JustUs investors given early access to Crowdcube campaign
JustUs investors have been given early access to a “follow on” fundraising campaign on Crowdcube, as the platform gears up to deliver peer-to-peer mortgages.
JustUs has just completed a £1.2m funding round, utilising the government’s future fund which supports innovative and growing companies.
It has now launched another funding round on equity crowdfunding platform Crowdcube, which it says is authorised by the British Business Bank to enable the JustUs growth plan.
The platform has invited its existing investors advanced access to the campaign, before it is opened up to the wider public in mid-January 2021. Investors can pledge as little as £10 each.
Read more: JustUs to launch P2P home mortgages in the new year
The aim of the funding round is to grow JustUs’s investor base and support the roll-out of its P2P owner-occupied mortgages, called the People’s Mortgage, next year.
The People’s Mortgage offers investors the opportunity to fund 2.5 per cent fixed interest rate residential mortgages for homeowners, which are Innovative Finance ISA eligible.
“In 2021, access to finance and mortgages will be harder than ever with over three million people and businesses currently excluded from mainstream financial services, come join JustUs and make a real difference,” JustUs founder Lee Birkett (pictured) said in an email to investors.
The government’s future fund provides businesses with convertible loans from the government subject to at least equal match funding from private investors. JustUs raised £600,000 from investors, which was matched by £600,000 in convertible loans under the scheme.
Read more: JustUs expects SBILS demand to pick up after government schemes end
Birkett has previously told Peer2Peer Finance News that the money raised from the future fund and the subsequent Crowdcube campaign will also go the platform’s Small Business Interruption Loan Service.
The scheme is aimed at businesses that have missed out on government lending schemes. Prospective borrowers can apply on the Moneybrain app, a sister brand of JustUs, then list their business and raise money through crowdfunding, which the company starts repaying a year later.
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