Seedrs, the equity crowdfunding platform backed by Tennis star Andy Murray, has itself closed a 拢6m聽crowdfunding round.
This sum adds to 拢4m invested last month by Woodford Investment Management, taking the total amount raised to 拢10m. The fundraising values Seedrs at 拢50m.
More than 2,000 existing shareholders and new customers, from 35 countries, invested over the course of the five-day campaign.
The average individual聽investment was 拢3,200 and the largest individual investment was 拢800,000 with the highest number of investors coming from the UK, Germany, Portugal, France and Italy.
鈥淲e are delighted to have received over 拢6 million investment from over 2,000 of our customers and community,鈥� Seedrs chief executive Jeff Kelisky said.
鈥淭his round is yet more evidence of the market鈥檚 conviction that Seedrs is on the right path to delivering shareholder value by opening venture capital opportunities to retail investors for fast growth companies 鈥� and without Seedrs having pioneered regulated equity investment, these opportunities would have remained closed to them.鈥�
Andy Murray added: 鈥淚t is with great pride that I have made this investment into Seedrs latest funding round. As an active investor into early stage businesses through the Seedrs platform, it was important for me to take up my pre-emption rights.
鈥淚 have made a substantial follow on investment into this round to show my support for all that Seedrs has achieved since the last raise in 2015.
鈥淭he team has done some great work in supporting European startups and I鈥檓 looking forward to seeing how the business will continue to grow with this additional investment.鈥�
Seedrs plans to use the capital raised to launch new product capabilities that will 鈥渕aterially increase鈥� liquidity and return potential for investors and businesses.
The London-based company will also build out increased sales and marketing efforts, launch a select set of strategic partnerships and massively scale campaign execution through automation, machine learning and AI.