Seedrs help & support from the experts

Introduction to Seedrs

What is Seedrs

Seedrs is an equity crowdfunding platform for entrepreneurs of start-ups and growing businesses to connect with potential investors. 

Seedrs enables all types of investors to invest in businesses they believe in and share in their success. Seedrs enable all types of growth-focused businesses to raise capital and a community in the process.

Since Seedrs launched in 2012, businesses have raised £1.9bn via the Seedrs platform across 1,683 deals with a 90% industry-leading success rate. Businesses like the challenger bank Revolut, All Plants, Plum and perkbox have all raised on Seedrs.

Seedrs is based in the UK but has dedicated teams across Europe. Seedrs was acquired by US fintech company Republic for £75m in December 2021.

Criteria to raise funds

Seedrs can support:

• Private ltd companies with a community,
• Based full-time in the UK, EU, EEA or Switzerland,
• At least 1 director full-time (no min hours but 2nd jobs not allowed) by the time the raise ends,
• SEIS & EIS raises,
• See full business criteria here. 

The minimum raise on Seedrs is £150K in either GBP or EUR, but note minimum fees below. The largest raise in 2022 was with Spoke, who raised £5m. Seedrs can process investments from international investors.

Seedrs Private Deal room

This a new feature built for Angel, High Net Worth and Sophisticated investors. Many founders may have an excellent product or idea, but no way to raise a family and friends round to get their venture off the ground. The traditional family and friends round is another exclusive model typically only reserved for well-connected founders. Seedrs Private Deal Room solves this problem with their Introducer Campaigns, which allows Angel investors to request to be introduced to a fundraising business to invest directly in the business from £10k, and allows founders from any background to raise their first growth capital round.

The Private Deal Room has quite strict qualifying criteria for businesses. Learn more about it here.

What's included

The basics: 

A Seedrs campaign page includes:

Logos, images, video, campaign text (idea & team sections), discussion forum, document requests, campaign updates and rewards.

Seedrs campaign support includes:

• Campaign creation dashboard to prepare the campaign

• Analytic dashboards to help manage the live campaign

• A dedicated account manager to help prepare and manage the campaign

• Inclusion in our weekly update email to investors on launch

• Investor relations tools to engage with prospective investors

• Shareholder management portal for managing investors post raise

• Access to exclusive Alumni Club offers

• Use of our FCA authorised platform, KYC and AML processes for investors

• Escrow account to hold the funds until completion

• Legal documentation tailored to the business

• Unique Seedrs products: AutoInvest, EIS100 & Secondary Market

• Advice & resources to guide customers to the platform

• An onboarding journey optimised for the business' community to invest efficiently

• Customer support team ready to answer any questions to help convert customers

Fee structure

Fees for businesses raising finance

Businesses only pay a fee if the fundraise is successful. No hidden costs – Seedrs standard raise fee is based on the total funds raised.

• Success fee of 6% (excl. VAT) is only charged on the amount successfully raised.
• A completion fee of £2,500 (excl VAT).
• Payment processing fee of between 0.5% and 1.0%.
• Subject to a minimum fee of £12,000.

More about Seedrs fees here.

Fees for investors

When making an investment, investors will be charged an investment fee of 2% of the amount invested, subject to a minimum of £0.50/€0.50 and capped at a maximum of £250/€250. If the investor makes a profit on the investment, Seedrs will take a 7.5% carry fee. More info here.

Some pitches have an option to invest directly (not under the nominee) and have a different fee structure. Investors will pay an upfront fee of 1% (min. £/€0.5, max. £/€250.0) to invest. You will pay no ongoing fees or carry to Seedrs and none of the nominee benefits are offered. More about direct vs nominee below.

Deal structure

Seedrs offers both a direct or nominee structure, as well as a combination of the two, so business owners can choose the model that's best suited to their business.

For many businesses, the main advantage of a direct shareholder model is that it enables you to foster a stronger relationship with your investors. Many larger investors may require direct investment.

With a nominee, Seedrs holds and is the legal owner of, the investment on behalf of the investors, so businesses only have one legal shareholder on your share register and Seedrs handles the administration. Find our more about Seedrs' Nominee here.

FCA & Due Diligence

Seedrs is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and therefore approves every pitch on the platform to ensure it is fair, clear and not misleading. Their Due Diligence Standard outlines the analysis and verification that is conducted on equity fundraises on Seedrs, this includes pre-live due diligence, live pitch monitoring and post-funding due diligence. Read more about this here.

Live campaign

Timings

A pitch will remain private on Seedrs until it reaches a certain investment milestone; this amount will be agreed between the entrepreneur and the Seedrs Campaign Manager. This is to provide sufficient time to on board the lead investment and to give the business' own network of customers, family, friends and business contacts exclusive access to the pitch.

Once this initial investment target is raised, the pitch will be made public for 30 days, giving Seedrs' investor community and the business' wider network the opportunity to invest. In order to maximise the success of the crowdfunding raise, entrepreneurs will continue to promote the pitch to their own network throughout the duration of the time on Seedrs.

Managing your campaign

Seedrs provides an Entrepreneur Dashboard to manage the pitch. The Entrepreneur Dashboard enables the business to:

• View the key stats related to the pitch (amount raised, % raised, number of investors)
• Post an update on the pitch page
• Access data and analytics on the pitch
• View activity in pitch forum, including the author and date of the latest posts
• Email all investors in the pitch
• View the live pitch

Marketing

Get exposure to Seedrs user base spanning 94 countries, and receive the full support on PR and marketing to create an impactful and effective crowdfunding campaign which tells the business' story.

Marketing services include:

• Pre-registration page builder & analytics
• Email marketing to the Seedrs community of registered investors
• Analytics on performance
• Digital retargeting advertising*
• Social media promotion*
• PR support*

*Agreed in engagement letter

Investor sign-up & payment process

Post-raise

Once the maximum target is hit, Seedrs will close the campaign and begin the completions process. This usually takes up to a month to complete and will include the following;

• Direct investor payments (if applicable)
• Closing documentation
• Advanced Assurance (if applicable)
• Final due diligence checks
• Funds transfer
• Beneficial share certificates
• S/EIS application (if applicable)
• Shares eligible for trading on Secondary Market (if opted in)

There is a minimum 7 day period from last investment to funds transfer.

Become a part of Seedrs' Alumni Club

Alumni Club members get access to exclusive deals and expertise from strategic partners to support their growth. From HR and tech support, to advertising and legal. Includes practical toolkits and guides to empower the team. Educational events and online community to help founders learn from, and network with, members who've been there, and done it already.

Access the Secondary Market

Seedrs Secondary Marketplace is the biggest marketplace for buyers and sellers of Europe’s hottest startups. Read more about it in our blog here.

How we work with Seedrs

The ISQ programme is designed to guide you through everything you need to do to launch a successful campaign on Seedrs. Our programme is structured and delivered by a team of experts who have been in your shoes. We have crowdfunded successfully. As a client, you will speak to the ISQ team regularly and you'll have your own programme to work through. Our programme is designed to ensure you have covered the following;

• Fundamentals of any successful campaign
• Investor document creation
• Building your online presence
• Mapping your crowd
• How to find investors using Linkedin
• Securing early interest from potential investors
• Building your marketing & comms plan
• Campaign text & video script creation
• Live campaign management
• Post raise support

Read more information about our Crowdfunding Programme here.

Disclaimer

Note that Seedrs makes updates and improvements to its service offering on a regular basis. The information provided above is correct as of 22/03/23.