Some cold hard facts

If you read the PR put out by the likes of Crowdcube, you would think that ECF is saving our nation.

Since 2011, when this all began, we have kept records on the companies that have successfully raised money on various ECF platforms. Later, when they have filed accounts, we compare their projections, the ones used to sell the equity, with the actual sales and profit/loss figure.

Here is a list of the results. The companies on the Mind the Gap List have missed their projections by at least 30% and in most cases somewhere between 100% and 1000%. The record to date is for a YR1 sales projection for £860k which became a real £86k. Many have tried to raise more cash, some successfully, quite a few have closed and the rest are just trundling along, nowhere near to the place they said they would be by now. We have also for sake of balance published a list of the companies that our records show have achieved their stated goals

MIND THE GAP LIST

Dr Jackson Ltd
Righteous
Purple Harry
i-comply
Seek and Adore - closed
Lawbit
The Printers Inc
Financial Fairy Tales
ineed
Marine & Auto Security - closed
Brupond - closed
Oriental Rugs
Kammerlings
Green and Pleasant (28 Broadwick St Ltd) - closing
Red Advertising
SDL
Crowdcube - !
London Distillery Co
7 Billion Ideas
Front Up Rugby - closed
Waterbabies - closed
Big Barn CiC
Stakis Daycare nurseries
Inspiral Visionary Products
Thoughtful Bread Co (Think thoughtful Ltd)
Carbon Lights Solutions
Pizza Rossa
Wild Trail Ltd
Quantock Brewery
PDB
IQden  - closed
IMD Europe - inactive
FabFob
Sweatly Stevia Ltd
Kinopto
Get Site Tracked (Sole Trader Ltd)
Glassfit Inc Ltd - inactive
Affresol
Bubble and Balm - closed
Ovivo - closed
Pixelpin
GF Foods York
Landbay Capital (now LB Partners and refunded)
Hopstuff
Zero Carbon Food
Farmdrop
Bnktothefuture.com  - inactive and under investigation by FCA.
ECarclub Ltd

THOSE WHO HIT THEIR TARGETS

St Vibes Ltd


That's it for now. As most of the activity on these sites has been post summer 2013, we can expect the Mind the Gap list to grow exponentially in the next year.

It does make a bit of mockery of the claims made by the people from Crowdcube. PR is king, long live PR.