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Monday 27 February 2017

Estatesdirect.com sham Crowdcube valuation revealed


Estatesdirect.com persuaded 181 Crowdcube investors to part with £493k in 2014 - at a company valuation of £5m


We wrote about them recently as they are way off track and all but one of the original stella lineup had left.

Well turns out they didn't leave, they were bought out. We spoke to the company CEO and he confirmed that the A shareholders were 'made an offer they couldnt refuse'. He was one of them.

According to figures at CH and we mention here that these figures have in the past proved unreliable, the company issued 50m shares in 2016 - increasing their issued shares to 150m. These new shares were issued for around £500k. This in turn values the company at around £1.5m. All the shares were purchased by PP Asset Management owned by the Pels family office. Pels now own just over 100m of the 150m shares through PP Asset Management and a new vehicle PP Online Estate Agent Holdings - 100% owned by PP AM. 

We just wonder, when Crowdcube create one of their many infographics showing the fictional increase in values for all the investors who have bought shares via the platform, is this massive down round included?



Thursday 23 February 2017

2017 - Crowdcube's lack of progress



We are now almost at the end of month 2 for 2017. So just how have Crowdcube done in these months of their seventh year?


Truth is not too well.

To break even CC need to have net revenues of around £8m. At a commission rate of 7% that would mean completing around £100m in terms of raises for the year - even allowing for any extra income they might put together.

January saw them complete on just under £4m of deals and so far this month they have completed on just £2m. Average those up and add a little for the next few days and you are looking a best case of £7m over 2 months or just over £42m annualised for the year. Recently they or rather two of their pitches have been forced to reduce their valuations in an attempts to get over the line. It remains to be seen if this works.

That revenue is under half what they need. And we havent even published our report yet!

Looking at some hard numbers rather than their PR, the picture certainly isn't rosy. Revenues for Q1 (calendar) of 2016 were just over £900k. Looking at Q1 for 2017 the company will need to complete between £12m and £13m at an average commission rate 7% to just keep up. Or in other words March will need to see completed raises totally almost the same as January and February added together just to stay where they are - losing a a lot of cash. 

There are extraneous circumstances for the fall in deals being done. But its not like we couldnt see that coming post the summer of 2016. There is little sign that things will be getting better in the months to come. They might want to consider the damaging cumulative effect continuous fantasy valuations and projections are having on investors faith in their model. But of course they wont.

It will be interesting to see how Luke Lang spins these  - he did a Murali on the December 2016 figures - ridiculously ignoring the fact that they were hugely boosted by the Brewdog £10m bond. Bet they were not paying 7%.

There will always be a position for him in The Donald's new White House when Crowdcube eventually succumbs to the inevitable. 


Wednesday 22 February 2017

Latest Beauhurst Report is debunked as fake news


We had an email today from Beauhurst -  you know Beuahurst the experts on Fintech News. It stated that Satago had been sold for an undisclosed sum to Oxygen.

We reported in this on this blog - Satago was funded via Seedrs. How often do we get the chance to report some good news about equity crowdfunding?

It was a Kellyannism.

Satago went into administration with Seedrs telling shareholders that they would receive nout back. Oxygen bought the company out for next to nout in a pre pack deal. 

Then all of sudden its a roaring bloody success - here is what they said........

What happened to the startups of yesteryear?

This week has been rewarding for investors in high-growth companies: Xafinity Consulting raised £190m in its IPO on the LSE; Ramsdens raised £15.6m with an IPO on AIM; and SatagoCustomadeRoot6, and SecretSales were all acquired.
So its all complete BS. Someone needs a grilling. You simply cant have fake news outlets trsuted with financially sensitive information in the public domain. Beauhurst are a total sham. 

Meanwhile on another ECF Platform some good news


Seedrs funded Satago have been bought by Oxygen Finance for an, as yet, undisclosed sum. 


First round investors via Seedrs bought in at a company value of just over £100k, so there is hope for healthy return after 4 years.

The last accounts filed by the company showed hefty losses but clearly the fit with Oxygen is a good one.

Gripit forced to slip on its fantasy valuation



We have been here before. A Crowdcube pitch forced to lower its valuation due to lack of interest.


You would have though that with the considerable backing of Dragon Meaden, that this fantasy valuing could be avoided.

Bragging about the fact that you are stocked in over 5000 UK stores and that you export to 32 countries when your entire turnover for 2016 was just over £1m is a little foolish. There has to something very wrong with the product or its pricing for sales per unit to be so very low. 

The value has now been dropped by £2.5m pre money. This is still high for a company that has so far completely failed to deliver on its potential or its projections from the previous raise. Still it has just succeeded with its US patent, so maybe things are on the up.

Depends really whether you believe the hype in the business plan. It still has a long way to go to get over its Crowdcube line - dont bet against a new valuation anytime soon.

Tuesday 21 February 2017

Innovationmakers report further large losses


                                   

           


Innovation makers have raised around £600k on Crowdcube in two pitches.


The first pitch showed them making a profit for YE May 16 of £707k. Accounts just filed for the year have losses of £250k. By May of this year they projected annualised profits of over £1.5m.

It's a neat enough product, although the patent has been pending for a while. But why cant they produce projections that are at least on the same planet as their real figures? They made that elementary mistake on the first raise. 

Even allowing for the changed filing dates, the projections from just a year ago are way off the real figures for the last year. Its is really pretty pathetic unless it's being done on purpose. It must be a case of business naivity but it's one that has a habit of repetition.

Now they will almost certainly be raising more cash this year. Cant wait for the increased valuation and its accompanying legion of alternative facts. 



                         

Crowdcube's UP Investments manages a sale.

UP Investments raised money on Crowdcube in 2014. Now the company is being sold.

But read on, as it's not really. 

Since 2014 the company has made cumulative losses of £734k against projected losses of £361k. So pretty standard for a Crowdcube company.

What is odd about this one is the line up of their management team. 

A quick glance at their website shows a large team - 20 of them.

A quick check on their CH page shows all but three of the company directors have resigned. And note they resigned well before the company was sold.

The company's General Counsel and Compliance Director states that ''This business has downscaled and has been engaged in finding a strategic partner due to funding constraints''  on his Linkedin page. Thats ok and must be true given that this guy is a lawyer. Incidentally he resigned as a director in June 2016.

Jim Milby who is listed on the company's website as the Chairman makes no mention of UP in his Linkedin page.

The Finance Director resigned in May 2016.

Several Directors talk about the sale including the founder. Like it was a success.

The company somehow managed to be included in a list of the World's Top 25 Fintech companies published in the Sunday Times. Crowdcube were not on the list. In fact not one of the UK's equity Crowdfunding sites made the list. How UP got on to it is anyone's guess. 

We asked the company for a comment. They responded that the company had been or was in the process of being sold for an undisclosed amount with the agreement of the shareholders. Only one of the stated management team is actually working for the company. The company runs a FCA regulated platform.

So this has to go down as a Crowdcube success - doesnt it?

Addendum

Below is the full text of the email from UP to shareholders last October. As you can see claims made by most of the company's directors (on their Linkedin pages) that the company was sold is a a trumpism. Watching the salesmens' (UP directors) videos it is now clear that this company was far from a good bet. A couple of points to note -

1. Their advice on claiming negligible value is contrary to HMRC EIS rules and HMRC have refused applications. Useful advice from a FCA licensed platform!!

2. There was no agreement from shareholders as the CEO James has claimed to us - that is a Kellyannism.

3. White Label Crowdfunding Ltd is a hollow company with very little capital as we write. What they do have is a close relationship with Rebuilding Society, which, not surprisingly, is a main contributor to the investment opportunities listed on the failed UP platform. Ignoring the poor grade of investments they offer, we hardly think that this will pass FCA approval; if they are awake. By way of an example, the CEO of White Label is also the CEO and founder of Rebuilding and on his Linkedin page, White Label give Rebuilding as their main client. Some achievement that!

 Crowdcube DD as usual nowhere to be seen...............

Dear Shareholder

As per my recent email, the Board has concluded that there is no prospect of UP Investments Holdings (UK) Limited (“UIH”) raising further funding to put our platform onto a commercial footing.

The Board has thus reached an agreement for the sale of UP Investments Holdings (UK) Limited (“UIH”) to White Label Crowdfunding Limited (“WLCF”).

The Board recommends the sale of UIH to WCLF

The Board has performed an exhaustive search for potential buyers over the past six months, and is confident that the offer from WLCF represents the best available value for shareholders. The owners of WLCF have impressed the Board with their development plans for the Platform.

The Board has agreed that to put UIH on a commercial footing requires further development work. This work will need substantial further funding, and WCLF have a better chance of  raising the capital needed to achieve this.

Both parties have agreed to structure the Deal as a simple Share-for-share exchange, with each of you receiving 17 WLCF Shares for every 30 newly consolidated UIH Shares that you hold.

The sole asset of UIH is its investment in UP Investments Limited (“UIL”), and UIL has made significant trading losses in the two accounting periods that ended on 31/05/2016.

Enterprise Investment Scheme (“EIS”) shareholder considerations

The Board’s financial advisors believe that UIH shares do not currently have any financial value, and the Board urges you to seek to file Negligible Value Claims on your shares as soon as possible. Filing a Negligible Value Claim will allow you to make Share Loss Relief Claims against your total income of the current and prior tax years.

For those of you who are waiting for your EIS claim forms, please note that our accountants have submitted the EIS1 form to HMRC. Therefore you should expect to receive your EIS3 claim forms shortly.

Any Income Tax Relief you have claimed to date under the provisions of either the EIS or the SEIS Scheme will not be reclaimed, but instead, will be deducted from the initial cost of the shares when calculating the Share Loss Relief.

The Board hopes that the WLCF shares that you receive in exchange for your UIH shares will appreciate in value once the Platform begins full commercial operation.

Please bear in mind that any gains you realise on the WLCF Shares in the future will be subject to standard Capital Gains Tax.

Shareholders are advised to take professional advice on all the above tax matters and the Agreement itself before taking the steps set out below.

WCLF's vision for UIH

Attached to this email is an overview, written by the prospective buyers, of their vision for UIH. Please have a look at this before the formal offer is made later this week.

The next steps in the process

In the coming days, the prospective buyer will be emailing you with the following the documents via an online signing service. As of tomorrow, the directors - including myself - will sign the agreement in advance of other shareholders.

A copy of the Share Sale Agreement
A share indemnity letter
A stock transfer form with your details

When you receive these documents, please give them your consideration  before making a decision to sign. Your signature will state to the buyer that you are willing to accept the terms of the Deal.

A final thank you from myself

The last twelve months have been difficult at times. They have taught me that a new injection of funding and enthusiasm is needed in order to realise my vision for UP.

The people behind WLCF share both my vision and my approach, so I am pleased to recommend this deal.

I have agreed to stay on with the company as a non-executive director. I will look to help smooth the transition and assist the new owners with progressing their plans to reimagine and restore UP.


Yours sincerely,
James 











Sunday 19 February 2017

As Crowdcube celebrate 6 years of Alternative Facts, Pod Point takes the Piss


Podpoint raised £1.8m just 11 months ago on Crowdcube. Now they are back for more and proclaim that they are one of the UK's fastest growing tech companies.

However it is not quite that simple. 

In their 2016 pitch, the company gave investors incorrect historic financial data for 2014/15. They, along with the FCA regulated Crowdcube, published so called historic figures for that year, showing a profit. In fact once the accounts were filed (after the pitch) they reported a loss. That is pretty shabby.

In the projections for 2015/16 they showed a small loss of £70k. Remember this 'projection' was published when well over half of the year had been completed. It is now clear, from the new Crowdcube pitch, that the real loss for the year was £3.226m. The chasm is mainly made up from a turnover that was barely more than 50% of the projection and costs that were much higher. Future years are now completely different to the projections presented just 11 months ago. Makes the claim to be such a fast growing company look a little trumpish.

The turnover for 2014/15 was according to the historic figures given, £6.4m. The turnover given in the latest pitch for the 2015/16 was just £5m. So this incredibly fast growing company slowed down in 2015/16 by a whopping 28%. That's clever for a fast growing entity. 

Nowhere in the 2016 Crowdcube  pitch did they mention raising more cash. 

Despite their dismal performance, the company has miraculously increased it's pre money valuation from £26m to £35m in 11 months. 

Now we have this new pitch coming just weeks before they are due to publish the 2015/16 accounts, which on past history will be worse than the Crowdcube stated figures. If I was interested in this company, Id certainly want to see the filed accounts now - not just after this round of funding.

This is not about whether this company can go on to make it - it has considerable backing from some serious sources. It is about the use of what now appears to be intentionally highly over optimistic projections and a total lack of regard for accuracy in reporting the historic figures, inflamed by a crazy system where valuations always go up - not matter what happened to the profits and turnover. Kellyanne Conway must be in the room.  Can you have any faith in their new projections, given the extraordinary gap in the last set?

The company says the undershoot in revenues is down to a change in tactics. Larger corporate deals with revenues pushed out by a few years, have taken over the place of smaller cash generating deals. Well that is a surprise given this 'revelation' occurred in 2016 before July(YE in June) but after March (when they completed the CC raise based on small deals). If the smaller deals where in fact there to be done, why would you reject them? Why not do both? Who's to say what they will be doing this year. 

It could just be a case of their new backers Draper Esprit wanting to use Crowdcube for some free exposure and useful PR. It would not be the first time Crowdcube investors have been cannon fodder. An interesting idea when you consider that Draper Esprit are backers of guess who as well.

Although as someone has pointed out below - the US firm Charge Point have raised between $50m and $100m for expansion - some of it in Europe. So maybe they could look at a short cut buy Pod Point and give the poor backers of Crowdcube businesses a hard ear,ned return. Then again maybe not. 

Saturday 18 February 2017

Tempus Energy join the Crowdcube pile


Tempus raised over £600k on Crowdcube in 2015. Recent accounts show them galaxies off course and the crew have abandoned ship.


The Crowdcube vetted projections for this company showed them making a very healthy profit of over £800k for their last financial year. As ever, the real story is rather different. They filed a loss of over £600k for the period. Next year's chasm should be even better with expected profits of £6.5m.

Worse news for shareholders is the fact that of the 6 Directors who made up the power team that would drive these exceptional profits on the Crowdcube pitch - all have resigned apart from the founder.

Wednesday 15 February 2017

What's happening at Ethos Global?


Ethos Global raised £709k on Crowdcube a year ago. Valued then at around £4m on the basis of their Cambridge studio and the new opening in Spitalfields London, the company accounts are now 5 months overdue.

Being late filing annual accounts is nothing new. Being 5 months late is however unusual. They are also overdue their Confirmation Statement, so their page at Companies House is mainly in the red. We decided to look into it and came up with some rather odd discoveries.

Ethos based its whole Crowdcube pitch on the success of its Cambridge studio in the St Andrews House building in the centre of Cambridge. According to their shopfitters AOC, they spent £1m on the fit out. According to the Crowdcube pitch - 

Since launch our Cambridge High Street location has served over 10,000 individual customers and exceeds revenue targets with 83% customer rentention rate. This was achieved prior to first investment in November 2015.

So it has come as some surprise to find that the Cambridge studio has closed down. The space is currently on the market with Bidwells  This studio had been going since 2013 and shortly after raising their money on Crowdcube, they closed it.

In order to get to the bottom of this, we sent Ethos a series of questions. See below


  1. Why have you closed your Cambridge studio?
  2. Did you sell the lease or just close?
  3. What happned to the £1m shopfit investment (AOC’s figure) which you invested in Cambridge.
  4. Was the closure on the horizon when you raised the Crowdcube funding?
  5. Why are your accounts now very overdue?
  6. You claimed to be opening a minimum of one new unit per year. So how is this going? To date you seem to have closed one and opened none?
We had this reply today from the 'Communications' Dept - 


Hi Rob, 

Thanks for your email and apologies on the slow reply. 

At this moment in time ETHOS Global ltd has no comment on the questions below. 

Kind Regards, 

DANIEL BOOTH
Head Of Communications   


There is no reason for Ethos to answer our queries - we are not shareholders. However we do have a good number of readers who might be. 








Sunday 12 February 2017

Estatesdirect.com - who's hanging around?



First it was the founder and Chairman Steve Smith of Poundland fame. Now the multi millionaire Darren Richards has also left.

We dont know why, yet, but the two key figures behind Estatesdirect, which raised £493k on Crowdcube in 2014, have both now left the company. Obviously if things had been going to plan, then this wouldnt have happened. In the Crowdcube video, the company claimed it had a 3 year plan to have hundreds of local offices all over the UK. The video map which is populated with these offices, has many of them in Loch Ness!

Richards made his money by selling DatingDirect.com to Match.com for £27m. With that sort of capital you might ask why they needed Crowdcube.

Another one of the company's big hitters Rodger Danks has also gone overboard.

We tried the site just to see what was happening. They offer a free instant valuation service. It's crap. We had a house valued recently and the value that Estatesdirect came up with is around half the real value. According to Steve Smith in 2014, the company had more than 130 franchisees lined up  - here. Yet a quick search reveals that they have very few, if any, franchisees live today. 

Accounts are not due out until August so we will just have to wait - unless of course it closes before then. Shareholders, convinced by the A Lister team members, must just hope that there is someone still in the wheel house.

PS - Luke Lang backed this one personally which is a sure sign that it's going tits up.

Friday 10 February 2017

Iolight fails to illuminate Crowdcube's darkness


Iolight raised £240k on Crowdcube in 2015. They are now raising £250k at a value showing an uplift of 30%. 

Of course they are not really raising £250k as we all know - the real target will be nearer £400k. Even in the 2015 they had this new raise projected at £300k. 

The company makes a great product - whether it has a large market is another matter. Sales to YE July 16 of just £8k, dont prove anything. Other than they cant be relied upon to produce projections - the 2015 raise was sold on 15/16 producing over £60k of sales. More worrying as an investor must be their GPM. Projected at 77% it came in at just 68% and is now projected to be just 60% - some variation when you consider that for every one percent drop on a million pound t/o you lose £10k of profit. 

All subsequent years for Iolight have now been tightly reigned in from the 2015 figures - but this doesnt get a mention in the pitch. 

It is just another case of a perfectly good Crowdcube business rigging the projections in order to sell the equity. When 99.9% of these projections produce results all lying in the same direction, the pattern is unmistakable. 

We dont think this is a responsible way to do business. Essentially it's a sales trick. The companies or at least some of them may turn out to be successful - although none have so far in any meaningful way. So why cant we have Crowdcube projections that are attainable? The answer may lie in Crowdcube's own projections which at the last count were, by someway, the worst we have seen - out by a staggering £8m for the last filed year.

Nothing like leading by example.  

Thursday 9 February 2017

Crowdcube's Vulpine success heads rapidly downhill.



Vulpine raised over £1m on Crowdcube in 2015. The pitch was a massive success; more than doubling its £500k target.

This blog was sent a couple of messages last year stating that the company was in trouble - we wrote about it here

Well the accounts to YE April 2016 are now in.

In the Crowdcube projections the company showed a small loss of £224k for the year. In reality the company has filed a loss of £770k - or more than 3 times the 'projection'. Remember this projection was made during that financial year, so you have to wonder if it was a legitimate attempt or something else.

Add to this, the fact that 6 Directors resigned in 2016 and it does look as though the wheels have come off.

Part of the Vulpine message sent to shareholders in June 2016 read -

After considerable first time orders were placed By Evans Cycles for the first year of HOY Vulpine, on an exclusive basis, we had predicted growth of HOY Vulpine wholesale. Unfortunately our estimates coincided with a cycling clothing downturn across all the industry, from top to bottom. A new buying team at Evans are buying extremely cautiously, and are supporting their in-house brands where they have the greatest margin, so 2016 orders did not materialise, after the superb start to HOY Vulpine last year.

A warning that we have banged on about here since we started blogging. A warning that the likes of Righteous and Cauli Rice have failed to heed - new listings do no guarantee consistent new business. Warning lights are flashing.

The Hoy range, which was the big up in the Crowdcube pitch, is longer on their website. 



Wednesday 8 February 2017

We are at the Master Investor London event 25 March - come and say hello



Make You Billions has been invited to attend this event on the 25 March in London's Business Design Centre in Islington. We have a stand in new area set up for bloggers.

We hope that this will coincide with the completion of our extensive research into 5 years of Crowdcube funded businesses.

I will be there all day to discuss our findings and talk about the future of Equity Crowdfunding as we see it - as well as promoting our equity crowdfunding consultancy.

This is the first time that MI has had a select group of alternative media assemble for their annual event. It promises to be an entertaining day. We have a small number of unallocated guest tickets so please get in touch and we will issue them on a FCFS basis.

Master Investor aims to meet the growing demand for alternative media and thrives on offering independent commentary, opinion and analysis to UK private investors. As well as a digital media platform, the company hosts the annual Master Investor Show – a flagship event that shows private investors the full scope of investments available to them today.
Organisers at this year’s Master Investor Show expect between 4,000 and 5,000 visitors through the door. Almost 100 companies will exhibit and 50 guest speakers are invited, including celebrity investors such as Jim Mellon. Show sponsors are Fidelity International, SyndicateRoom, Selftrade, Northland Capital, Seven Investment Management, London South East and Huddle Capital.
VIP tickets to the Master Investor Show are available for any journalist wanting to cover the event. Please email james.hudson@masterinvestor.co.uk for more details. To find out more about Master Investor Show 2017, visit: www.masterinvestor.co.uk/show

Monday 6 February 2017

Getting a Grip on some slippery figures in the Den.


Gripit raised £1.99m less than a year ago on Crowdcube. Valued then at £12m PM, the company showed no new raises would be required before 2019. Now they are back again raising another £1.5m at around a PM value of £20m. 

Backed by Dragon Meadon, the company makes and sells loads of widgets to help fix plasterboard.

What they dont seem capable of doing is creating any sensible financial projections.

Last year they claimed that 2016 would see a turnover of £2.546m. An impressive rise from the historic 2015 revenue of £338k. 

Now we learn from this new raise, the actual revenue for 2016 was only £1.189m - so well under half that anticipated in the first quarter of that year. Likewise the figures for 2017, which last year showed revenues of £8.885m are now projected to be only 3.984m. You get the picture.

As usual with Crowdcube financials, the GPM is more myth than fact and they missed their 2016 target by a whole 5%. Losses for 2016 were almost 4 times larger than the 2016 projections.

Now this company may go on to do great things. But why is it that 99% of companies (our research will back this up) fail to get even close to the projections they issue and that Crowdcube vet? Even a company with the help of an old wise bird like Meadon has fallen into this very obvious trap. 

Surely they dont do this on purpose?

In the pitch there is a passing nod to the fact that sales for 2016 were way off the published targets. Yet even here, the company claims  ' so we anticipate 2017 to be back on track, '  - yet the figures for 2017 are now only a fraction of the 2017 figures given in the first pitch just 10 months ago. The track seems to be an entirely movable feast.

Invest but dont expect them to sell anything like the numbers they say they will. If this sort of nonsense came up in a Dragons Den episode, you can imagine the sort of ridicule and scorn the entrepreneurs could expect to receive from all Dragons but especially the Dragon Meadon.

Friday 3 February 2017

Hats off to Cauli Rice


Cauli Rice smash their target of £400k in just one day on Crowdcube.


One can only admire the sales craft of the Cauli Rice ex Righteous, team. They have done it again. For the umpteenth time they have raised capital on Crowdcube. Yet in all of those raises for both this company and their previous wizard idea Righteous, they have never ever once got even close to the projected sales and profit figures they use to sell the equity. Not once in all those attempts. Not even close. Often not even half way.

And they have done it this time on a valuation of £8m - up from around £5.5m PM just over a year ago (in the current pitch their valuers, Blue Box, say the last round was at £7m, which is wrong). An increase that is the consequence of missed targets and larger losses. This is a valuation suggested by their hired valuers - the same ones who were involved with the business in the first raise at the end of 2014 and appeared in that video, when the company was valued at around £2m. All this based on future prospects and a patent. The patent is genuine. No mention in the plans of the winter cauliflower disaster that marked their initial progress. Not that important - just gets in the way of the projections I suppose. 

Projected GMP is to rise to 50% from its actual 21% level today - which should have been 29% according to the 2015 set of projections or 34% if you like the 2014 pitch projections. Take your pick. But as they like to say there - if we had a crystal ball, we would be millionaires. Apparently making the product in the US for the US market by 2018/19 will bring about this margin gain. Of course if the actual margin in 2018/19 is around 30% then the figures this valuation are based on look a little different.

Call it crazy but they do now need to deliver. £2.5m of Crowdcube investors cash, not to mention the Righteous money, has backed them. Surely their time has come - new projections and very healthy but also very new, current listings must see them succeed. Great plans for the US and for development in the EU.What on earth could go wrong? On second thoughts maybe keep a tight hold of your hats for now.

What we certainly did not Need



Ineed succumbs to the inevitable and tells investors it is closing down.

Ineed is ironic if nothing else. Invented simply because it could be and was funded to the tune of over£200,000 on Crowdcube, no one actually needed or wanted it. Over £600,000 in equity finance was piled into this nonsense.

It's a classic case. We see large numbers of them on this platform; people inventing businesses from the wrong end. Just because the internet makes something possible and Crowdcube makes the funding available, does not mean that the result will be anything else than a waste of time if the market hasnt been addressed. 

You were warned by this blogger many many times about this business - here and on the platform before we were evicted. 

We have written about these guys before - they raised 4 times on Crowdcube and most of these raises included some sort of schamoodling. See here

You can see the sort of alternative facts this company spun out here in their last Crowdcube video. Isnt it time that claims like these were properly checked out by the platform? The sales document Crowdcube published and called 'projections' for the 2015 raise, showed profits for 2016 of £1.2m and £1.7m for 2017. Even the 2015 accounts show how the 2015 'projections' were miles off the mark. How is that justifiable?

Look, there is nothing wrong with honest failure. But this is wrong.

The only saving 'Grice' seems to be that they have not wracked up massive creditor debts and HMRC liabilities. Unlike most of Crowdcube's failures.