62. Seedrs

Founders: Jeff Lyn and Carlos Silva
Founded: May 2009 (launched July 2012)
Website: www.seedrs.com

Amongst the recent proliferation of crowdfunding sites, in which ‘armchair investors’ work together to raise funding targets, Seedrs stands out with its focus on early stage businesses and pre-revenue start-ups. Started with an aim to address the funding gap experienced by those with high potential but unproven business concepts, investors can pledge between £10 and £150,000 via the platform. Early stage businesses using other crowdfunding platforms can run into the problematic situation where they are left with hundreds of minority shareholders at a very early stage, making it difficult to raise votes for future funding rounds, but Seedrs has a solution. Uniquely, the platform purchases shares on behalf of investors, taking legal title of the shares and managing the investment whilst leaving the investors as the actual beneficial owners of any dividends or proceeds of sale. Offering the platform an additional USP in an increasingly crowded market, the platform has seen fast growth, expanding to 13,500 users in just over a year and the company has plans to extend its service to European investors and entrepreneurs in the near future.