On a great day for Donkeys, Nicola Horlick is stranded all alone at Glentham Fund, as other directors move on.

We have a file on Glentham - its been a long painful journey which started on Seedrs. And is not over yet.


All stories here.

Now we find out that Nicola Horlick has been left at the helm, all on her own, as the latest big hitting director falls overboard.

I think we all know what happens next. Bye Bye.

Crowdrating PR spins fairy tales.

There is a certain delicious irony for a rating company with FCA registration giving out what can only be described as misleading PR about their own success. Crowdrating, run by some nice ex city folk in the West Country, has launched a new PR push with a story in Altfi. Story being the operative word. Altfi might consider changing their title to Altfac - as in Alternative Facts.

The article has the bold headline - 

CrowdRating demonstrates it can help investors improve their crowdfunding success rate.

Put simply - it does no such thing.

In the article, which is clearly advertorial, Crowdrating claim that they can help investors make better decisions about their ECF investments. We were curious as to how they would do that.

Well it turns out that they rate pitches into Gold Silver and Bronze. They now claim that 96% of their Gold ratings or 24 out of 25, rated a year or more ago, have gone on to see success - this being measured by positive news, exceeding projections or raising new funds (ones that were in the original projections) at an increased value.

They leave us with a very useful top 10 of their Golds - 4 of which were on Crowdcube. Actually one of these was also recently on Seedrs but they dont seem to know this. We cant really comment on the Syndicate Room or Seedrs pitches as we dont have the data. But the CC pitches are a useful guide to their overall accuracy.

So its really quite simple - do their claims stack up?

For their Crowdcube pitches, they receive a Bronze at best. Why? Well we have no idea, it's not that difficult to get it right but of the 4 they list in the top 10, not one could be called a success. 2 have failed to meet their CC projections, one has raised new cash in a down round which was not in the their plan and another simply hasnt done much in commercial turns. So how can you claim these are all a success. It stretches the word to breaking point. 

Witt Energy - raised on £2.4m CC and were always open about playing the long game. They have not gone bust but there is nothing to really suggest they are a success yet or even heading that way. They have made far greater losses than projected for YE2016 - £430k against CC projections of £240k. Whilst this isnt necessarily an issue longer term, they are about to embark on new £2m raise, so that may tell us more. They were due to bring home revenues of £1.8m for YE August 2017; where any of this will come from is not at all clear as they dont seem to have anything to sell

Inyourstride - raised twice on CC, tiny amount. Missed 2016 figures by a long way and have now raised far larger sum on Seedrs (Jan 17) at a lower valuation. How is that success? It may turn out to be but its way too early to tell now. If anything, a down round suggests the opposite for investors. 

Simply Cook - did exceed CC projections (ie smaller losses) but we think this is due to lack of activity not success. Raised another ~£1.5m on Envestors this year which was not in the original plan. Envestors website says the pitch is on hold but CH records the share allotment. All a little odd and it makes a valuation per round difficult.

Empiribox - Again another Co 'on target or better' but this is due to the failure to raise a planned £600k in 2016 - ie their last accounts show a bit a cash crisis. 

If the 4 in the top 10 are misleading, then what does that tell you about all the others. If you remove these 4, then the percentage falls from 96% to 80%? Who knows where it would end if we checked all the other CC pitches in the 25?

If I was you, Id do my own research. We dont give advice but if we did, it would probably be.............................. feel free to finish this off!

Beara Beara complete U turn and extend their Crowdcube pitch

Beara Beara is on Crowdcube raising more money. Things have not gone quite to plan since the first raise - do they ever. But you wouldnt know that to listen to the founders.

In this raise, there has been a very poor reception. Unlike most CC pitches, investors have commented on the over valuation and the failure to meet projections. Stalwart in their own defence the founders have hunkered down and sat it out until the time ran out....well almost.

Just 5 days ago the CEO was asked if, as a result of the poor response, he would at last reconsider his valuation before time ran out? He responded with a blast from his six shooter, that really this wouldnt be fair on existing shareholders - you know undervaluing their investment! As this is a CC pitch, its fair to assume that this nonsense is advice CC agree with, even if they didnt supply it. 

So just 4 days later, The CEO makes an announcement on CC that they are extending their pitch for another 14 days - apparently he has been so busy overseas creating new leads, that he hasnt had any time to spare for the campaign. Well you know that's total BS and if it isnt the guy shouldnt be running a company. Hidden at the bottom of this update is the reduction in the valuation. Like it's some sort of bad idea that he's trying to hide. 

Firstly the business has always been overvalued. It still is, even with the reduction. Trying to hoodwink investors by telling them something and then reversing that very decision 4 days later shows a total lack of respect. It also shows a massive chasm in any business acumen. Trust is important and you cant have any here.

The leather might be good and the help the business provides for poor Bolivians is admirable but the business management is lame. Why are CC not providing this guy with some sound advice that would allow him the best chance of making something of his endeavours. In our opinion you would be mad to invest in this, even at this new value, simply because the founders have no clue what they are doing.

A final note - one problem this underlines, is that if your first pitch on a platform like CC is over valued, then you will struggle further down the line with any new pitches  - unless you can admit to a downround or you have exceeded expectations. Neither of these options appear on the CC platform. Valuations are agreed with the interns at CC - which rather illustrates our well made point, that if the management of Beara Beara is lame, the management of Crowdcube are donkeys. No offence to donkeys.

Ethos Global could have pitched on Crowdcube whilst withholding critical creditor information

Deeper into the swamp that was Ethos Global, a little birdie has told us that their Cambridge studio closed (allegedly) because they owed over £100k in rent - the bailiffs moved in. 

We dont know if this is true but it makes sense.

So whilst Crowdcube were lauding the massive success of Dr Theo and his wife in Cambridge, they were (allegedly) all of the time sitting on an undisclosed debt of £100k plus. You might ask where were the Crowdcube DD dept? As usual out to lunch. 

Surely they cannot survive yet another mess like this?

Ethos Global finally liquidated with extreme prejudice.

Ex Crowdcubers Ethos Global have finally been closed down by Court Order. Not filing accounts for almost 2 years and setting up new companies instead, shouldnt and we hope, will not, pay. 

We have written about these guys a few times here - it's taken quite a while to see them finally closed. But as the new studio in London is still being operated by the same people but just under a new name, where is the justice in that? 

The Court Order is still being filed so we may have to wait a day or so to find out what will happen to 388 Crowdcube investors and £709k they invested - all via a Crowdcube nominee acount. Money that paid for the new London set up. You may have a good idea from our past stories how this one will end. 

However this one looks a little juicier, given the various company set ups and shenanigans that have taken place since the Crowdcube raise. Of course Crowdcube have no idea this has happened - their Ethos page still proclaims the success of the new public launch of their new London site last year. Which is now owned by Soma London England, which is in turn, owned by the same directors who took the £709k via Crowdcube and immediately closed down the Cambridge studio. Oddly in January this year, Ethos Global filed a raise of equity finance, but the filings revealed there was no money involved, just an issue of 30m free A shares.

The new business - SOMA - School of Mindbody Athletics (!) is due to launch in September this year according to their new website http://soma.house/. They continue to remind people that they are a couple of Cambridge graduates - clearly not in English or Marketing. We simply do not believe that they will be allowed to get away with this.

Soma website appears to be owned/operated by US based Mindbody which also has a connection to Soma Fitness based in California. At this stage we gave up.

The newco has apparently TM'd its SOMA  - fact is TM means nothing and Soma is already taken several times  - their version has no application or recorded registration. 

Makes you want to cry. Makes you really want to get hold of CC and ask them just what the fridge they think they are doing.

We have asked the company several times for a comment and will try again, but the only reply we got was a no comment. A recent email to the same PR person was auto sent back as he has seen the light and left.

'You bet ya big time' gargled Grey fish.

PS - We have still had no response from the company or CC. But people we have spoken to in Cambridge said that the Ethos studio there was always full  - which is surely a sign of a successful business. So why did the Cambridge studio close suddenly just after the CC raise and why is it still vacant? Likewise why start newco's after the CC raise and have them running the now (we assume) busy London studio??

HAB's new accounts are a little off target - but for once we think this is progress.

HAB Housing, Kevin McCloud's day job, has posted further losses for YE 2016 but things are moving on and the company is at least gaining traction. It raised just shy of £2m from 640 investors in 2013 on Crowdcube. Targets have been missed as the company would otherwise be well into profit but awards are flowing and momentum is building. It is better news than any other CC company can provide. 

One interesting development is that the company is looking for ways for its shareholders to buy and sell its shares - due to multiple requests, so they so. It seems unlikely that they are getting multiple requests to buy their shares, so one assumes it is to sell them.

Do they know something we dont? What is under the covers?

Crowdcube change their system to protect bad business plans

Lets face it - Crowdcube cant do numbers. Or rather what they do with numbers is interesting. Now they have changed the way businesses pitch on their platform so they no longer have to produce a 3 year basic projection. Now they are trying to hide these numbers under the carpet.

Why?

Well very simply because they hope this will stop us having this information to compare with the company's real results a year or two later. You remember our ongoing research into 400 CC companies has revealed that 95% have to date missed these numbers by quite a margin.

You would have to say that this is pathetic.

Instead of sorting out their own very obvious problems, they attempt to block legitimate criticism by hiding the real figures.

Well boys it wont work. We get most of our information from people who have downloaded the full business plans, which do include projections. We also have other ways of finding things out - what you might call an inside track.

It is yet another illustration of all that is wrong with this company. The sensible option would have been to sort out the numbers, not paint over  them. Open and transparent they certainly are not and the bad news pipe work in the sewer below their offices is at bursting point.