Accountancy's rising star looks for £3.3m through crowdfunding
Clear Books, led by Tim Fouracre, looks to raise £3.3m thorugh its own crowdfunding platform
ONE OF Accountancy Age’s ‘35 under 35′ is aiming to raise more than £3m through crowdfunding, in what would be the highest ever amount collected using the alternative finance platform.
Tim Fouracre (pictured), founder and CEO of cloud-based accounting software business Clear Books, is looking to raise the funds by offering 275,000 shares at a subscription price of £12 per share when it goes live on to the general public from 4 August, and is initially open to existing shareholders.
Fouracre, an accountant listed on Accountancy Age’s 35 under 35 for 2014, launched Clear Books’ own crowdfunding platform, a method that keeps down the cost of fees.
“If you enjoy investing in small British businesses, you can do so from just £12. Our customers are small business owners and entrepreneurs who know our company intimately – they rely on our software every day to run their own businesses,” said Fouracre. “It’s a wonderful validation of our mission, to help small businesses in the UK, that these entrepreneurs continue to invest and support Clear Books as we grow.”
Clear Books has increased its customer base from 5,000 to more than 7,000 small businesses since September 2013, and increased its monthly revenue from £60k to £100k, achieving a 74% increase in annual revenue to the financial year 31 March 2014.
Last month was chosen as the cloud accounting provider to Santander’s iBusinessHub. The iBusinessHub offers bundled packages of small business software exclusively to Santander’s 250,000 small business customers in the UK.