Crowdrating takes a stab at giving punters information about companies that are raising money via Equity Crowdfunding platforms.
When it launched a couple of years back, it was accused of trying to get companies to gain better ratings for cash. Thankfully this practice has ceased; we think. We wrote them before here and the comments are worth a read.
Now what they have is a very basic analysis by what are a team of young interns with little real business experience. When I say basic I mean BASIC. They award medals for various categories - with Gold Silver or Bronze. Illustrations are included. Your 6 year old would feel at home.
Funnily enough they gave Appetise, which has failed to raise money on Crowdcube, two Golds and a Silver - so that is an illustration of the penetration the site has.
As with all things to do with Equity CF, they have come up their own stats, showing how well their Gold companies have done versus their Bronze ones. You might ask so what if no one is reading it. All they are proud of is the fact that only 2 of the 25 Golds (out of a rated total of 384) are showing distress. The other 23 are still trading. Its so vague as to be pointless. When we last wrote about them it was 24/25; so the odds are worsening.
The only real interest here is that of the 384 reviewed companies only 25 get a decent rating. That does fly in the face of what Crowdcube tells everyone about their companies.
We offer a much better service for free - currently. We have a 100% record of being right or your money back.
So now if you want Crowdrating's information and to look at decorative medals, you will have to pay £5 per month for a basic package or £10 for what they call their premium service.
Wheatfromchaff Ltd - the controlling company - shows increasing losses and a BS in the red so maybe it is time to either get the cash flowing or move on. There is room for a similar service but it has to be more detailed and more accurate and not presented in such a mickey mouse way.
We're on it.
Ask yourself, if this company was put up on CC, would you be tempted?
ReplyDelete(me - no - as 120 pa implies at least 12K pa investment to keep costs below 1% - and there just are not that many people who make that level of investment)
Is it possible to short sell ECF-funded companies?
ReplyDeleteThey are extortionists, rude, aggressive. They mail business owners a "review" which is almost invariably bad, I'm sure. Without contacting them first or doing any kind of interview, due diligence or information gathering beyond looking at their website (they never contacted us). They had no insights into our business whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteBut they wanted several thousand pounds to help "improve" the negative review, when they contacted us out of the blue with a link to it.
Abysmal behaviour and nothing worse than mild extortion - their reviews are worthless, read them, they really are written terribly and with zero insight whatsoever.
It's an alleged extortion racket, do not pay these hucksters anything, no one reads their site and it is an attempt to leech off hard working people who are at a moment of weakness when they are reaching out publicly for crowdfunding so these hyenas circle and try to extract a few grand.
Dear Anonymous
DeleteI am the Compliance Director of Wheatfromchaff Ltd which is directly authorised by the FCA. You have made some serious accusations in your comments including an accusation of criminal behaviour. Our internal investigations have found no evidence to support your accusations. Therefore please identify yourself to me Modwenna Rees-Mogg modwenna.rees-mogg@wheatfromchaff.co.uk and supply evidence to support your claims forthwith. Please note that if your accusations prove to be unfounded we reserve the right to refer this matter to the appropriate authorities and to take legal action.
Yours faithfully
Modwenna Rees-Mogg
If I may intercede Modweena - I think you are being a little naive. I had a meeting in London with your fellow founder sometime ago. It was only a little while after you had started Crowdrating. He admitted to me that yes you had tried this tactic but had very shortly stopped it for obvious reasons. I had also received information of this from a company claiming that this is what your platform had tried on this blog when we wrote about you before - see comments.
DeleteIf I was you I would concentrate on why you have a platform that no one is interested in - why you produce such worthless analysis which you are now asking people to pay for it. That's a problem that is worth solving.