UK-based crowdfunding platform Crowdcube secured £6m ($9.4m) in a series C round led by institutional stockbroker Numis on Thursday that also included Balderton Capital, Draper Esprit and Tim Draper.
Founded in 2011, Crowdcube operates a crowd equity investment platform, where users can back companies’ funding and debt financing rounds alongside professional investors. To date, 279 companies have raised a total of more than $152m from nearly 195,000 users.
Crowdcube will use the series C capital to hire more staff, increase its product development efforts and boost its marketing efforts.
In addition to Numis’ investment, the two companies will also work together on a service that will allow Crowdcube’s users to buy shares in companies going public on either the London Stock Exchange or AIM market.
Crowdcube received £5m in series B funding from Balderton in July 2014. The company previously used its own platform to crowdfund a £1.5m series A round in 2013 and a £320,000 seed round in 2011.