Crowd2Fund approved for EIS tax relief as it plans funding rounds
CROWD2FUND has been approved for the enterprise investment scheme (EIS) and is planning new funding rounds to support its next stage of growth.
The peer-to-peer business lender announced that it has been formally granted its advance assurance from HMRC, meaning that up to £12m can be invested into the platform under EIS, from private investors or specialist EIS funds.
“It is a tremendously generous scheme, through which investors receive excellent tax incentives for investing in businesses, like Crowd2Fund, who offer benefits to the wider economy,” the firm said.
To celebrate this, Crowd2Fund said that it is planning an investment round, releasing additional equity for its users.
Read more: Crowd2Fund to launch ‘contingency fund’ for investors
The proceeds of the fundraise will be used to grow the platform further by acquiring a larger investor community, completing more deals and enhancing its recoveries and assessment processes. The London-headquartered firm is also expanding internationally via the fintech bridge programme, which is an initiative designed to stimulate fintech cross-border trade with international markets.
“Crowd2Fund has spent the last 12 months refining their business model, now backed up by years of data and evidence, to prove their plan to scale is feasible,” the firm said. “By reaching an investor community of 28,000 over the next few years, they will be able to lend more than £210m per year.
“Their proposition is different from other online lenders, who pool their funds and do not allow investors to choose the businesses they invest in. They also operate an Exchange for investors and allow businesses to reduce the cost of the credit by inviting their customers to invest or by offering tangible rewards.”
Read more: Crowd2Fund founder unveils new blockchain-based payments solution
Crowd2Fund also said that it is planning a £10m Series A investment round next year, to pioneer the world’s first decentralised bank, combining the benefits of a challenger bank with P2P lending.
“By offering direct investing into entrepreneurs and their AI-automated investing system with deposit capabilities and full banking services, they will build a community of entrepreneurial investors and small- and medium-sized enterprises,” the firm said.
Read more: 80pc of Crowd2Fund investors outperform platform’s best forecasts