Yesterday we published an article about BrewDog raising £10 million on Crowdcube. The funding round via Mini-bonds was described as the largest ever on a UK crowdfunding platform. Later in the day, Crowdfund Insider was contacted by Crowdstacker saying not so fast – they believe they have the largest crowdfund record for a UK platform.
Although Crowdstacker is a relatively new platform, the company focuses on raising larger amounts for selected, UK businesses. The total raised on the platform to date is about £20 million.
Their new record-breaking claim to a single raise has been undertaken via its peer to peer lending platform for leading specialist lender, Amicus Finance plc. To date, £12 million has been invested. Crowdstacker says that 100% of the funds lent to Amicus has come from retail investors with no institutional money being invested.
Crowdstacker reports that over 1300 lenders have taken advantage of returns averaging 5.64% p.a. To date over £190,000 interest has been paid out.
According to Crowdstacker, a significant proportion of lenders (approximately 50%) are utilising their annual ISA allowance to lend via Crowdstacker’s Innovative Finance ISA, one of the Government’s newest ISA innovations.
Karteek Patel, CEO of Crowdstacker, said;
“Lending to Amicus means lending to a reliable, responsible business with an excellent track record, all whilst enjoying inflation beating interest rates. This, coupled with the fact you can invest via our tax-efficient Innovative Finance ISA, has meant it has been, and continues to be, extremely popular with our lender base.”
Now Crowdcube is an investment crowdfunding platform and Crowdstacker is a P2P lender so you may want to differentiate between the two services. It is up to you.