It is really quite pathetic

Crowdcube at it again. Totally blatant misuse of information to big themselves up on the newest pitch for Keen Home Inc.

Firstly I will make clear that this is not a criticism of this business - we have not looked at.

So it's not enough to pile up the dross, now CC are so desperate they have taken to mass manipulation of the figures.

You might be as surprised as we were on reading about the new pitch by USA based firm Keen Home. They had, on day 3 of their CC pitch, completed 493% of their £570k target. The figure on the CC site stated as funded is £2.8m.

But wait this is CC after all so there has to be some trick in there.

Yup there is - only £27k of that money has been raised by Crowdcube. Not £2,800,000 - just £27,000. So less than 1% of the headline claim. The rest comes from a raise (called a joint raise pitch, whatever that is) in the USA by Seedinvest, a US ECF platform.

So why the hell do they have promote what is nothing more than a simple and very misleading lie? Well they just dont seem able to help themselves. The information above is all there if you look at the pitch but it isnt what you see in the headline home page.

Why would they do that? Well they know the FCA never does a thing about any of their nonsense, so they are clear there. It makes the platform look fantastic and helps to bury the rest of the dross they are promoting, all of which are struggling to get to 50%.

It taint right , taint honest, taint proper.  It's Crowdcube.

Soma, So ma, So far or doe ray me far.............

In what has to be one of Crowdcube's worst ever investment shenanigans, ex Ethos Global, ex Ethos London England, soon to be ex Soma(?), have postponed their opening launch party in London. The announcement was made today, the party was tomorrow.

It's no surprise really. The management of Soma are the same two from Ethos, who took lots of money of lots of Crowdcube investors and were then forced into liquidation by the Court. The results have not yet been filed. We flagged this all up here. 

The funds from Ethos seem to have been used to fund the newco. Its all very messy and must have been planned well before they pitched on Crowdcube. Lets hope the liquidator has a mind to find the facts and not do the usual sweeping under the carpet job. All this phoenix needs is a strong fire extinguisher.

So now what am I going to do this Saturday  - they havent exactly given me much time to re arrange my diary. I think a trip to the beach at Antibes is called for - Jester, get my jet ready! 

Ideasquares is not what you think it is

A contact asked us about Ideasquares - https://www.ideasquares.co.uk/more-about-crowdcube/. We were surprised by what we found.

Ideasquares purports to be an equity crowdfunding consultancy - helping businesses wishing to use this channel to complete a successful round. 

However it is not that really. Its just a conduit for Seedrs and Crowdcube to promote their own platforms. In fact those are the only plaforms that offer ECF in the UK, if you read their website. Reading the link above you might think you were on the Crowdcube website. 

It does declare that it is partnered with the two, but this is more of an appendage than a partnership. 

Nothing wrong with any of this really and the girl who runs it gets great reviews - although she has absolutely no experience in anything. Or is there?

We offer a completely independent service - covering all platforms and will recommend the right platform for the right offer. And you can be sure that there are many more excellent platforms out there with a large variety of expertise in many different sectors. Choosing the wrong one will not help.

So use them by all means but just know that they are not independent and they are peddling wares for both Crowdcube and Seedrs ONLY - is there a finders fee? What they tell about both platforms will not be the whole truth - read the link above to see that. It's all a little too cosy and it yet again asks questions about the openness and honesty of the whole ECF sector.

How Desperte can Crowdcube be?

We were sent this today - Crowdcube asking investors to push businesses their way for a finders fee of £2k each. What about all the PRing from Luke Lang over the past 3 years that the platform is inundated with applications and that they turn away well over 50% of them? Are we now entering the final stages? Having tried a £1000 fee, they are now doubling it  - so clearly £1k didnt work? I will certainly be inventing a few companies to get my £10k for next Christmas. No wonder they get such dross. Cash in while you can.  ................................................................................. Hello XXXXXXXXX,  As a valued member of Crowdcube, we’d like to invite you to Crowdcube’s referral scheme. Not only that, during September we’re doubling the incentive we offer for each business you refer to us. Spread the word about raising finance on Crowdcube and you’ll receive £2,000* for every business (that’s new to Crowdcube) that you refer to us in September, which goes on to successfully fund on the platform.  How do I refer a business to Crowdcube? If you know a business that may be interested in raising finance on Crowdcube, you can refer them to us quickly and easily here.  All you need to provide is your Crowdcube username, your name and contact details, as well as the name, contact details, and website of the company you want to refer to us - it’s that simple. What can I earn? For just a couple of minutes of your time, you’ll then receive £2,000 for every business you refer to us that successfully raises finance on Crowdcube. If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact us. As always, thank you for your continued support. Best wishes, The Crowdcube Team

Since we asked where Big Sofa had gone, we have dredged up some unpleasant information

Big Sofa raised money on Crowdcube  - we dont know how much as some of it was withdrawn. But a good slug anyway. 

Big Sofa is now on AIM but most CC investors missed out (we believe all B shareholders missed the boat) and the company forced them to sell up before the IPO, at a price that meant they lost money - according to Crowdcube. We have written about them before here

During all of this, BS was involved in a RTO along with a company called New World Oil and Gas  - its all complicated but is explained in a fashion here along with the possible money laundering and other shenanigans that may have been part of all of this. Even if only some of it's true, you have to wonder why Crowdcube's broom cupboard didnt pick up a whiff?

New World Oil and Gas was suspended on AIM whilst all of this was investigated and remains so today. The RTO was put on hold and meanwhile BS IPO'd. Those who know things about Crowdcube will be interested to see that Hargreaves Lansdown are listed as a significant shareholder in New Oil and Gas.

All in all it paints quite a fishy picture. 

What happened to Ideas Britain - no idea?

We couldnt make this up. Yet another Crowdcube success seems to have gone down the tubes. Ideas Britain raised £270k on Crowdcube in 2015 from 138 'investors'. Results suggest none of them had a clue.

So here we are again - sorry we only report the facts so if they are getting a little boring we apologise.

Ideas Britain had some really pukka team peeps and masses of super plans  - overall valuing themselves at around £6m in 2015.

Most of those pukkas have now jumped overboard, leaving just 2. Unfortunately they dont seem capable of running much.

Projected profits for 2016 were £1.16m. Accounts just filed show losses of £160k and a BS with a negative number. No new money has been raised this year. Twitter hasnt tweeted for 12 months, Vimeo and Linkedin have had no ideas for the last year. 

Its not closed yet, but it might be the only good idea they ever had. 

Mindgenius prove our point - Congratulations!

Mindgenius employed us to help run their Crowdcube campaign. We recommended another platform but they had already signed with CC. The campaign failed but now Mindgenius is looking to take great leaps forward.

Mindgenius, a Scottish based B2B software company, employed ECF Solutions to run their 2016 ECF campaign. Unfortunately by the time they came to us, they had already signed to CC as we would not recommend a company in this sector for this platform. 

Despite a convincing pitch, the Crowdcube investors didnt see glossy rewards and were blind to the possibilities. We could, but as we work on commission based on a successful campaign, it doesnt help much!

The company has just announced future growth prospects, based on its new product Barvas, over the next 5 years, that make the Crowdcube valuation of £5m pre money look like a bargain. Anticipated revenues are to grow to £10m by 2022, which is way ahead of the Crowdcube projections. The Crowdcube pitch was based on the future growth of Barvas, so we were spot on there.

That's what you get with credible product development and an experienced team - real growth. It is just a shame that the Crowdcube investors prefer to cash in their chips for cases full of beer and empty promises. 

Still we believed in them and that does us some credit. One to watch.