Project Selection Criteria

We are selective. Most of the companies that approach us do not end up on the platform.

Every proposal is assessed on its own facts and the judgement is ours. What follows is what we look at, so you can see how we get there.

The seven things we need to be satisfied about

1. The company is a real, properly constituted business. The company raising money must be a company, not an individual, incorporated and in good standing, with corporate documents that support the shares or other rights it wants to issue.

2. We can explain the business to an ordinary investor. If we cannot describe plainly what a company does and how it intends to make money, we are not the right place for it.

3. It has got somewhere. At a minimum there must be a working product, and ordinarily there must be revenue. We are not a place for ideas that have never been tested on a customer.

4. We can actually offer what they want to issue. The shares or other rights on offer have to be a type our licence covers, and we have to be sure exactly what they are, before a campaign goes live.

5. The price stands up. The valuation or pricing has to be supportable. Where no lead investor is setting the terms, we ordinarily use a convertible, which means the valuation is settled later by a larger funding round rather than argued about now. Our page on how offers are priced explains this.

6. Nothing about it puts the offer outside the rules. Nothing about the company, what it is issuing, or where it is based can take the offer outside the European crowdfunding regulation or outside our licence.

7. They will give us what we need. A company has to provide the documents, the financial information and the access our due diligence requires. Reluctance here ends the conversation, and it ends it early.

Meeting all seven is not enough, and listing is not a recommendation

These are the conditions a proposal has to clear to be considered. Clearing them does not mean we will list it. Beyond the criteria we form a judgement about the team, the market, the terms and the timing, and we decline proposals that meet every point above.

A campaign on Crowdbase is not a recommendation. We are not telling you it is a good investment. We are telling you it cleared our process.

Our checks are about whether a company is what it says it is and whether an offer can properly be made. They are not a judgement about whether the business will succeed, whether the price is a good one for you, or whether the investment suits your circumstances. Most early stage companies fail. Read the Key Investment Information Sheet and our risk warnings before you invest.

If you are raising money

If you think you meet the criteria above, get in touch. If you clearly do not meet points 1, 3 or 6, we will tell you rather than take you through a process that has nowhere to go.

We may decline a proposal at any stage, and we will not always be able to give detailed reasons.