FintekNews friends, while we love all things financial technology, we realize there are risks with some of the new investing opportunities, particularly those around crowdfunding. Some - not all - are scams or simply poorly hatched ideas. Not so according to a recent announcement from UK-based crowdfunding platform CrowdCube, which has announced that one of the companies who raised money on its platform - Celixir, previously named Cell Therapy Limited, has announced "a share buy-back that has provided investors with a 2.7x return on the original investment they made in 2014." The platform has over 380,000 registered investors and has raised over £235,830,714 to date for 547 successful campaign raises. Their average investment is £1,789. Great to see!
(Cindy Taylor, Publisher)
"Formerly known as Cell Therapy Limited, Celixir discovered and developed Heartcel™, a medicine that treats heart failure by regenerating cardiac muscle. In 2014 it raised £691k on Crowdcube – 176% over its target – from 300 investors in just 10 days. All investors were offered the opportunity to sell their shares. 18% opted to sell shares, with 82% keeping their money in the business, which hopes to go public in the future. The Cardiff-based company is now valued in excess of £200m, triple the valuation it was given at the time of its pitch on Crowdcube.
Luke Lang, Crowdcube’s co-founder, says: "It’s truly impressive that Celixir is in a position to buy back shares two and a half years after funding on our platform, and once again provides hard proof that crowdfunded companies can deliver healthy financial returns for their investors. The company’s valuation increase is testament to the quality of the ventures that pitch on our platform, and also to the ‚wisdom of the crowd’, which recognised its huge potential back in 2014. Crowdfunding continues to mature. Not only has Celixir’s share sale provided investors with liquidity, but the fact that so many of them chose not to exit illustrates the confidence crowdfunders have in the long-term growth of the businesses they back.”
Co-founder of Celixir, Ajan Reginald, says: "Our mission is to develop life-saving medicines. We hope these medicines will be available to everyone in need and so we believed it was important to give everyone the opportunity to invest through Crowdcube in 2014, since which our value has tripled. We believe it is only right to share this opportunity with all shareholders, although only 53 of our 300 Crowdcube investors decided to sell shares which is a very positive sign of the confidence they have in our business.”
The other Crowdcube-funded businesses to deliver returns to investors are:
- E-Car Club, the electric car sharing club for businesses and communities, which was sold to Europcar in the summer of 2015 – becoming the first crowdfunded business in the UK to execute a successful exit.
- Camden Town Brewery, which was bought by AB InBev in December 2015, just eight months after raising investment on Crowdcube.
- Disruptive fashion brand Wool and the Gang, which was acquired by BlueGem Capital Partners in August 2016.
- Bond repayments from River Cottage, the Eden Project, Chilango and BrewDog..."