Leading the crowd
Crowdfunding is now a mainstream form of funding for businesses of all sizes across the UK, playing an increasingly important role in helping them access the finance they need.
Our team has been at the forefront of developments in crowdfunding in Scotland, helping clients carry out some of the country’s most successful and groundbreaking crowdfunding campaigns.
We also work closely with the crowdfunding platforms to make this possible, including Crowdcube, the UK’s leading equity crowdfunding platform.
Our lawyers work closely with businesses at every stage of their life-cycle, from inception right through to a successful exit. We have extensive experience of helping young, innovative companies secure the necessary investment to fuel their growth into strong, successful businesses, and crowdfunding plays an important part in that funding mix.
Lead Partner Paula Skinner is regularly considered as Scotland’s leading crowdfunding lawyer. She was named in The Lawyer Hot 100 2015 as one of the leading corporate solicitors in the UK for her work with start-up and high-growth businesses.
Contact us
Call us for free on 0330 159 5555 or complete our online form below for legal advice or to arrange a call back.
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Paula Skinner
Partner
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Jo Nisbet
Partner
Why choose us?
A business considering a crowdfunding campaign needs specialist advice. We understand the crowdfunding market, and can guide you through the process from the initial idea through to a successful campaign.
We deliver legal advice in a clear way, focused on business rather than the law and as a full service commercial law firm, we can also provide a number of additional services which may be crucial to you and your business.
Certainty on legal costs is important and we are happy to arrange an initial meeting at no cost, with the potential to move forward on a fixed-fee basis.
We can also assist with introductions to some of the key players in the crowdfunding market and can give you an independent view of the pros and cons of the various platforms.
Key services
We can advise on all stages of a crowdfunding campaign, from the preparation to the execution of all relevant documentation post investment. These services include:
- Advising on what type of crowdfunding would be appropriate
- Choice of platform
- Ensuring the corporate structure is appropriate
- Advising on the current and future shareholder relationships and agreements
- Protecting the company’s intellectual property
- Ensuring commercial contracts are in place and suitable
- Advising on any potential employment issues
Types of Crowdfunding
There are ever growing ways to crowdfund, however, the four main types of crowdfunding are donation, reward, equity and Peer-to-Peer (P2P).
There are many crowdfunding platforms operating different models and it is vital that a company chooses the form of crowdfunding and crowdfunding platform which suits it's business needs. In addition choosing a structure which will fit with your business plan and will not prohibit the business going forward is equally important.
Crowdfunding is not without risk however, provided the company puts in the work and the crowdfunding is structured correctly, it can be a fantastic way not only to raise funds but also to generate PR and create knowledge and increased awareness of your product or service.
Harper Macleod & Crowdcube - Strategic Partnership
We have a Strategic Partnership with Crowdcube, the UK's leading equity crowdfunding platform, to bring the benefits of equity crowdfunding to more Scottish businesses.
Since it was established in 2011, Crowdcube has funded 17 Scottish businesses, raising £19.8m in the process. In 2017 the numbers were £1.7m for 3 businesses. However, this represents only 6% of its UK market as a whole, leaving Scotland way behind other parts of the UK when it comes to businesses taking advantage of crowdfunding.
Through the partnership, we co-operate to ensure equity crowdfunding is considered as part of the funding mix for an increasing number of Scottish growth businesses, for whom it has the potential to be a gamechanger.
Companies working with both Harper Macleod and Crowdcube can save on the overall cost of conducting their crowdfunding campaign. The partnership will also see the duo raise awareness through a series of events across the country.
Crowdcube CCO Matt Cooper spoke at our launch event in March 2018, saying: “Whilst Crowdcube has helped fund a number of businesses in Scotland, including Ellon-based BrewDog, we think there is a huge opportunity to further support businesses in the country. We’re looking forward to working with the Harper Macleod team to broaden the funding opportunities for entrepreneurs across Scotland."
Matt Cooper of Crowdcube with Harper Macleod Partner Paula Skinner
The world-leading equity crowdfunding platform, Crowdcube has over 500,000 crowd investors and the market capitalisation of its 630 successfully funded businesses is more than £390 million. in 2017 alone it helped raise more than £87million for 133 businesses across the UK.
Video - Crowdfunding: An Innovative Way to Raise Funding
We've put together a video with some information about crowdfunding, why it could be beneficial to your company, some potential pitfalls and how we can help.
Having Harper Macleod on my side, with their in depth knowledge of crowdfunding, made the process as painless as it could be. They helped us to be totally prepared for our campaign and we were delighted to hit our target of £110k in just 3 days. Paula, Jo and Louise really became part of the Find a Player team and as well as the legal side of things, they were also able to help our business by using their own networks to make some really valuable introductions. The experience and guidance they provided to Find a Player has been invaluable and I would strongly recommend them to anyone else considering crowdfunding.
Jim Law, Founder, Find a Player
Jo Nisbet from Harper Macleod dealt with the complexities of the various investment efficiently and professionally, I was very impressed by the level of support and advice she gave us to close the round.
James Brown, founder, Beer52
This was the second time we have called on Harper Macleod’s experience in this area and once again we were not disappointed. The fact that they were able to deliver exactly what we needed so quickly was invaluable to our project, especially considering the timescales to which we were working. I would recommend them as the go-to advisers for anyone requiring alternative finance to develop their business.
John Fotheringham, Director, Upper Pitforthie Windgen plc
When you are trying to raise funding it is crucial to surround yourself with excellent lawyers and advisers, and it’s been a pleasure and a delight to work with Paula Skinner, Jo Nisbet and the team at Harper Macleod. In particular, I would advise anyone even considering crowdfunding in Scotland to make a bee-line for Harper Macleod.
Warren Bader, Managing Director, Plan Bee Ltd
We were extremely happy with the work done by the team at Harper Macleod as they guided us through the completion of this vital investment. Their professionalism and knowledge of crowdfunding meant that what could have been a trying process was carried out within tight timescale. With their assistance, our business is now in a great position to push on to the next level.
Marie Brown, Operations Manager, Bellfield Brewery
Work examples
Archover
We advised peer-to-peer lending platform Archover on its provision of £2.3million of growth and development funding to Perthshire based occupational heathcare company, Duradiamond Heathcare. At the time, it was believed to be the largest non-property related working capital facility ever raised by any platofrm anywhere in the world.
Bridgecrowd
We have advised peer-to-peer lending platform Bridgeclowd in relation to loan facilities made available to numerous lenders (both indidivudals and corporate bodies) with an aggregate value in excess of £4million in each case supported by security over heritable property situation in Scotland.
Plan Bee Limited
We advised Plan Bee Limited, the eco-innovation business which offers managed bee-hive services, in a funding round which was the first in Scotland to bring together crowdfunding, public sector funding and an angel syndicate in the one equity transaction. Plan Bee raised £105k on Crowdcube and a further £70k from the angel syndicate and via Scottish Investment Bank. We project managed the entire transaction, liaising with the various parties involved, including Crowdcube, the world’s leading equity crowdfunding platform.
Inspiring people to embrace the crowd
We inspired one company by introducing it to the concept of crowdfunding. This company went on to successfully fund over 100% of its target on a crowdfunding platform, raising a total of £195k from Crowdcube. We worked with this company at an early stage of the process when it was considering various types of investment.
Bertram Nursery Group
We were appointed to advise leading crowdfunding platform Crowdcube in relation to their first mini bond campaign by a Scottish company. The company being funded, which owns and operates a number of children’s nurseries in the UK, raised a multi-million sum by way of issuing bonds to the crowd. In return for their investment the crowd will receive interest payments over a period of up to four years.
Beer52
Harper Macleod advised Beer52 on the investment of approximately £100k from a variety of private individuals and then went on to assist the company in relation to its Angel Dens equity crowdfunding round. Beer52, one of the UK’s largest craft beer clubs, launched on Angels Den in December 2013 and raised £100k in just 38 days.
Growler Beers
Growler Beers is a Scottish company specialising in the distribution of craft beers. We assisted Growler Beers with the preparation of the crowdfunding campaign and ensuring its commercial structure and arrangements were appropriate. The business then concluded an overfunded campaign on leading platform Crowdcube.
Upper Pitforthie Windgen
We advised Upper Pitforthie Windgen Ltd (UPWG) for a second time in relation to a refinance by way of crowdfunding through the Abundance Generation platform. Having previously assisted UPWG with the initial crowdfunding raise of £2.2 million in November 2015 which was used to construct the 500kw wind turbine, we were able to use what we had learned from that transaction to swiftly conclude the refinance of a further £2.3 million in December 2016. This refinance will be used to repay the initial short term debenture holders and will provide those refinancing an estimated IPR of 7.3-8.5% over a 17 year period.
One of the biggest challenges that the HM team faced with this deal was that the crowdfunding campaign was to be launched 3 days from the date upon which we were instructed. The short timescales involved and the complexity of the work involved was challenging, however the team managed to deliver the services effectively within the timescales.
External recognition
Paula Skinner was named in the Corporate section The Lawyer Hot 100 2015 list of stand-out lawyers in the UK. Paula is also ranked as a notable practitioner by Chambers UK Guide to the Legal Profession. One client noted that Paula "was really good to work with, informative, closes things off and knows how to get the right result."
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