Seedrs

Seedrs is a prominent UK-based equity crowdfunding platform, established to democratize access to private company investments. It enables startups and growing businesses to raise capital from a diverse pool of individual investors, ranging from sophisticated angels to retail participants. By aggregating numerous small investments, Seedrs facilitates significant funding rounds for companies that might otherwise struggle to access traditional venture capital or angel networks. The platform's innovative model has positioned it as a key player in the European startup funding ecosystem.

At its core, Seedrs allows companies to set a fundraising target and offer equity stakes to the crowd. Individual investors can participate with relatively small amounts, often as little as £10, making private market investments accessible to a broad audience. Seedrs employs a "nominee" structure, where all individual investments are held under a single legal entity, simplifying the cap table for the fundraising company. This streamlined approach has proven highly effective, with Seedrs having facilitated over £1.9 billion in investment for more than 2,000 deals since its inception.

Beyond merely facilitating crowdfunding, Seedrs also acts as an institutional investor through its own managed funds, such as the Seedrs EIS Fund and the Seedrs Growth Fund. The Seedrs EIS Fund, for instance, co-invests alongside the crowd in eligible early-stage companies raising on the platform. This fund typically aims to invest 20% of a company's target raise, up to a maximum of £250,000 per company. This direct investment from Seedrs' managed funds provides a significant anchor for fundraising rounds and signals institutional confidence to potential crowd investors.

The Seedrs EIS Fund primarily targets early-stage UK companies seeking to leverage the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) tax relief. While the platform itself handles raises of varying sizes, from hundreds of thousands to multi-million-pound rounds, the direct investment from the Seedrs EIS Fund typically ranges from approximately £30,000 (for a company raising £150,000) up to its £250,000 cap. The Seedrs Growth Fund, on the other hand, focuses on follow-on investments in more mature companies that have previously raised on the platform, participating in larger growth rounds. This dual approach allows Seedrs to support companies across different stages of their development, from seed to growth.