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I
didn’t expect to encounter a problem finding Crowdcube’s headquarters in Exeter. The crowdfunding phenomenon has a massive presence online that’s getting bigger all the time. On recent trips to London, I’ve spotted its simple orange branding emblazoned on tube carriages and lighting up those digital screens that decorate the escalators. What’s more, Crowdcube is a dotcom pioneer – the first in the world to offer online equity crowdfunding. In four years, the site has brought millions of pounds of funding to young companies that might otherwise still be at the starting blocks, and has made investing in small businesses something anyone can do. To me, this was a digital concept up there with eBay and Facebook, and would doubtless boast billboards pointing me the way to orange towers that housed hundreds of dude programmers. Instead, I was lost. This is Britain, not California. As a nation we’re pretty modest about our achievements and I drove past Crowdcube several times, oblivious to its occupation of two floors of The Innovation Centre within Exeter University’s enormous campus. “I suppose we punch above our weight,” cofounder Luke Lang muses as I arrive flustered and apologetic, blaming my tardiness on the company’s lack of ostentation. “What we trade in – equity – is intangible; we don’t need massive warehouses to store product, nor do we need reams of call handlers. We’re a platform on which businesses can pitch their ideas, and business plans and investors can go ahead and back them or not, without needing to speak to anyone.” Darren Westlake and Luke Lang launched Crowdcube in 2011. The company currently employs 60 people at the Exeter HQ, another 15 in London’s Soho (soon to move to bigger offices in Clerkenwell), and a team of five in Barcelona. They’re growing fast. In 2015 alone, Crowdcube funded 140 businesses, raising a collective £80m,
We set out to democratize investment – that was our main motivation.
MANOR | Late Winter 2016
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