Case study: Collabed overfunds by 130% on Seedrs

"ISQ are the crowdfunding experts, they helped us get the most out of our campaign and assisted Collabed every step of the way. Their programme is well organised and in-depth, allowing you to gather all the information you need. Their spreadsheets and templates helped us organise the entire campaign. We would highly recommend anyone thinking about crowdfunding to work with ISQ"

 
Platform: Seedrs
Campaign target: £100,000
Final amount raised: £130,611
Overfunding: 130%
Number of investors: 146
Pre-money valuation: £900k
Final equity offered: 12.63%

What is Collabed?
Collabed is an online recruitment platform with an attached industry-specific social network.

Bullet highlights

• 14,000 users since June 2021
• Helping employers make effective recruitment decisions
• In 2020, construction recruitment projected to be fastest-growing
• Ambition to exit via trade sale in 4-5 years

What was the best bit of the campaign/what went well?
“Reaching 100% of course!” Alex said, but also the unexpected connections that came out of running a public crowdfunding campaign. We’ve been contacted by a potential partner about white labelling the product and doing something similar but in other industries." This is something Alex hadn’t considered beforehand so it’s given him more ideas for growth.

Alex took onboard the guidance from our Linkedin module well and used the social platform to secure new investors, 1 of whom has now become a NED of Collabed.

What were the key challenges you encountered whilst crowdfunding?
Alex said that getting people interested was a real hurdle, but once he got some commitments secured that really helped to raise confidence amongst the platform’s community and generate momentum.

The overall peaks and troughs of running a live campaign were a challenge. The first and last weeks saw a lot of activity, but in the middle progress was a little quiet. It was certainly tricky to keep up the momentum during the middle of the campaign, but that’s where some tricks of the trade from ISQ came in really handy for Alex to keep pushing the campaign forward.

What parts of the programme did you really benefit from?
Alex really benefited from the process and structure of the ISQ programme, he said he found the stats provided around successful campaign launches useful, as were the many spreadsheets, templates and tools. ‘Thanks Alex’ :)

Would you use crowdfunding as a way of raising funds again?
"I would crowdfund again on Seedrs", Alex said. The campaign received about 50% of the total investment via the Seedrs community, which has given Alex a pool of 146 new brand ambassadors to tap into when he comes back for subsequent rounds.

What is next for your team/growth?

Alex would like to delve more into the net zero space, using the contacts he’s made from the campaign to grow the business into those markets. It’s a growing field, especially for construction recruitment.

Good luck Alex, we look forward to seeing you take Collabed to new heights!

View Collabed’s campaign here

Written by Steph Yeates, Operations Manager, ISQ.