“Invest into inspiring UK startups – Support profit-with-purpose businesses committed to positives outcomes for the world”
My first impression is that Seed Tribe feels a bit like the social version of Seedrs, while giving themselves the option to expand and include the Angel List type of vibe.
It is in it’s Beta phase, which for me, means, “we’re live, it should work, but also the odd bug.”
- Everyday investor
- Advised investor
- Self-certified investor
- High Net Worth
I went for Everday investor, but probably could also sign off as self-certified.
Seed Tribe uses a crowdfunding equity model like Seedrs and Crowdcube, with the later typically targeting those with traction already looking to scale. In general, Crowdfunding for me, is less about investing and more about voting with my money. I want to see this happen. Some of the share classes offered are so weak, it’s up to the owners to do the honourable thing and share any successes.
When I signed up, there were 19 pitches in the pipeline, 2 complete (both over 100%) and 2 available for investment.
I actually liked (wanted to vote for) more for the two completed ones.
I decide to invest in the Social Value Exchange. An online marketplace for government to generate extra resources from their private contractors for community services.
The profile had:
- Overview
- Pitch
- Team
- Deal
They have had some traction and proof of concept.
The investment:
- Target: £150k
- Invested: £75k so far with 20 days of funding remaining
- EIS available
- 13.04% equity available, valuing the company at £1m
Then I hit the stumbling block, the minimum investment amount is £940, I am not sure how many everyday investors will find this appealing. In reviewing the other proposals, all of them have a minimum investment of about £1k, which I am not prepared to do for evaluation purposes. In my experience it is usual for Angel Investing to be from £10k upwards, so at this stage it is somewhere in-between Angel investing and Crowdfunding.
I reached out to Olivia Sibony – Head of SeedTribe Impact Crowdfunding (longer interview to follow) and she explained that the majority of the business concepts that are emerging in this space are either technical or aimed at B2B (business to business), so these investments are more interesting to specialist investors who have experience in the relevant field, or put another way, it is difficult to get enough of the everyday crowd sufficiently excited enough to invest (vote) to the levels required to make the project work.
So, for now, they have asked themselves how they can have the most impact and for now, it is by having fewer, larger investors, she did leave me with this snippet – “I’m actually in the middle of plotting a different way for people to get involved if they don’t have large amounts of cash to invest.”
Overall, at this stage, this is an investment platform that is not set up for someone like myself, but they are an interesting prospect and certainly one to watch for the future as they develop.
