This is the Crowdcube model in action. Rateragent made several claims and produced some very interesting numbers in their 2015 Crowdcube pitch. It managed to raise £134k from 133 people who really should be ashamed of themselves.
The company then filed one set of accounts for 2015 and has filed nout since - being closed by compulsory strike off in December 2017. Con? Well you judge. Revenues went from £170k to £2.6m in 2 years - well of course they didnt but that is what Crowdcube agreed to print so they could claim their commission. We will never know if there were any revenues - losses for 2015 were more than double the Crowdcube figure. Our ridiculous accounting system means that we cant learn much from their filings.
We called this back in 2015 - here. 133 of you didnt listen. Crowdcube made around £6k, everyone else lost the lot.
Its worth noting before you read the final paragraph that the company's strapline is -
Rateragent - Where transparency is Key.
In a final baffling twist, Rater Agent Reviews Ltd, with the same logo, is now operating here. This company was incorporated in August 2017. Joshua Paul Rayner is the sole director and shareholder and was until a few months ago a director of One Moment Ltd - the parent of the original Rateragent and the company Crowdcube investors put their money into. Ring any bells?
Its worth noting before you read the final paragraph that the company's strapline is -
Rateragent - Where transparency is Key.
In a final baffling twist, Rater Agent Reviews Ltd, with the same logo, is now operating here. This company was incorporated in August 2017. Joshua Paul Rayner is the sole director and shareholder and was until a few months ago a director of One Moment Ltd - the parent of the original Rateragent and the company Crowdcube investors put their money into. Ring any bells?
Yet another Crowdcube moment and groundhog day.
Crowdcube's business model is perverse.
ReplyDeleteCrowdcube only makes it's money upfront. Investors only make money many years later in an exit... maybe.
There is therefore no platform-investor alignment.
Incentives drive behavior. Crowdcube have no incentive to deliver quality deal flow, but every incentive to deliver volume.
What a mess
Sorry to disappoint you but I only know of one UK "platform" that takes equity and it's not Seedrs who only take 7% of the investors profits without the downside risk, SyndicateRoom, Envestor, Angles' Den make money by selling equity and I haven't heard any noises about selling their own "technology" as another revenue stream, as the Finnish Invesdor is doing. VC/nonlisted equity is really a relationship business and does that scale? Personally I'm starting to think it doesn't. I would have one of the mainly web-based ECF-ers to be revenue positive by now.
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