Crowdcube Blue & Green: frequently asked questions

We have been receiving a lot of questions about our share offer so we thought we’d share the questions and our answers with everyone. If you have a specific question not answered here, we’re running an online survey to collect all the new questions. Click here if you can’t see the question you want answered below.

What is Blue & Green Tomorrow?

• The UK’s most widely-read and fastest-growing online sustainability magazine.

How many people read Blue & Green Tomorrow?

• 516,189 people in 2014, up from 227,781 in 2013. We estimate over 1.4 million people will read us in 2015.

Who reads Blue & Green Tomorrow?

• Typical readers are professional, affluent, 25-54 and well-educated, with a strong interest in sustainability.

How does Blue & Green Tomorrow make money?

• In three ways. 1) Fee income from heavily screened sustainable companies in the form of advertising and sponsorship. 2) Commission income from similarly screened sustainable products and services promoted to our readers. 3) Fund commission from an independently managed global sustainability fund.

Who’s behind Blue & Green Tomorrow?

• Our founder Simon Leadbetter (EMAP, Fidelity, Prudential, AXA, Auto Trader, Daily Telegraph, and Daily Mail) provided the seed funding for B&GT and brought on new angel investment during the acquisition of its leading competitor, Worldwise Investor.
• We have an exceptional senior management team lined up to work with Simon once we are funded, including a new Managing Director, Editor and Events Director. Together they have 60 years combined business experience.

How is Blue & Green Tomorrow different from other online magazines?

• A unique business model blending lifestyle and investment content that not only explains how to invest sustainably but how to spend it sustainably. Our ambition is global and we have a model to monetise all reader actions.

When was Blue & Green Tomorrow founded?

• September 2010. The 5^th November 2015 will be the fifth anniversary of our launch. According to the ONS just over two-fifths of businesses survive to this point. We’ll be having a big party in November.

What is Crowdcube?

• Crowdcube is an equity crowdfunding platform that allows investors to make two types of investment in unlisted UK registered businesses, Equity (a stake in a company) and mini-bonds (lending money).
• In February 2013, Crowdcube became authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
• Equity based Crowd funding is a new model for raising funds for entrepreneurs. The ‘crowd’ pool small amounts of money and entrepreneurs are able to bypass Business Angels and banks, to secure funding directly from the general public.
• The key principles of this model are that anyone should be able to invest money in a business and get equity in that business. Entrepreneurs with a UK registered company can showcase their business and investment potential to thousands of micro-investors, ordinary people, by uploading a Dragons Den style video pitch, images and supporting documents. These micro investors can invest in any business of their choice for as little as £10.
• Crowdcube operates on the “All or Nothing” model, when a pitch reaches its target, the business receives the funding raise, if it doesn’t reach the target then no funds are taken from investors and no money is charged. A 5% commission is charged on a successful funding campaign. The platform utilises social media to a large extent to alert potential investors about the offering.

I crowdfunded you in 2014, what happened to that money and my reward?

• Your generous support got us through the cash flow dip of a sponsor deciding to divert its investment elsewhere. We are trading profitably again.
• You can take the original reward, or convert that support into equity. We will send the necessary paperwork in the coming weeks for both options.
• As the people who helped us when we needed it most, we decided to hold the rewards back until we had launched our Crowdcube offer so you had the same opportunity as new investors to take a share in Blue & Green Communications.

What is the process?

• The investment is ‘live’. This will happen in two stages, a launch to you, our registered prospective investors, and a public launch to Crowdcube’s 165,746 investors a fortnight later.
• You are sent a link where you can register with Crowdcube.
• You can then invest in Blue & Green Communications and other Crowdcube projects.
• Your investment is only taken if we are fully funded. If we don’t reach the target then no funds are taken from you and no money is charged. The risk is shared within the crowd.
• Become a Blue & Green Communications investor and share in our future success.
• EIS tax breaks available in any investment in B&GT through Crowdcube.
• You decide how much you want to invest; from as little as £10.
• This is a high risk, high reward, long-term investment #investaware.

What is an EIS?

• You can reads the government introduction here.
• In a nutshell, The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) is a series of UK tax reliefs launched in 1994. It is designed to encourage investments in small unquoted companies carrying on a qualifying trade in the United Kingdom.
• Investment in companies that are not listed on a stock exchange often carries a high risk. The tax relief is intended to offer some compensation for that risk. The EIS offers both income tax and capital gains tax reliefs to investors who subscribe for shares in qualifying companies.
• An individual with no more than a 30% interest in the company can reduce his income tax liability by an amount equal to 30% of his share subscription. The maximum subscription per investor is currently £1,000,000 per annum, yielding a potential reduction in tax liability of £300000 per annum (assuming the investor has sufficient income tax liability).
• Securing EIS was critical to our plans as it creates an attractive tax relief for our supporters.

Motivation of investors?

• Investors, “invest in companies they feel an emotional attachment to.”
• In 2012, Crowdcube surveyed investors to better understand their behaviour. Investors were aware that most small businesses fail and they therefore spread their investments.
• Their research highlighted that investor decisions are driven by the business’ idea, its market potential and entrepreneur’s experience.

Probability of success?

• We have had £110,900 pledged from 102 investors for when the investment goes live. 16 others said they can’t say what they’d invest until they received the prospectus. Our target is £260,000.
• Crowdcube has an audience of 165,746 investors who have invested £80,651,910 in 235 businesses.
• Three recent successes on Crowdcube in our space have been TheCrowd who raised £450,000 and DoNation who raised £167,440. And on Seedrs, another crowd equity site, we have Trillion Fund who raised £537,880.

What happens now?

• We have run stress tests on our business model with Crowdcube’s financial analysts to ensure resilience with different growth curves.
• The link to Blue & Green Communications on Crowdcube is
  https://www.crowdcube.com/investment/blue-green-communications-16289
• Once registered you will then be able to download our prospectus and invest.

Risk warning and disclaimer

• Please #investaware. Investments of this nature carry risks to your capital as well as potential rewards. Please read Crowdcube’s risk warning and disclaimer before deciding to invest at www.crowdcube.com.

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