UK Crowdfunding Association sees more evidence of the power of crowdfunding
Simon Dixon, CEO of the crowdfunding platform BankToTheFuture.com, and founding member of the UK Crowdfunding Association, is excited by the fact that Crowdcube has raised over £1 million through its own website. He believes that this is yet more evidence that crowdfunding is effective and sustainable.
Commenting on the achievement, Dixon said, “As a founding member of the UK Crowdfunding Association alongside Crowdcube, we think its success in raising finance on its own platform is a great example of where finance is heading. We raised the funding for BankToTheFuture.com on our own platform and feel that Crowdcube doing the same is a signal that we can genuinely democratise investing.”
With crowdfunding, anyone can invest, and through BankToTheFuture.com that can be as little as £10. The aim is to put finance into the hands of businesses that have the potential to be successful, yet struggle to raise the finance they need from high street banks.
Dixon believes that, following Crowdcube’s success, the sector can educate people worldwide and spread the message that investors do not need to be rich to get started.
BankToFuture.com is witnessing the de-institutionalisation of funding, with more people investing in crowdfunding. Crowds, rather than banks and venture capitalists, determine who gets funded. People are voting with their wallets. They want crowdfunding to be a sustainable type of banking.
Dixon is convinced that crowdfunding is here to stay. ”The sector has been funding its own progress,” he said. “In the past banks and venture capitalists had to be persuaded before a sector could grow. Now the people are deciding. Crowdfunding cannot be held back.”
BankToTheFuture.com funded itself, using crowdfunding, in 2012, showing that this method of financing businesses is sustainable and has a bright future. By giving the public the power to invest in great ideas, new, crowdfunded businesses will reflect the values of society and encourage established businesses to look beyond high street banks for finance.
For more information, visit www.BankToTheFuture.com
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Emma De Maio
redheadPR
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Simon Dixon Profile
Simon Dixon is CEO and co-founder of the crowdfunding platform, BankToTheFuture.com and author of the books, ‘Bank to the Future’ and ‘Student to CEO’.
BankToTheFuture.com matches innovative medium sized businesses looking for investment with investors looking for alternative investment opportunities. Simon co-launched BankToTheFuture.com to put finance in the hands of businesses that deserve investment and remove the restrictions associated with investing in private businesses. The company launched in September 2012 and has since helped businesses raise more than £250,000 in funding. BankToTheFuture.com has also won the British Innovation of the Year award.
BankToTheFuture.com has attracted extensive coverage in the financial media, including The Telegraph, The Times, Mail on Sunday, City A.M. and many more.
Simon qualified as an economist with a degree in business economics from Kingston University, then gained a master’s degree in economics at the University of Manchester, graduating in 2004. A successful corporate financier, he has also worked for TD Waterhouse as a stock broker and at KBC as an investment banker.
After helping many venture capitalists take their investments public Simon raised angel funding from billionaire Peter Hargreaves for his first business. He then used crowdfunding to establish BankToTheFuture.com.
A business finance expert and keen bank lobbyist, Simon wants to change the way banking works and how it is perceived. BankOfTheFuture.com provides a way for businesses and investors to achieve their financial goals without using high street banks.
With the knowledge he gained from a career in corporate finance, Simon helps entrepreneurs and investors grow their businesses by attracting private investment. He shares his knowledge with students and graduates and regularly appears as a public speaker at financial institutions. These include TD Waterhouse, Bloomberg, ODL, Schroders, Reuters, the FSC (Financial Skills Partnership), the Institute for Social Banking and universities such as LSE (London School of Economics), University College London, Oxford, Cambridge, and Warwick University. Simon has also provided commentary for the BBC, Channel 4, Reuters, Bloomberg, FT, Guardian, Times, City A.M. and Investors Chronicle.
As CEO of BankToTheFuture.com Simon chairs the training and consultancy of Benedix (owner of BankTalkShow.com), keeping him closely in touch with the financial industry and technological innovation. He is a founding member of the UK Crowd funding association and regularly speaks at the House of Commons and House of Lords.
Before starting BankToTheFuture.com, Simon Dixon dedicated himself to banking reform as an active critic of traditional economics, regularly speaking in mainstream media about sustainable banking.
BankToTheFuture.com Backgrounder
BankToTheFuture.com, co-founded in 2012 by former Investment banker Simon Dixon and former Banker Bliss Dixon, offers start-ups and mature businesses a means to secure crowdfunding, crowdinvesting, and crowdloans.
As an investor, BankToTheFuture.com offers two investment options to buy shares and to lend money to private companies:
BanktotheFuture.com is hybrid crowd funding platform which offers the opportunity to contribute and invest in startup and mature businesses. It comprises:
- Crowdinvesting - giving investors the opportunity to secure equity in a business in exchange for their investment
- Crowdfinance – which is most like the crowdfunding model that people currently understand where people donate money in exchange for rewards. However BF allows people to contribute and invest at the same time, or independently.
- Crowdloans - allowing creditworthy businesses to borrow money for their company from the crowd, rather than a bank, paying the interest directly to investors
In the first 6 months from the launch, BankToTheFuture.com helped to secure more than £250,000 for businesses pitching for investment. In order to prove the concept BanktotheFuture.com secured its own funding on its own platform and successfully launched on that basis
Potential investors can read a business plan, view a video from the business and can begin managing an online portfolio of investments from as little as £10.00.
BankToTheFuture.com won British Innovation of The Year 2012 and has been enthusiastically endorsed by Sir Richard Branson. The company works with businesses and investors across a wide variety of industries.
Businesses wishing to pitch for investment using BankToTheFuture.com go through a three-stage process. Each process begins with an online questionnaire outlining the business model and the investment they are looking for. Stage two offers training and risk assessment to businesses to ensure they are in the best position to pitch to investors. The third and final stage of the process sees the pitch going live on the BankToTheFuture.com website. From here, businesses can pitch online or offline to secure the investment they need.
Visitors to BankToTheFuture.com looking to invest simply register their details, log on and search for suitable available pitches.
Simon Dixon, CEO of BankToTheFuture.com says, “We are democratising investing where businesses secure funding not because banks say “yes” or only rich people say “yes”, but because every day people are deciding who gets the money. We’ve taken the best practices which have previously only been used to raise finance for large companies and stripped out the cost and turned it online, so that small and medium businesses can raise the sums they need without the upfront fees.”
Simon Dixon first qualified as an Economist with a degree in business economics from Kingston University, and went on to gain a Masters degree Economics from the University of Manchester in 2004. Simon then joined the ranks of TD Waterhouse as a stock broker, then KBC as a trader and investment banker.
Simon believes that banking can be transformed by alternative investment, educating the general public on sustainable banking and winning the political argument for banking reform.
