Crowdcube, the first securities crowdfunding platform to launch in the UK and now operating in continental Europe, is touting its service as now providing a “full menu” of both primary and secondary securities offerings.
This is an adjustment to market realities as investors want alternatives. Not everyone is keen on shouldering the risk of a startup or very early-stage venture, as most of these businesses fail. More mature firms tend to hold less risk. As private markets have grown, due to promising firms remaining private for as long as possible, more investors are interested in participating in later-stage private firms.
Crowdcube, with its recent partnership with the London Stock Exchange and its PISCES platform, took another step in the direction of becoming a full-service investment platform for its users.
The LSE partnership augments Crowdcube’s existing offerings of later-stage securities. In a blog post, Crowdcube stated:
“Over the past 12 months, Crowdcube has placed blocks of shares in Mistral ($14b valuation), Perplexity ($21b valuation), Atom Bank (£397m valuation) and BOLT (£5bn) ahead of its anticipated IPO, helped Chip complete an £11m share sale comprised of both primary and secondary, and powered the largest secondary event by number of sellers ever recorded in the UK and EU — a Moneybox transaction involving 24,000 shareholders.”
“We occupy a unique position in the market today. We are winning against much larger players because we offer companies a full menu of choices, and in our universe almost every situation has distinct requirements,” says Matt Coooper, Crowdcube co-CEO. “Our highly differentiated platform allows companies to select the solution that precisely fits their needs.”
Crowdcube notes that a secondary offering can also be paid with a new issuance. Crowdcube adds that its Public Offer Platform (POP) designation enables uncapped offers without a full prospectus.
Crowdcube also serves institutions.
All of this is emblematic of the transformation of platforms that started as early-stage investment platforms and have since scaled to later-stage offerings/pre-IPO opportunities. Over time, a natural progression will be tokenization, crypto, and public securities. Add banking features to this list.
