Britain’s one of the fastest growing fintech – Curve has recently announced to have closed the fastest ever equity raise on Crowdcube, breaking many records during the campaign. The company raised nearly £10m at its closing in 54 hours from 11,795 investors.
Fastest ever company to raise £6m
In just 2 hours 49 minutes after it went live on 25th May, Curve raised £6m which is considered the fastest ever raise on Crowdcube. So far, it has been the most popular fundraising during the year 2021 and was designed to enable Curve customers and retail investors to follow footsteps of tech’s leading institutional investors.
Over 4,000 retail investors participated in the first 60 minutes of the crowdfund. Curve achieved an initial target of £1m funding within just 10 minutes of the round opening. Another £3.1m was raised within the first 30 minutes of the campaign, with £4m raised after just 56 minutes.
The recent funding follows the Curve’s £132m funding raised in cash and capital commitment till date to fasten its growth. It includes the app’s successful series C funding led by IDC Ventures, Fuel Venture Capital and Vulcan Capital.
Strategised for international expansion and product innovation
Curve will use the current raise and Series C funding to focus on implementing its growth strategy. The funds will be used for international expansion and innovation in the product as a part of the growth strategy. Further Curve planned out to add at least 200 employees to its talented workforce during the time span of 2021 to implement its growth plans. The growth plan includes launching its award-winning Curve OS platform in the US, broadening its European reach and launching Curve Credit in the UK and in Europe.
Shachar Bialick, Founder and CEO of Curve, said: “Ever since our last crowdfund in 2019, our customers have been requesting another opportunity to take a share in Curve. So we launched this campaign to give the public a chance to join us as we embark on the next stage of our exciting journey, when we reveal Curve Credit to the world and launch in the US. We’ve been blown away by the level of interest we’ve seen over the past three days, and I’m so excited to welcome nearly 12,000 investors on board.”
Luke Lang, co-founder and CMO of Crowdcube, says: “Hats off to Curve for another landmark raise with Crowdcube, they continue to impress investors with their unique proposition. It’s a really exciting time for their shareholders, both new and existing, to be part of their ongoing success and their mission to shape the future of finance.”
Bobby Aitkenhead, Managing Partner of IDC Ventures, said: “As one of the lead investors in Curve, we’re ecstatic to see such a phenomenal response from its customers and community. Digitalisation is stepping up pace globally, as is financial services fragmentation. Pioneering companies like Curve have huge potential to shape the future of finance. They’re already, and will continue, to add so much value to our lives. We’re proud to support them in this journey to the top.”
In the last year, Curve hired over 100 new staff and doubled its customer base. It has seen a spike in the volume of transactions it processes by over £1 billion to £2.6 billion despite the backdrop of a global pandemic. It certainly defines a transformational year for the Curve because of the crowdfunding round.