Emoov could decide today whether to close its crowdfunding campaign early, after shooting over its £1m target.
Potentially it could even close today, 27 days early.
Yesterday, possible investors were sent an email telling them that they might have only a short window of opportunity to put money into the company.
The email said: “We’re now overfunding . . . but not for long. Tomorrow we’ll be taking stock and potentially closing our campaign early.
“As you have expressed an interest in investing in the Emoov Group, we wanted to make sure we gave you prior warning before we potentially close out this opportunity – giving you a last chance to invest.”
By early this morning, it had received over £1.3m from 484 investors, mostly putting in small amounts.
On the discussions section of its Crowdcube pitch, eMoov dealt with some interesting questions.
One asked what current monthly revenue was and said that projections made in a previous crowdfunding round were wrong by almost a factor of seven.
The questioner asked: “How can you convince us that the same will not happen with the progressive projections for next year?”
Russell Quirk, CEO of Emoov, replied that monthly revenues are currently £650,000 and annualised at £7.8m. He expects this to grow to £13m by the end of the financial year next April.
He said that when Purplebricks listed on AIM in December 2015, its valuation was 30 times current annual revenues. “They’re now a £1bn business and early investors have made a very impressive return.”
Unconvinced, the questioner said: “With regards to Purplebricks, personally I wouldn’t touch them with a 30-foot pole.
“In Emoov I think you have an interesting company but I cannot get myself to invest at 8x forward revenues in a company that is still significantly cash-flow negative.”
Quirk told EYE yesterday that no final decision had been made to close the crowdfunding round early, but that it was the subject of much debate internally.
Not to be confused, a business called eSale and based in the north of England is crowdfunding through Crowd for Angels.
In its pitch, it says it is rated “the very best online estate agent in the UK”.It charges £595 upfront, or £1,195 on a no sale no fee basis.
Comments (7)
“By early this morning, it had received over £1.3m from 484 investors, mostly putting in small amounts.”
How small are these “small” amounts? Assuming everyone put in the same it’s just over 2.5k.
That’s bigger than my monthly salary and plenty enough to feed some impoverished children for a while. “One man’s trash” and all that…
If £2500 is average then that is definately a ‘small’ amount. Investments aren’t measured in mars bars or hourly/weekly wages. Think of the net sum of your investments, or of your wealthiest friends investments and you will see it is small change. Nobody wants to risk more than a small amount on a speculative punt.
Not a fan of these misleading For Sale By Owner sites, but raising over £1m in 3 days is pretty impressive. Just shows how much the public don’t know about estate agency.
“Purplebricks, personally I wouldn’t touch them with a 30-foot pole”
Classic line…lol
If you need money to move your business forward and the more you have the more you can spend, why would you close the crowdfunding early
Answer – no one else wants to put any money in, so closing early saves face.
I dont have anything against Emoov like i do the Purple ones, but to believe you can scale the business to the same level is more than like just a very pleasant dream. The claims of market share are rubbish as stated yesterday and it would seem the market only has room for one Online mainly agent, and that isnt emoov
Absolutely agree with you re: claims of market share (I have seen two boards in our areas of operation in the last year), however IMHO It isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that they have hit/exceeded this round’s crowdfunding target, but by invoking a sort of ‘FOMO’ amongst possible investors (rather like the Aldi/Lidl ”one shipment of thermos mugs- once they’re gone, they’re gone” type approach)- they’re creating ‘hype’ which draws in those who do see some potential merit in investing further. I’m no trader, nor expert in investment, but this isn’t the worst ruse implemented to gain further investment- After all they do seem to be the Lidl/Aldi of the property industry, so this sort of approach would (to my mind) make sense…
I suspect it may not be too long before investors in both Emoov and PurpleBricks realise they have been annualised with a 30 foot pole…