Case study: Vendoir tops 120% on Seedrs

Client: Vendoir

Platform: Seedrs

Campaign target: £100K

Final amount raised: £120,825

Overfunding %: 120%

Number of investors: 118

Pre-money valuation: £3M

Final equity transferred: 3.27%

Tax relief: SEIS

Business summary:

Vendoir is a one-stop-shop event planning app on a mission to make events sustainable, stress-free & inclusive.

Bullet highlights:

• 10K+ downloads,100+ bookings, 342% revenue growth*
• Top 100 UK Startup, featured in Forbes, Metro etc.
• 4.8/5.0 cumulative app rating + growing community
• Part of Barclays & Virgin Accelerator programme '23

The ISQ team supported Yoma and Oshoma from Vendoir to raise over £120K via Seedrs towards the end of 2023. This wasn’t their first equity crowdfunding campaign as they had previously enjoyed success raising via Crowdcube. For their 2nd raise, they wanted to understand the theory behind the practice, and so engaged the team at ISQ to support them.

Their raise at the end of 2023 was set against a backdrop of a fairly challenging year of fundraising in general, with high interest rates, low confidence in the markets and many businesses struggling to raise. Luckily with Vendoir, ISQ were able to help.

We interviewed Yoma from Vendoir after the raise to see how it went.

What was the best bit of the campaign/what went really well?

The Vendoir team showed their resilience during this raise, Yoma said: “Whenever there was a problem or hiccup, we were always able to deal with it. We structured the campaign well by planning in advance and the way we presented the visuals on the page was very good. We had lots of positive feedback on the video and a good number of deck requests. We managed the transition between moving from pre-reg to being live in terms of marketing content very well too."

What were the key challenges encountered whilst crowdfunding?

One of the challenges the team faced, was although the campaign page was strong, they didn’t see the conversion numbers they had hoped for. This was in part due to a big-ticket investor pulling out at the last minute, as well as the time of year and the market conditions at the time of the raise. Fundraising in 2023 is just not what it was in the highs of 2021, when they raised £163K via Crowdcube in a much friendlier market and they overfunded in just 24 hours!

While they were hoping to achieve more in overfunding it wasn’t to be. Nevertheless, Yoma said they’re still happy to have banked 12-15 months of runway.

Do you think you could/should have done anything differently?

Hindsight being the wonderful thing that it is, Yoma said perhaps their “valuation was a bit too high, based on the current climate. Perhaps scrutinising the valuation could have attracted more investors, and we would have liked to secure a little more lead investment, in order to have a buffer in case any investors change their mind. We also could have been a lot more structured in terms of overfunding from day 1 and having a plan B for those first few days if plan A doesn’t work out.”

Top Tips to share with new crowdfunders?

There’s a common misconception that crowdfunding is easier than raising VC funding, but that’s not true, they’re both equally as difficult. Yoma’s advice is:

1. Don’t assume Crowdfunding is quick or easy, because it isn’t
2. Get strong angel backing from the start
3. Start planning now, it’s never too early to begin planning
4. Get a community together, begin networking and growing your online presence, it’s all about who you know
5. Every round is different, there’s no guarantee that an existing investor base will invest again in the next round
6. It’s stressful and time consuming, but it’s fun and gives you a little thrill like some sort of politician!

Did you enjoy any additional benefits of crowdfunding, on top of the funds raised?

“We did lots of networking throughout the campaign, we were constantly going to events and meetings, which was great as we secured a couple of investors from this activity.”

Vendoir also secured some strategic investors thanks to the public crowdfunding campaign, who will be able to give the founders advice and guidance moving forward. They’re also well connected themselves, which helps lay the foundations for future funding rounds.

“Running a public equity crowdfunding campaign also allowed us to gain a whole new community of supporters.”

What were the benefits of using ISQ?

In their last raise, the Vendoir team gained a lot of practical know-how of running equity crowdfunding campaigns, but without necessarily understanding the theory behind it. Going through the ISQ gave them context and understanding behind things they’d done in the past.

Now they have both the theory and practice, they understand the reasons why investors behave the way they do. As a team, they now understand crowdfunding from both sides, they can see it from a positive and negative perspective.

What is next for your team and business?

“We will continue to improve the product, bringing in new features, as well as invest more into marketing and securing new users. We want to drive the numbers to bigger heights next year and get to a position where the business is self-sufficient and covering business expenses. At that point, we might look to raise again. It’s best to raise at a time when the business isn’t desperate for capital, but it would be beneficial for growth.”

We look forward to supporting Vendoir’s growth and seeing where they take their business.

Written by Steph Yeates, Operations Director, ISQ.