Revolut losses up at £15m - 7 times the number they used to get investors on board on Crowdcube.

Revolut, the challenger bank, lost £14.8m last year. As it raised £55m at the same time, and $250m this year, they are not in any immediate danger.

Revolut investors have had the chance to realise some of their gain - with a 19X ROI (Crowdcube's figure). This was part of the $250m raise in 2018.  Revolut switched to Seedrs after the first £1m raise on Crowdcube.

These losses come against a confusing picture over Brexit, where Revolut is now applying for a second EU licence and a large uplift in revenues to over £12m. The Crowdcube pitch showed £10m for the year, so the expenses and margins have taken a battering.

Revolut also PRinged that they were breakeven in 2018. The comment now is that this position is changing month on month. IE they are not in reality even close to BE. Who would have guessed it. 

Revolut make a 20X paper gain for Crowdcube investors

In some much needed good news for Equity Crowdfunding, the latest valuation of Revolut at £1.2bn means that Crowcube investors who bought in at a value of around £44m when they raised £1m, are now sitting on a paper gain of 20X.

These figures are somewhat simplified but they are in the right ballpark. CC claim that its a 25X gain. Dilution has been approx at 137X for CC SHs and will clearly increase more if they need to raise more equity capital. The company removed all preemption rights from SHs last August. 

What you do have to remember, as you crack open your Miller Lite tonight, is that this is not yet a real gain. Their shares are illiquid - at that value anyway and the company is only valued at £1.2bn because some very rich Russians want a piece of it.

But it is great news for Crowdcube as they can now show that it is possible to get a 20X plus result - on paper. What they now need asap is for Revolut to surge forward in real value with an IPO or similar to realise that ROI and convert Crowdcube's claims into reality.

Hats off indeed.

Have you met The Russians? Revolut and Telegram have.

We were asked to provide some good news by a reader. That's quite difficult if we want to give you the facts. However this is an interesting illustration of the problems all things Russian have today.

As Im sure you all know, Revolut is the baby of a Russian parent. Recent news, which we were told was good news, reveals that there is a possible funding round for Revolut being led by DST, founded by the Russian venture capitalist Yuri Milner . This, if it happens, would push Revolut almost overnight into the Unicorn Club. It would also give Crowdcube investors a theoretical return of 30X.  You see we can do good 'news'.

But 'stoy' we cry. A recent development with the Telegram Chat App has led to the Russian Government blocking access. Telegram claims 9m Russian users. Telegram is owned by a Russian, Paul Durov. It recently completed a £1.2bn ICO. The reasons given for this block is that the company failed to give the Russian authorities access to the data of its subscribers. This is a so called security measure. The company originated in St Petersburg but left and is now in Dubai.

So when you hear that the company you invested in, Revolut for example,  has Russian connections, you should maybe factor this into your investment decision. Crowdfunding investors in Revolut came from Crowdcube and then Seedrs.

Cake take a break and are closed for now. So sorry!

Cake Technologies raised over £1m on Crowdcube in 2015; valuing the company at more than £10m. Now their website states they have completed that phase and are moving on with partners to the next phase. We have no idea what that means except that Cake is no longer functioning. 

This may of course be good news, as the company we wrote about here was heading west rapidly and had failed to raise any significant new cash in 2017. They certainly sound as if this is good news in their unapologetic stream of PRing that now greets Cakers on their home page - here. Id be smiling too if I had got away with burning around £2m in 24 months. 

So the company appears to be in mothballs - which if I remember correctly is not a flavour best suited to desserts. What actually happens next is anyone's guess. They are certainly not giving any clues. There does seem to be some connection between the new (Oct 17) directors and American Express but nothing confirmed. In terms of the market, new players since 2015 include Revolut, who now offer a similar service via their card. 

Thanks to the anon heads up on this one. 

Revolut goes dark

Revolut, the online bank funded by Crowdcube (£1m) and Seedrs (£4m), has server issues and accounts are blocked for 24 hours.

We will never know what happened in full, Revolut say that their server started having problems and the back up server crashed due to overloading. Outcome - customers lost service.

It's all fixed now apparently.

Was moving into insurance before getting this type of glitch sorted such a good idea? One things for sure when the internet goes wrong the world stops.