Lovespace boxed in by large losses.

Lovespace stores things for you. Its just a shame that it doesnt seem able to store or handle its own numbers.

Lovespace has funded twice on Crowdcube once in 2014 when they raised £1.5m and then again just 5 months ago when they raised £700k. 

As you can guess, the gap between what was projected in 2014 and what happened in 2015 is large. Crowdcube projcetions showed losses for 2015 of just £327k. Actual losses filed are sitting at £1.7m.

No real surprise there you might say - this is Crowdcube we are talking we talking about after all.

What is slightly more worrying is that the raise completed in July this year, had a loss for the 2015 (YE December) of only £1.577m - so about £120k less than the figure filed a few days ago. The difference appears to be in expenses - the turnover is roughly the same and the depreciation is well below the predicted figure.

Its really not possible to tell exactly where this overspend occurred - Directors' salaries were £182k for the year up from £100k in 2014 but the Crowdcube projections do not break these down.

In the Crowdcube 2016 pitch, the 2015 figures are given as historic. So you might quite rightly expect them to be accurate - to say within a couple of thousand pounds. 

Well this is clearly not the case. If the company cannot get a fairly small set of accounts to add up 5 months after the YE, then the company is in trouble. We have written a few posts on Lovespace here 

Il Capo di Tutt'i Capi, Brett Akker, left a month ago.

Lovespace - the reality for small investors

Are Crowdcube and Lovespace giving us all the facts?

This question was recently posted on the Lovespace pitch - we think it asks some very good questions not just of the company but also the way the platform has 'organised' the information it presents to investors - 

Ccube, a bit disingenuouly IMO, is referring to this a Lovespace's second round in its communications. In fact, as I think you have acknowledged, there have been at least 2 other rounds in between, so this effectively round 4+ since the first Ccube round. Acknowledging that most investors will have knowingly invested in B shares, I presume that there will again be no guarantees for investors who would otherwise wish to follow on their investment this time so material dilution should be expected/factored-in?

Having been shut out completely of the funding round which followed the first CCube raise In your communication to existing B shareholders at the time of the next funding round in November 2015 to raise £1m (with just over £500k committed at that point), Steve Folwell made it pretty clear that you were only interested in hearing from investors wishing to invest £25k+ for new A shares. If you were apparently so loathe to accept smaller investments of less than £25k from B existing shareholders in November 2015 why are you back now? Thanks.

We'll let you know the response.

I think it would not be unfair to say that all small investors under the CC model may suffer the same fate - or worse.

Love making up projections as Crowdcube's Lovespace yet again disappoints

Space  - the final frontier. Etc etc. Love it or loathe it, it helps if the facts can be the facts. Lovespace's Crowdcube projections are now on their second iteration and they are still way off, somewhere in a Galaxy far far away. 

If they could hear shareholders screaming in space, it would go something like - FFS why cant you just be honest with us. Ok so it takes longer to grow a new business - who knew that? But why set out completely unobtainable goals, spend the cash to get there and then turnaround when it is obvious you are way off line and ask for more money. 

So here are the facts. Lovespace have used Crowdcube twice. Total raised of around £2.35m - so a large enough number to care about. In their first raise in 2014 they predicted net profits for 2017 of over £7m. Ok so they were young and ambitious. Needless to say they didnt get close. 

Short on cash they came back in 2016 - no one seems to have asked about the 14 numbers except us - here. In these projections, the accounts they just filed for YE Dec18, showed a handsome net profit of over £3m. When you read the accounts you will be surprised, like we were, to see that the real number is a loss just shy of £1m. In fact despite projections, this is their best result to date. Losses are now £7.5m.

The company has raised another ~£534k this year so far. It was at a lower share price than in 2017 which is never a good sign. 

Our new Buzz Rating - available to members of ECF.Buzz, has given Lovespace a 9 point drop since last year. 

I dont think you would get this situation in any other financing channel - without something being done about it. Isn't it time we did something?

Lovespace ups its game

Lovespace appears to have upped its game and has now crossed the 9/10 review line which for a consumer service, opens up the future for great things. We could only find two slightly negative reviews, both of which had been resolved, on the first five pages of Trust Pilot.

The company has come in for some criticism for its poor service levels but that now all seems to be in the past.

As one of Crowdcube's £2m plus raises (over 2 campaigns) this has to be good news for both.

Alongside this news, the company has just announced it has won a TV competition which will give them a free TV ad campaign as their prize.

Things have certainly turned a corner for Lovespace. Accounts out in September should reveal more.

Lovespace struggle to fill up second time around

Lovespace raised a shed load of money on Crowdcube and now they have spent it, they are back for more.

We are not going to bother with figures for this post - what is the point?

Lovespace's explanation for their very poor performance and their very large losses is that they are evolving. Funny that, for the first raise they were very positive that their projections were conservative and more than doable. Nothing wrong with evolving but you cant have it both ways.

If you want to have a laugh just read the responses to the questions in their current forum - they are certainly not short of strategy, business school BS.

This time around the investors are being far more cautious with only a few days to go the total raised is well short of the target. But our money is on a this one completing - it's too large a punt for Crowdcube to let fail. Either extensions, increased equity or a large sum will suddenly materialise and the hey presto the box will be full.

We have seen it all before.  

Lovespace boxes may have dodgy bottoms

Lovespace smashed their first raise on Crowdcube in 2014

They raised over £1.5m against an ask of just £600k.

Now they are back for more - only this amount was not scheduled the last time they appeared.

The good news for Crowdcube investors is that the value of the company has increased almost 4 times in just over a year. 

The bad news for Crowdcube investors is that this value is total myth. The company projected sales revenues of almost £2m for YE December 2015. It has delivered just over £1m.

The company projected losses just over £300k for YE December 2015. It has delivered losses of over £1.5m. No wonder they are back for more. 

All this has been achieved using up the pile of extra cash they were given.

We cant see any reason to believe a single figure Crowdcube produce. The only certainty is that whatever the projections,  the company will fall way short of them. 

This box comes with a warning - HANDLE WITH CARE

Busy month for Crowdcube funded companies - will they show any improvement on their dismal performances?

September is a busy month for company filings. We have a whole host of Crowdcube funded companies lined up to reveal their accounts for YE Nov and Dec 17. 

UPDATE - we notice that recent lack of progress in completions has pushed Crowdcube into sheer madness with the new launch of an old Brewdog campaign - just to make things even less/more 'misleading'. Ridiculous boys.  Doesn't mention the disaster with your bottles anywhere does it? 

Of course not all of them are in yet and some will no doubt not get round to it until the New Year but here are some of them - there isn't any good news.

Lovespace                    -    Projected £7m profit is in fact a loss of £1.5m - another one.

London Doctors Clinic -   Projected loss of £620k is in fact a loss of £1.1m

Gripit                            -    Projected loss of £240k is in fact a loss of £1.78m

Gamesgrb                     -    Projected profit of £2.57m is in fact a loss of £100k

Emoneyhub (Justus)    -    Projected profit of £2.3m is in fact a loss £280k

Cupris                          -    Projected loss of £464k is in fact a loss of £323k failed to raise extra £1m

Cornerstone Brands     -    Projected profit of £650k is in fact a loss of £3.5m

Clear Water Revival    -    Projected profit of £550k is in fact a profit of £46k

Chargebox                   -    Projected profit of ~£1m is in fact profit of £100k

Cake Tech -------------------Sold out with no money for CC shareholders------------

1854 Media                 -   Projected profit of £210k is in fact loss of £113k

Big Sofa ---------------------Sold out with little or no money for CC shareholders-----------

Bellfield Brewery       -   Projected profit od £550k is in fact loss of £209k

Affresol---------------------Liquidated----------------------------------------------------------------

Berrywhite------------------Liquidated----------------------------------------------------------------

Workabode-----------------Due £7.5m profit 2018 and no idea how they will get to this------

Vakay-----------------------Site down and didnt raise £500k extra funding. 

Estatesdirect.com----------Sold to Pels Family Office. CC Shareholders get 70p/£100.

Earwig                        -    Projected profit of £429k is in fact a loss of £100k

7 Bros Brewery          -    Projected profit of £267k is in fact a loss of £70k

Righteous                   -    Projected profit of £300k is in fact a loss of £60k

And so it goes on and on and will keep doing so, unless Crowdcube make a better attempt at promoting serious businesses run by people with some hope of getting there. EIS and SEIS could be used to help with this - but then the FCA and UK Gov have no real interest in promoting meaningful SME growth long term. Short term numbers are key and they show a rise in SME start ups. Yipee. 

More to follow as they file but Im not expecting any of them to get even close to their ridiculous Crowdcube figures.