Everyone can become an Investor in exciting UK start-up companies

Crowdfunding platforms are a way for innovative young companies to drum up the early-stage funding they need to build a commercially viable product or accelerate their growth rates.

And for investors of all shapes and sizes these platforms offer investment opportunities that would not have been possible even 10 years ago.

Now, armed with a mobile phone and a credit card, anyone with as little as £50 in spare cash can become the online equivalent of Peter Jones or Deborah Meaden from Dragons’ Den.

And one of the great things about investing in early-stage, high growth companies is that the experience is rarely dull. Unlike investing in mature, blue chip companies in which shocks are relatively rare, start-ups, by their very nature must go through turbulent waters in order to achieve blue chip status and that journey has all the thrills of a rollercoaster.

Backing young companies might sound expensive and risky but it doesn’t have to be either of those things. Today with no more than £50 you can start investing in fledgling UK businesses through peer-to-peer platforms like Seedrs or Crowdcube. You’ll need more to invest on platforms like Syndicate Room or GrowthDeck, but the principles are the same.

More and more innovative young companies in the UK secure some portion of their funding through this new channel and the rest of us can help fuel the UK’s innovation by plugging into them too.

It is estimated that close to 800,000 people in the UK now have accounts with equity crowdfunding companies. According to a report from Statista the total annual volume of equity based crowdfunding in the United Kingdom (UK) grew from under 30 million British pounds in 2011 to over 360 million British pounds in 2018.

If everyone with a minimum of £50 to spare funnelled this into new funding sources for young UK companies it would supercharge the UK’s innovation overnight.

And once you invest in something, you’re more likely to track it, feedback to it and buy its products. That’s the cake part of this icing on the cake story.

Passion, community and great company stories drive a lot of the investing through peer-to-peer platforms too.

We all know entrepreneurs, creators and dreamers we’d like to support in some way and a small investment through a crowdfunding or lending platform can do a lot to propel these innovators forward.

There’s never been a more exciting or easier way to support UK innovation and continue building our reputation as an innovation nation.

Here at ECF Campaigns we will provide you with some insights into campaigns on the main UK equity crowdfunding platforms, which will hopefully make your job of selecting the best campaigns a little easier.

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