Oppo Brothers to be sold - and Crowd investors will see a return this time.

Well at last. Seedrs have some good news for investors. We dont wish to damage the deal so wont be going into detail but shareholders in both rounds of Oppo will see a good if not spectacular return. Prefs not quite so much. 

Seedrs have now put out their own PR claiming this as some massive success  -so the figures are free to go - 

Investors in Round one will get just over 4X return and investors in Round 2 ~2.5X. This is without S/EIS.

The buyer is HP Wild Holdings AG. The UK loses out. 

According to the accompanying letter to SHs from the CEO of Oppo, the company was about to go under and this sales is a deal that no sensible person could refuse. Seedrs fail to mention this. 

As returns go, it's ok but it aint Carling, as Seedrs would have the Press believe. More reasons for an independent platform giving out the real information as opposed to PR. 

We will report back on the numbers once the deal is public (see above). Oppo in our opinion, have taken the sensible option and off loaded at a time when they required large new investment to maximise potential. The CEO's letter makes it clear that borrowing has rocketed just in order to stand still and that the offer for the business presents an excellent life line. I suppose it doesnt matter how SH's get their return so long as they get one. As in the Crowdcube case with Camden Brewery, where they chose to sell because they couldnt make progress alone, so this sale is the best option on offer. In fact the CEO is quite plain, in a May sort of way; it's this deal or curtains. No offence to the late Prime Minister or for that matter the CEO, who may well be very good looking. 

Shareholders can opt to stay with the company which is good to see after all the dragging along that has been going on. 

Camden Town Brewery - a curiousity, files losses north of £5.6m compared to £700k in 2016.

Camden was Crowdcube's second (only) exits. Investors, who had put in £2.75m, received a small return just after investing, when the founders decided they required considerably larger backers. Step in AB Inbev.

Revenues grew by 50% from 2016. The loss seems to be a result of the 100% plus increase in admin charges and a good dip in the GPM.

Whatever happened to economies of scale?  Last Orders Please.

Crowdcube success Movem is sold to Barbon Insurance Group for £3m - most Crowdcube investors lose out

Great news for investors in Movem - an exit. Just a month ago Movem was taken over by Barbon in a deal which leaves the CEO in place and Movem in tact. So did investors make any money?

Addendum - sales price was a smidgen over £1 a share so a total value of £3m. First rounders did ok and second rounders wasted their time. Maybe that's why Crowdcube have ignored it? Thanks to SHs. It looks to me like another Ecar Club or Camden Brewery rush to exit before implosion. Reading some comments on Crowdcube, this will have done them more harm than good. Investors in round 2 feel used  - a cheap bridging loan to enable founders to exit is one interpretation. And for what risk? Im sure we can do better than this. Our new forum will be the the place to get the information (like this) that CC bury. 

Movem had two successful rounds on Crowdcube in 2016 for £199k  and then 2017 for £395k. The first round valued the company pre money at £800k and the second at £2.4m. Now we dont know the numbers for the takeover but we do know that a SH invested £3000 and received £7811 on the sale. - Well we do now.  

As we now know thanks to SHs getting in touch - Movem was sold for £3m. As investors in 2017 paid £2.4m with a post investment valuation of ~£2.8m there aint much profit in that. Investors were not given a choice in this. As one disgruntled investor put it  -  a very cheap loan to get founders to a sale where they cream off the money. It was also mentioned that there should be a list of people who make claims like 'Im in it for the long term' and sell investors out 12 months later - a list where future attempts to make the same claims can be challenged. We will be offering such a list on our soon to be launched new site. Welcome Peter Ramsey, Philip Screeton and Richard Totty.

And of course as a good reader has reminded us, investors in round 2 will have to repay their EIS reliefs. In fact as round 1 was in 2016, this sale in September 2018 is still within the 3 year limit, so they too will have to repay it.  

No wonder CC have not PRinged this big time. 

Where will it end? Crowdcube congratulate bereaved shareholders in MyShowcase.

Myshowcase raised £1m on Crowdcube not long ago and has now been 'sold' to another company for a large loss to investors. So Crowdcube thought it would be good idea to send a cheerful message to the Wake; ignoring the death.  We have written about this company here. It seems there is just one button for outgoing news on the Crowdcube control panel - its the marked ''Congratulations''. The outcome of the investment seems to be irrelevant - which when you think about it, is spot on. We love the references to EIS and SEIS - DUH.  Here is the message -  Congratulations! Your investment in MyShowcase has been completed and your ownership statement is now available.

On behalf of Crowdcube and the team at MyShowcase, thank you for supporting this business on Crowdcube. If you are eligible for SEIS and EIS tax relief (which will depend on the Company being eligible and your individual circumstances) you can expect to receive your tax relief form within 8-12 weeks of your certificate being sent. Please ................. and note that the availability of tax relief may change in future.

Best wishes, The Crowdcube Team Time for Bed  - too much good news is so tiring.

Gamesgrabr AKA Teepeegames reports more losses and reduced value to almost zero

Teepeegames said they were about the sell the company and that progress was good back in February 18. Well accounts show a loss of over £100k and a value of around £3k left in the thing. They were due to make £2.57m of lovely profit this last year. 

This was the last comms received by shareholders -

At this stage we have reached the decision to look for a buyer for TeePee games to take the platforms forward.
We want to make all our investors a return on their investment but at this present moment we do not have a deadline in place for the sale, so we are unable to provide investors with further information on valuation at this time. However, please be assured investors will be kept up to date on the development of the sale of TeePee Games.


Radio silence has descended. It's odd that all the value in their various platforms is not reflected in any way in their accounts. Maybe the deal is so enormous that they have to keep it under wraps.

Another Crowdcube hit. They just keep coming for you lucky guys.

Enclothed sold to The Chapar (?) and shareholders left in the dark. Another Crowdcube facilitated mess.

Enclothed raised £400k on Crowdcube and then failed in another raise on Seedrs - after we had pointed out some very odd goings on, on here. Now they have been taken over by another Crowdcube funded company, The Chapar. Enclothed shareholders have been told nothing. 

UPDATE 23 July 18 - A 100% reliable source tells us the following - Enclothed is in administration and will be liquidated with no money going to shareholders. Substantial secured and unsecured creditors will also lose out - numbers being worked on. The deal with The Chapar is not concluded and is now in doubt. From our perspective, these two girlies were cluelss rich kids, playing at being entrepreneurs. Which is fine with their own cash. But the gate keepers here ie Crowdcube - let them loose on the public and the result was inevitable. Crowdcube yet again to blame. Time for change. CH filings are not working - the only clue to this administration is the change of address.

In what is becoming a routine outcome for Crowdcube investors, they are the last to know what has happened to their investment. We wrote about Enclothed here when they attempted to raise more cash on Seedrs.

This deal may yet be a good one for investors in Enclothed. The company is still active according to CH. There is little evidence of the sale apart from what we hear and this article which has little detail

- https://www.drapersonline.com/news/the-chapar-buys-rival-enclothed/7031221.article

The company's SM and website are down. 

The Chapar has large backers, including the once successful Will Hobhouse of Whittard fame. Mind you the outcome there wasnt great. 

Any news please get in touch.

Why the sale of Cake to AMEX has been played down by Crowdcube.

With Crowdcube's PR you would expect the sale of one of their funded companies to American Express in late 2017, to be headline news. Well as Crowdcube shareholders lost money on the deal, of course they have swept it into their large bin of failures.

We brought this story to you last year - here. But more details have now emerged. The buyer was American Express.

Cake got itself into financial difficulty and had no choice but to close or accept the AMEX deal, which valued the company at around £9m. Crowdcube investors had accepted a valuation of £11m when put in £1m in 2015. Large debts meant that most of the sale proceeds went west. Sugru style. 

We think that if Crowdcube had an ounce of honesty they would put both of these two companies up as examples of exits that left their investors out of pocket. After all they claim to be open and honest.

And Beauhurst where does this one appear in your infographics  - exit? dead? zombie?

And of course we shouldnt forget that this is another UK gov subsidised deal that has left the good bits drift overseas for a snitch of the real value - cf Sugru.