INSIGHTS / News

SETsquared Exeter alumnus Crowdcube has announced an agreed merge with Seedrs, in a move that will accelerate their shared plan to create the world’s largest private equity marketplace and further democratise investment.

By joining forces, thousands of ambitious fast-growth businesses and millions of investors will be able to benefit from the best expertise, services and returns offered by Crowdcube and Seedrs’ investment platforms. On completion, Jeff Kelisky, Seedrs’ CEO, will serve as CEO of the combined company, and Darren Westlake, Crowdcube CEO and co-founder will serve as Executive Chairman. The management team will include key leaders from both businesses. The combined company aims to deliver new innovations and products that will make it significantly easier, more affordable and valuable for ambitious businesses to raise growth finance, and investors will have an even greater selection of investment opportunities with richer investment tools.

Darren Westlake, CEO and co-founder of Crowdcube, commented: “Equity crowdfunding has redefined how many ambitious businesses raise investment and engage with their customers. Today’s agreement is an incredibly exciting milestone that will benefit high growth businesses, their investors who believe in their vision and the wider entrepreneurial ecosystem that supports them. Together with Seedrs, we can accelerate plans to further expand in the UK and overseas, launch innovative new products and improve our customers’ experience.”

Jeff Kelisky, CEO of Seedrs, said: “We are both fintech pioneers that have challenged the landscape of capital raising in Europe, building marketplaces for private equity investment. We believe that you need to be a player of greater scale to serve companies and the investors who support them. Now is the right time to bring our strengths together, in order to meet our common mission to deliver a step-change in the accessibility and efficiency of private company investing. This will not only create value for ambitious companies and their investors, but also for the economies and communities that they serve. As we look to the future, we’ll be well-positioned to build on our combined strengths and create a powerful global private equity marketplace that will transform the ecosystem of equity finance globally.”

As leading investment platforms, they have both played a key role in Europe’s fast-growing equity funding ecosystem, both through Crowdcube’s success of primary raises through crowdfunding and the scaling of secondary offerings and wider marketplace initiatives. Since 2011, £2 billion has been invested in campaigns on Crowdcube and Seedrs. Together they have helped more than 1500 companies secure investment, including BrewDog, Revolut, Perkbox, and in the last 6 months they have both seen significant milestones reached such as Crowdcube’s campaigns with what3words and Moneybox, two of the most popular equity crowdfunding campaigns ever, and over £1 million of private company shares traded in a single month on the Seedrs secondary market.

Following completion of the merger, the companies will work together to define how the two businesses will combine their teams, customers, brands, services and technologies. The transaction is expected to be completed in late 2020 / early 2021.