The ‘Crowd’ raises £4.4m in first half of 2013 – nearly double for whole of 2012

Luke Lang, co-founder of of the leading crowdfunding companies Crowdcube says, “That’s a whopping 524 per cent increase and we’re only at the start of June. In fact, we funded 25 pitches for a total of £2.7 million during the whole of last year – that’s a huge leap and we’ve smashed our targets.

It’s fantastic to see the model taking off like this in the UK. We’re excited about the next phase of our growth at home and abroad.”

Crowdcube, which pioneered equity crowdfunding, funded nearly £3.5m in the last two months, with eight businesses reaching their targets in May.”

14 of the 25 successful pitches this year were for £100,000 or more. The top pitches in 2013 to date are:

In May, Crowdcube raised £1.5 million in just three days from 256 of its members. This set a new world-record for the biggest equity crowdfunding deal. The capital is being used to expand internationally, to recruit more staff and to ramp up its marketing activity.

The Rushmore Group, owner of three members’ clubs in London, secured £0.5 million investment from 72 investors in April. This was the third time it had used Crowdcube, having previously raised £1.5 million in November 2011 and January 2012.

Lawbit, an online legal service providing simple contracts for small companies, acquired nearly £400,000 from 177 backers in May.

Clive Rich, founder of Lawbit says, ”We already had angel backing but when we discovered Crowdcube and the power of the crowd, we were able to raise almost double the investment in a few days; we’re delighted to have found a group of like-minded, passionate investors. Working with the guys at Crowdcube is great; they’re professional, very knowledgeable and go the extra mile to be helpful.