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Thursday 19 July 2018

New June and July Crowdcube results. Plus ca change.



More results for companies that have used Crowdcube to obtain funding, yet again illustrate that the methods being used provide very poor results.

When 95% of something continuously indicates that the something is not working, surely it is time for a change? Well apparently not, as Crowdcube continue to operate their flawed model; propped up as it is by fake news PR which is then regurgitated verbatim by independent bodies like Beauhurst and Crowdfund Insider as fact - see earlier posts. Beauhurst have now changed their article replacing 'exit' with 'aquisition' and acknowledged our verification of the facts - shame they are not honest enough to give us a credit. They have also taken down all their 'research' into other ECF exits etc. We are happy to help but hope they dont just reprint Crowdcube PR again.  

Here are some more examples for the months of June and July - 

Crowdcube - projected £3.7m profit  Filed loss - £4.7m
Grub Club - investors lost all their money in an asset fire sale. Called an exit by Crowdcube. 
Crowdfunder - projected loss £150k. Filed loss £500k
Birdsong - projected loss £20k. Filed loss £70k
Floodkit  - projected profit £589k. Filed loss 50k
Fourex - projected profit £2.3m. Filed loss £1.4m
Good Egg  - projected profit £209k. Filed loss £70k
Health Connected - projected profit £3.6m. Filed loss £70k
Cauli Rice - projectd profit £93k. Filed loss £960k
Tempus Energy - projected profit £6.5m. Filed loss £360k
ISO Spaces - projected profit £2.6m. Filed loss £250k
Shopwave - projectd profit £2m. Filed profit £89k
Circuitree - sadly closing down due to illness of founder. We wish him well in his fight. 
Teachpitch - projected loss £53k. Filed loss £80k


This is an illustrative, not an exhaustive, list. We have not included Brewdog as they are covered in a separate article on here. The only company we can find that recently filed accounts and is ahead of projections is Hopstuff and those were new projections - their original ones were a joke. Missing targets does not mean its curtains for the company but our records show that a combination of missing targets, late filing and other failings (ie SM inactivity, lack of new stockists, poor reviews, no app etc) suggests a struggling company. Very few of these for which we have figures, get turned around. 

The following companies are late filing - 

Energie Corp 
Otti Prams
Ubrew
Albion Tea
Socapps
Faction Collective - havent filed since YE 15. French run a different accounts system.
Easy Property and E-Prop (moved date to Sept 18).
Teachy
MBJ London
Monetaflex

We are pretty sure that at some stage this particular merry go round will explode. 










8 comments:

  1. Hi Rob - where did CrowdCube project a £3.7m profit?

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    1. In their early 'eat your own' fund raises. Of course those have been slashed in newer ones but they still took money off investors using the projections.

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  2. Rob I check this blog most days, you have an avid cult following. Gone please let your loyal followers know when or whom burnt you on CC. We all know revenge is best served cold, please please do tell 😀

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    Replies
    1. I heard that he was rejected after he wanted to work for Crowdcube. Hence the blog.

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    2. Exactly what happens if you listen to what CC say - you get it all wrong. I did approach CC in 2012 as their due diligence then was worse than it is now and offered them a remote, free, DD service. They said they knew what they were doing and told me to bugger off. Now if that is being rejected for a job then you are right. CC have been spreading this lie for last 6 years - maybe I should sue their useless arses? If you want real facts check out Darren Wetslake's claims about his previous businesses/exits. All lies. That explains why lying is accepted on the platform as the norm.

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  3. Have you heard anything about Chic Retreats? Until a couple of days ago, they were raising money on the platform but their pitch has suddenly disappeared. They were suggesting that the investment would be EIS Eligible and that they had previously raised money with institutional investors on that basis but apparently have been appealing a decision by HMRC that they did not qualify for EIS status for some time. Presumably they have now been unsuccessful in this appeal in the final analysis, hence the removal of the pitch.

    Why would Crowdcube put this pitch on their platform as an EIS eligible investment if even the most cursory due diligence would have revealed that they had not qualified for EIS status?

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    Replies
    1. Interesting thanks. There is a whole new scandal on S/EIS HMRC assurances just sitting waiting to explode. HMRC issue these without doing much checking (if any) as the backlog is too long. If a company ever exits for big money then HMRC will check the details for S/EIS and if it proves wrong, investors will owe HMRC all the money back plus interest. Crazy really.

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  4. The shear scale of the consistent disconnect between the forecasts used by the companies pitching, and their actual reported figures is becoming quite staggering. It shouldn't be the case, but it would be much quicker and a smaller list of companies to report on if we just focussed on the ones that end up delivering within around 20% of their published targets. As long as the business owners feel that they can justify the valuations in the pitches with spin, and then apologise later on without any consequences, nothing is going to change...... I now just enjoy the occasional punt on CC & SDR, but SR gets the bulk of my start up investment. I may well be proved wrong, but the pitches on SR at least feel like they have a route to market, decent management, etc. and thus the potential to return on the investment. Just my personal view after a few years "investing" in this space.

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