<article>For the last six months, five British fintech ventures <a style="color: #000080;" href="https://goo.gl/yAS51E" target="_blank">raised £6,9M</a> from their current and potential clients via crowdinvesting (equity crowdfunding) platforms.</article>

For the last six months, five British fintech ventures <a style="color: #000080;" href="https://goo.gl/yAS51E" target="_blank">raised £6,9M</a> from their current and potential clients via crowdinvesting (equity crowdfunding) platforms.
This news were positively received by investing community – because it is not simply about “raising £1M on the market”, but rather about planting your idea into your clients’ minds and inspiring them to risk their money to help you to build your service.
This case is a good example to follow not only for neobanks (three of them), but also for other fintech ventures. In 2016, London-based challenger bank Tande raised over $30 million from investors, including eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.
Earlier in 2016, <a style="color: #000080;" href="https://www.tandem.co.uk/" target="_blank">Tandem</a> raised £1 million in a crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs crowdfunding platform that valued it at £65 million. It has first raised £1m in just 20 minutes. Tandem has already given away 5000 single shares to so-called co-ffounders, whose help it wants in shaping the bank through feedback on its operations.
At the beginning and the end of the year, <a style="color: #000080;" href="https://monzo.com" target="_blank">Monzo</a> received almost £10M in funding from <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://www.passioncapital.com/" target="_blank">Passion Capital</a> and a group of angel investors at valuation of £50M. Later same year, Mondo has raised £1 million in just 96 seconds on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube. On day, 1861 people invested an average of £542 and will share 3.33 per cent equity in the soon-to-be bank.
<a style="color: #000080;" href="https://revolut.com/" target="_blank">Revolut</a> launched by the end of 2015, it is a provider of mobile foreign currency exchange service. In July, it has raised another funding of $10M in Series A from Balderton leading the round. Out of the £7.75 million round, Revolut offered £1 million in an equity crowdfunding round on Crowdcube.
The success of startup GoHenry, which raised just shy of £4m and surpasses the previous record of £3.5m for JustPark, has spurred crowdfunding platform Crowdcube to call for the existing limit on the value of investments to be raised.
Early-stage businesses can currently raise up to €5M (£3.9M) via equity crowdfunding in the UK. More than 2,000 investors ploughed cash into GoHenry for a share of 15.9 per cent equity in the business. The final amount it raised was nearly double its initial £2m target.
Kwanji, the emerging market payment specialist, has closed its first crowdfunding round, exceeding its initial target and finishing 123 per cent overfunded having raised £496,682 on the UK equity crowdfunding platform, <a style="color: #000080;" href="https://www.syndicateroom.com/" target="_blank">SyndicateRoom</a>.
Squirrel, a personal finance app designed to help users have more refined control over their money, will raise £400,000 on SyndicateRoom. The platform reported that experienced angel investor Jos Evans will be the lead investor on the funding round having committed £100,000 to Squirrel.
New Zealand-based <a style="color: #000080;" href="https://www.squirrelmoney.co.nz/" target="_blank">Squirrel Group</a>, an alternative finance platform, has <a style="color: #000080;" href="https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2016/04/84018-alternative-finance-platform-squirrel-group-surpasses-3m-on-snowball-effect/" target="_blank">successfully secured</a> its $3 million during its funding round on SnowballEffect crowdinvesting platform. John Bolton, Squirrel CEO, recently announced there had been $4 million of pre-registered interest from the company’s customer base who are likely to fill the $2 million available through the retail side of the offer.
Although the campaign has yet to reach its $4 million goal, SnowballEffect stated that it is considered the largest raise ever through an equity crowdfunding marketplace in New Zealand.
Many countries are currently concerned with how to support and accelerate the development of their startup ecosystems (including a focus on fintech) and it would be logical to provide their financial market support not directly, but through this type of platforms.
For example, countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan offer a large number of grants and co-investment programs for (fintech) startups. And such organizations like IFC by World Bank are providing capital for unbanked markets.
If they had provided them automatically after a market player had reached some positive results, it would have simplified the market processes and accelerated the development of ecosystems, as well as made the market itself more transparent.
For example, Indonesia is currently <a style="color: #000080;" href="https://goo.gl/jOkL7t" target="_blank">considering such a partnership interaction</a>; iAngels is being implemented in Israel, while Santander Bank provides 50\50 co-financing through CrowdFunder platform.
The rapid surge of activity in crowdfunding area in Asia <a style="color: #000080;" href="https://goo.gl/jOkL7t" target="_blank">comes from Malaysia</a>, which was the first to issue crowdinvesting licenses (Crowdo, CrowdPlus, FundedByMe).
Following the Malaysian example, Singapore has turned attention to the sphere and licensed FundedHere, Crowdo and OurCrowd (this Israeli startup has also raised funds from Singapore UOB Bank).
But the activity profile of these platforms, cooperation with fintechs, integration with government grants and co-investment programs are too far from the traction of their UK-colleagues. It is easier (and better in terms of PR) for Asian startups to raise money on US\European platforms.
<a style="color: #000080;" href="https://sg.linkedin.com/in/vsolodkiy" target="_blank">Slava Solodkiy</a> is the managing partner of LifeSREDA.VC. This opinion piece is not reprentative nor reflects endorsement of the views expressed therein by DEALSTREETASIA
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Slava Solodkiy of LifeSREDA discusses how the crowdfunding of European fintechs applies to Asian fintech startups. 

The UK experience for Asian fintechs: Engagement through crowdinvesting

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The UK experience for Asian fintechs: Engagement through crowdinvesting

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