Seedrs announces Tim Levene to its Board after £10m Series A funding round led by WPCT and Augmentum Capital

– UK, London – Seedrs, one of the world’s leading equity crowdfunding platforms, has announced a £10 million Series A fundraising round led by Woodford Patient Capital Trust plc (WPCT) and Augmentum Capital.

WPCT is the £800 million investment trust launched earlier this year by Woodford Investment Management. WPCT is managed by Neil Woodford, widely considered to be one of the UK’s leading fund managers over the past 25 years. The trust invests mainly in early-stage and early-growth companies but also has exposure to some blue-chip companies.

Augmentum Capital is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by two highly-experienced entrepreneurs and investors, Tim Levene and Richard Matthews. It backs entrepreneurs and businesses it believes have the potential to become leaders in their industries. Its first fund, Augmentum I LP, which is making the investment in Seedrs, is wholly backed by RIT Capital Partners plc, the award-winning FTSE investment trust chaired by Lord Rothschild, whose family own 18% of RIT’s shares.

In addition to the investment from WPCT and Augmentum, Seedrs will conduct a £2.5 million crowdfunding campaign to give existing shareholders and new investors the opportunity to participate. Details of the crowdfunding campaign will be announced shortly.

The fundraising round values Seedrs at £30 million on a fully-diluted, post-money basis. Tim Levene, Managing Partner of Augmentum, is joining the Seedrs Board of Directors in connection with the round.

Seedrs will use the capital raised in this fundraising round to expand significantly its marketing efforts in the UK and Europe and its platform development activities. It will also use the funds to expand into the United States following its acquisition of California-based Junction Investments, Inc., in late 2014.

Speaking about the round:
Tim Levene, Managing Partner, Augmentum Capital, said: “We have been following the developments in equity crowdfunding for some time and believe Seedrs are the stand out company. The market is still early in its development with many challenges to overcome. However, we believe Seedrs have the right blend of talent, vision, experience and rigour to ensure they become the leader in this exciting space.

“As a fund we’ve already made a number of investments in alternative finance businesses such as Zopa, Interactive Investor, Borro and BullionVault. Seedrs further strengthens our portfolio in this area and marks us out as one of the UK’s leading fintech funds.”

Jeff Lynn, CEO and co-founder of Seedrs, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have Woodford and Augmentum leading this investment round in Seedrs. The capital we are raising will allow us to deliver our next stage of growth in the UK, Europe and the United States. As importantly, though, is the signal this investment sends to the market. The greatest fund manager of our time and the greatest financial family in history have looked at the equity crowdfunding space, decided that there is a huge opportunity to be won, and decided that Seedrs is the one that’s going to win it. We are honoured to have both investors on board, we look forward to working with them as we continue to grow.”

The fundraising round remains subject to consent by the Financial Conduct Authority and customary closing conditions.

About Seedrs

Seedrs (https://www.seedrs.com) is one of the world’s leading equity crowdfunding platforms, and it is the largest crowdfunding platform in Europe to focus solely on equity investments.

It allows all types of investors to invest as little or as much as they like (from £/€ 10 up) in businesses they believe in and share in their success. And it allows ambitious businesses in all sectors to raise capital and build community through an efficient, online process.

Seedrs has funded over 220 deals to date and has grown 15% month-on-month.

All investments made through Seedrs offer voting shares to investors and use professional-grade subscription agreements. This ensures that investors get the same level of protection that angel investors and venture capitalists enjoy.

Seedrs is headquartered in London, and its platform development team is based in Lisbon. The platform is open to investors and entrepreneurs across Europe. Seedrs plans to launch in the United States later in 2015.

Seedrs is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority. It was the first equity crowdfunding platform in the world to gain regulatory approval.

The UK alternative finance market is predicted to grow to £4.4 billion in 2015 up from £1.7 billion in 2014 as businesses increasingly look to source more efficient ways to raise capital. Between 2012 and 2014 the equity crowdfunding sector alone grew by 410%.*****

About Woodford Investment Management
Woodford Investment Management is a fast-growing asset management company built on a founding philosophy of transparency and simplicity. Launched in May 2014, the company has more than £11bn assets under management and advice. Further information can be found at https://woodfordfunds.com/.

About Augmentum Capital

Augmentum Capital is a VC fund targeting Fintech businesses. The fund is backed by RIT Capital Partners, an LSE listed investment trust with more than £2 billion AUM in which Lord Rothschild and his family are significant investors.

Augmentum was founded in 2009 by Tim Levene and Richard Matthews. Augmentum’s managing partner, Tim Levene, is a successful entrepreneur and was made a Young Global Leader in 2012 by the World Economic Forum. He was one of the Founding employees at Betfair and a founder of the juice chain Crussh. Richard Matthews was at flutter.com (Betfair), Manzanita Capital and Benchmark Capital.

Augmentum’s investments include Zopa, Europe’s leading Peer to Peer Lender, Borro.com, the online asset-backed lender, BullionVault.com, the World’s leading online bullion market.platform and Interactive Investor, one of the UK’s leading online investment platfo

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