB News Rescue deal: HSBC buys Silicon Valley Bank UK 2 \Venture Capital How does venture debt actually work? 3 \Fintech How new EU policies will impact ecommerce marketplaces — and how payments tech can help 4 \Deeptech ‘Basically mindblowing’ — What GPT-4 can do, according to one startup that’s had access to it 5 \Sustainability Berlin-founded Sunhero raises €10m to cash in on Spanish solar energy
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