Downing Crowd Takes Advantage of Higher €8 million Crowdfunding Limit with Most Recent Offering

Investment crowdfunding platform Downing Crowd is taking advantage of the new UK prospectus limit – a regulatory change that increases the crowdfunding limit to €8 million. Effectively a European rule, the threshold at which a prospectus for an offering was increased this past July from €5 million to €8 million or about £7 million.

Downing says their Downing Reserve Power Bond is the most popular offering on the platform to date and has already broken through the previous threshold of £4.25 million. The platform says that due to demand the bond’s capacity will now be extended to £7 million.

Downing Reserve Power is a company that makes loans secured against the assets of reserve power projects in the UK. Reserve power works by storing energy using either battery technology or gas-fired engines during times when demand is lower, which can then be used when demand increases.

“The underlying principle of a prospectus – to provide detail to help investors’ understanding of the offer – is a good one. However, the reality is more often the total opposite, with the length and complexity of prospectuses actually making it harder for investors to build this understanding,” says Julia Groves, Partner at Downing LLP and Head of Downing Crowd. “It’s still absolutely crucial for investment firms to demonstrate their due diligence and present all the key facts and risks to investors but this change from the FCA creates an opportunity to present this in a much more concise way, that’s likely to be better understood and more widely read.”

Groves adds that she is confident the decision by the UK Financial Conduct Authority is a good one for investors:

“… we’ve taken steps to help our clients realise its benefits through our Downing Reserve Power Bond. We’re the first platform to put this into practice for a bond offer and are excited about the opportunities it will create. The bond itself also provides an excellent chance for investors to get actively involved in stopping a potential energy crisis, resulting from the UK’s outdated energy infrastructure, which simply cannot cope with the greater fluctuations in demand that occur in today’s market.”