Crowdstacker launches £800k Seedrs crowdfunding campaign

CROWDSTACKER is looking to raise £800,000 via Seedrs, which will be its first major external investment into the business.

The business peer-to-peer lender has been running a private fundraise on the equity crowdfunding platform, offering 3.93 per cent of equity, and has already raised half of its target.

The campaign is now public and Karteek Patel (pictured), chief executive of Crowdstacker, said the funds raised will be used to develop the technology, recruit staff and expand its marketing.

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Rather than seeking support from a bank, Patel said he wanted platform users to share in Crowdstacker’s growth.

“We are coming up to our three-year anniversary and have achieved some great things from being one of the first regulated platforms to have one of the early Innovative Finance ISAs,” he said.

“We have generated more revenue with less investment than many of our competitors and are now looking to accelerate that reach.”

Patel said Crowdstacker was targeting different types of businesses compared with other P2P lenders, favouring more of the medium-sized rather than small firms.

“Medium-sized firms have a big influence on the UK economy,” he added.

“They require something different from what other P2P platforms offer as they have gone through the start-up phase and are potentially more solid, so an automated credit type system doesn’t necessarily work for them.”

Patel said there were other business lending projects in the pipeline, with the platform aiming to upload one opportunity a month this year.

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