Pavegen looking for more money but not on Crowdcube

Pavegen raised £1.9m on Crowdcube a while back. That's gone, so they are raising what appears to be £3m - mainly from VCs but they have earmarked £250k for existing investors. Some of their claims are mysterious.

Nothing too wrong so far.

However as with previous rounds, some of the claims made in the IM are a little flexible - misleading even?

Take for instance the first commercial use of their paving in the UK at the Mercury Shopping Centre in Romford - a small 6 by 6 installation at one of the entrances.

In the IM, Pavegen state that this shopping centre has a daily footfall 60,000 and that these footsteps will now be generating information and electricity and in turn, real revenues for the company. 60,000 per day equates to 21,900,000 per year. Being the company's first commercial gig and being as they have included it in a request for new funding with virtually no other financials, you would expect the numbers used to be ball park accurate, at worst.

The Mercury Shopping Centre, that's the same one in Romford,  has a website operated by the owners, Ellandi. In my time, I have dealt with many shopping centres and I think its fair to say that along with events companies, they share a generous idea of their own success. Ellandi claim that this centre - the one in Romford, has an annual footfall of 9.7m. You can check it here. That's a daily  number of around 26,500. So well under half the number printed in the IM produced by Pavegen and sent to investors to solicit £250k. And dont forget this official footfall number is likely to be high.

In the IM Pavegen talk about the VCs. According to the IM, a 'signed Term Sheet for £3m has already been signed.' When a company has to emphasise something this way, you do have to wonder. As we all know, a singed or unsigned Term Sheet is not a slam dunk. 

Trust is a wonderful thing. Once lost, it is unlikely to return.