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VC Crowd is a hybrid between crowdfunding and venture capital. It offers members a subscription-based service through which they can own shares in a portfolio of early-stage companies.

They held their quarterly portfolio update this week which included a roundup of the progress made by the companies the VC Crowd has invested in.

Although we can’t share specific details as the information is commercially sensitive, there was quite a lot of useful information provided.

Most importantly, two of the portfolio companies have IPO’d and are now on the stock exchange. The circumstances of these two IPOs is quite different though, with one being a success story of a company on the up that was raising funds through its float to aid its expansion, whilst the other was more of a rescue job of a company that could have gone bust.

Unfortunately in the case of the latter it means significant dilution for shareholders, although there may be some bonus shares for VCC members to make up for some of the dilution.

It shows that IPOs can be used in different ways for companies in varying situations, but in both cases provide a platform to allow them to move forward. It also means both companies will not be tracked via VCC as such anymore as their updates will be made via official public channels as they are now on the stock market.

As to the other companies in the portfolio, it was somewhat of a mixed picture. Some are struggling to really take off whilst others are prospering. As we have said before this is the nature of venture capital investing and inevitably there will be some failures along the way.

It’s obviously a very tough time economically so any early stage companies that can survive through this period will have shown resilience and may come out the other side stronger.

 

 

 

 


VC Crowd – Results Update

6th March 2022

VC Crowd is a hybrid between crowdfunding and venture capital. It offers members a subscription-based service through which they can own shares in a portfolio of early-stage companies.

There was some good news recently from one of the VC Crowd’s portolio companies. Their natural drinks company has recently raised significant funding from a private placement. That has resulted in an increase in share price to £12.10 and an uplift in valuation to £48m.

The fundraising comes off the back of some big contracts wins reported by the company that it says will see it supply major UK retailers and produce substantial additional revenues.

We consider this to be the most significant update we have seen since joining VC Crowd. In some ways we are surprised there hasn’t been more fanfare about it from VCC. Although there was a webinar last week with the drinks company where they updated members on their progress and plans, the fundraising and valuation was barely mentioned, if at all.

And the only update on the VC Crowd website was a very brief news update a couple of months ago, before the fundraising had actually been completed.

The reason we believe this is so significant is that the fundraising is the first real concrete validation event of a company in the VCC portfolio. Whilst VCC often update share prices internally, these are fairly meaningless until they are actually validated through some kind of investment event like an IPO, trade sale or institutional investment.

The fact that a group of institutional investors and high net worth individuals have invested at this share price and valuation is a concrete validation and should be greatly applauded. Many early stage companies fail but this one has grown significantly in just a couple of years and has now been validated at an impressive valuation.

It’s really good to see a story like this from a company we have followed since its very early days and will continue to follow with great interest.

You can join VC Crowd here and get free shares in early-stage companies like this drinks company.

 

 

 

 


VC Crowd – Results Update

10th December 2021

VC Crowd is a hybrid between crowdfunding and venture capital. It offers members a subscription-based service through which they can own shares in a portfolio of early-stage companies.

In terms of updates, there have been two “spotlight” webinars with the CEOs of portfolio companies.

The first one, with a facilities management company, provided updates on their progress in securing new contracts, upgrading their technology and the plans for the next year.

The second one, from a payments company, provided some very promising updates on their progress on securing new deals, which they hope will be closed in the coming months and help them to increase their revenues.

They have recently launched in the US and are making some early steps there in signing up new SMEs, which has given them lots of useful data as they map out their expansion plans.

They stated that 2022 could be a big year for them as they look to expand internationally, having spent most of this year putting in place the regulatory and partnership requirements to enable them to scale up. Next they plan to hire new staff and begin marketing more expansively.

It’s very interesting to witness the journeys of these companies from start-ups through to early-stage, pre-revenue, then up to generating revenues and growth phases towards mature companies that could IPO or be bought out. You can see the teething problems and obstacles they encounter but also how they overcome them and often adapt to new circumstances by modifying their product or service.

In any event, it still may be some time before we see exit events for either of the two companies featured recently but it was very useful to get an insight on their progress and their plans for the future.

 

 

 


VC Crowd – Results Update

11th November 2021

VC Crowd is a hybrid between crowdfunding and venture capital. It offers members a subscription-based service through which they can own shares in a portfolio of early-stage companies.

In terms of updates, two of the portfolio companies in particular have been doing well. The healthy drinks company is making great strides and looking to expand its facilities.

The fire safety company is expanding into Europe, which is quite an achievement just 12 months after a rebrand and relaunch. With strong sales on Amazon and having recently gone into hardware stores in the UK, it looks like the world is their oyster.

As with all these companies though and as we have said before, it is a slow process to realise gains and there may be ups and downs along the way.

Meanwhile at the Crowd there have been more regular webinars with explanations around how they choose companies to invest in and how they hope to expand the membership base, which is good to see.

 

 

 


VC Crowd – Results Update

9th October 2021

VC Crowd is a hybrid between crowdfunding and venture capital. It offers members a subscription-based service through which they can own shares in a portfolio of early-stage companies.

They held their quarterly portfolio update this week which included a roundup of the progress made by the companies the VC Crowd has invested in.

Although we can’t share specific details as the information is commercially sensitive, there was generally good news presented, with a number of companies planning to IPO over the next couple of years. Some of those are at significantly higher valuations than VC Crowd invested in them at.

Others however have progressed more slowly and it struck us how slow progress can be in this space. Although VC Crowd tend to put a positive spin on things, there are certain cases where the progress this year has been behind the goals set out at the start of the year.

As long as they do end up achieving those goals and without too much delay then it is okay, but it does take quite a lot of patience as a member to stick with these companies sometimes when there are big plans talked about that don’t quite seem to materialize.

In any event, this is probably the norm for venture capital investing and as we have said many times in other reviews, it is very much a long-term game where patience is essential. If you are looking for fast returns then it is probably best looking elsewhere.

We hope that at some point our own patience will be rewarded, but in the meantime we just have to sit tight and closely monitor the progress of the portfolio companies.

 

 

 


VC Crowd – New Review

19th September 2021

VC Crowd is a hybrid between crowdfunding and venture capital. It offers members a subscription-based service through which they can own shares in a portfolio of early-stage companies.

The idea behind it is to fuse two separate ideas:

  • Firstly, taking the very popular format of crowdfunding which has worked very well on various platforms as a way for “everyday folk” to gain access to early stage companies that used to be the preserve of venture capital firms and very wealthy individuals; and
  • Secondly, bringing more of a community feel to it by providing regular updates from the companies themselves, holding events and providing active management of the companies in the portfolio.

This is an innovative approach and is something that has often been said is lacking from the crowdfunding space, where there can sometimes be little contact from companies once they have raised funds (until they want to raise funds again) and there is little or no active management of companies, so they are largely left to their own devices without scrutiny or assistance from the crowdfunding platform.

As we say, there is also a social element to VC Crowd with events – online and offline – held regularly and a chance to interact with other members.

The essence of the service though is of course the shares that members receive in portfolio companies and the performance of these is what we will concentrate on in this review.

There are two tiers of membership: £78 per month and £199 per month, with the former giving you:

  • Networking
  • Access to Insight Webinars
  • Access to Portfolio Update Webinars
  • Free Shares Every Month
  • Trade on the peer-to-peer market
  • Regular company updates & news

The latter gives you that plus:

  • Exclusive CEO Roundtable webinars
  • Free Entrance Tickets to all events
  • Priority access to community discounts
  • 1-2-1 sessions with the VC Crowd Advisory Team

We are signed up at the lower level and will record results of how we get on during this review.

In the meantime you can check out VC Crowd for yourself here.

 

 

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