Crowdstacker passes £800k fundraising target on Seedrs

CROWDSTACKER has passed its fundraising target of £800,000 on Seedrs, which is 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.

By late morning on Wednesday 19 September it had raised £801,142 from over 300 investors.

Karteek Patel (pictured), chief executive of Crowdstacker, said the funds raised will be used to develop their technology, recruit staff and expand its marketing efforts.

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“One of our goals since the very beginning has been to help investors diversify their investment portfolios,” said Patel.

“Diversification helps manage exposure to risk, and it can also help improve overall returns.

“Many everyday investors are, however, notoriously benign in the management of their investments.

“And essentially this is because it can be a cumbersome, time consuming and confusing thing to do – not something people always relish or get excited by.

“Our aim is to tackle all of these issues to make effective management of a risk-balanced portfolio a pain-free and quick process.”

Read more: Crowdstacker launches £800k Seedrs crowdfunding campaign

Crowdstacker recently announced that it is planning to launch cash and stocks and shares ISAsto offer greater diversity to its customers.

The peer-to-peer business lending platform, which was one of the first P2P firms to launch an Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA), is currently developing a cash ISA and plans to launch a stocks and shares ISA later down the line.

Patel said this will enable Crowdstacker’s customers to manage their traditional and alternative investments across the same platform.

For example, they will be able to see the returns that are being generated by their IFISA, stocks and shares ISA and cash ISA in one place.

Read more: Crowdstacker drops loan sale fee