As with any investment, there are risks when investing in shares, particularly when investing in growth-focused businesses. The three main risks to consider when investing in equity are:

1. The value of your shares depends on the success of the company. If the company is unsuccessful and decreases in value, the value of your shares will also fall. If the company fails and goes out of business, you would lose all of your investment.
2. Even if the business succeeds, your investment is likely to be illiquid. This means your investment will be locked into the company for a long time – often several years – and you are unlikely to be able to sell your share or withdraw your investment quickly, should you need to. You may not receive dividends on your investment as the business looks to reinvest any profits to facilitate further growth.
3. Your holding in the business may be diluted. If the business raises more funds at a later date (which most startups do), the percentage of equity you hold in it may decrease relative to what you originally bought. Dilution in itself is not a bad thing, but it is something you need to be aware of.

Many investors seek to invest in a diverse business portfolio to mitigate the risks attached to crowdfunding investments. Many startups do not succeed, hence the importance of having a diversified portfolio. Even if just a few of your investments are successful, they may deliver a significant enough return to make up for any potential losses. To date, only 14% of businesses to fund on Crowdcube have failed, demonstrating the sophistication of crowd investors.

Daphne has partnered with equity investment experts Crowdcube to offer our shares. Crowdcube is the world’s largest equity crowdfunding platform. They enable the next generation of businesses, who love pushing at the edges and want to challenge the status quo with big ideas and new thinking, to raise finance. For investors, they provide the opportunity to back businesses that they can believe in, those that have a purpose beyond the next customer or sale. Businesses that have successfully raised funds with Crowdcube include BrewDog, Camden Town Brewery (acquired by AB INBev), carwow, JustPark, eCar Club (acquired by Europcar), Feedr (acquired by Compass Group), Freetrade, Grind, Innis & Gunn, Mindful Chef, Monzo, Parcel2Go, Pod Point (acquired by EDF), Revolut, and Nutmeg.

Crowdfunding allows us to receive investment from a large number of people via a dedicated online portal. As a company, sustainability is at the heart of what we do. When it came to our next funding round, we wanted to democratise the process and open up the opportunity to own shares in Daphne Technology to everyone.

To become a shareholder of Daphne Technology, you will need to open an account with Crowdcube and place your investment through them. Your investment will be administered and held through your Crowdcube account. Crowdcube has recently announced the intention to open a secondary marketplace where you can look to sell your shares in the future.

To invest with Crowdcube, you must be over 18 years old and legally entitled to invest. Please note that we can’t advertise investment opportunities to those living in the United States, Canada, or Japan (or any other country where it would be unlawful for our pitches to be advertised). Please don’t register with us if you are a resident of these countries.

Eligible investors can invest as little as £10.08. Your investment is based on the exact multiple of our share price. Crowdcube will calculate this amount on your behalf.

Registering your interest above will give you exclusive access to our private launch, which will go live at the beginning of May. Our VIP investors will have an opportunity to invest before the campaign goes live to the general public. It will open to the general public two days after the private launch.

No, absolutely not. Pre-registering will give you exclusive access to our crowdfunding page before the public launch.

The exit options for investors in start-up and growth-stage businesses are quite different from the process of buying and selling shares. Currently, shares bought in the types of businesses on the Crowdcube platform are not typically available to trade on a secondary market. Therefore your exit options as an investor are more limited. Crowdcube have recently announced the intention to open a secondary marketplace where you can look to sell your shares in the future, but this has not yet been rolled out / opened.

If Daphne continues to grow, there could be other opportunities in the future to sell your shares. This might be if the company lists on a stock exchange, Daphne is bought by another company, or the company offers to buy back your shares using profits.

The campaign will last for up to 30 days, or whenever we reach or target. Please note, there is a limited amount of equity available in this round and we expect the round to fill quickly therefore we encourage you to pledge your commitment as soon as the round opens.

The campaign will close as soon as we hit the maximum amount we’ve opened to the crowd, or once the 30 days is up.