SME banking platform Coconut is crowdfunding again

The last time the fintech crowdfunded, back in 2018, it beat its target by 400 per cent and raised just under £2m.

Coconut, the banking platform designed for SMEs and self-employed people, is launching its second crowdfunding campaign next week, nearly two and a half months behind schedule.

Sam O’Connor, CEO of Coconut, told AltFi: “We were due to launch our Crowdcube round on the first day of lockdown. The team had done an amazing job of preparing for it with huge effort across the board and our community was excited.”

“When lock-down started, nobody knew how this would play out and we didn't feel it was the right time to launch.”

The crowdfunding campaign was revealed in a blog post and the amount Coconut is hoping to raise will be revealed later today.

In 2018, the SME banking platform beat its previous crowdfunding target by 400 per cent, raising just under £2m.

Investors can currently register for priority access to the Crowdcube campaign to get the chance to invest while the campaign is still in private mode.

O’Connor went on to say that following an investor update a few weeks ago, Coconut found there “was a lot of support in the community for the crowdfund to launch.”

The CEO says the fintech is planning on using the funds raised to invest in new products and services as “self-employment will be a major feature of the economic recovery.”

Early on in the coronavirus crisis, Coconut was one of the first fintechs to offer SMEs, specifically the self-employed and freelancers, support.

Coconut launched a campaign for self-employed income support after the group was initially left out of the government-backed support schemes.

Alongside this, the fintech also introduced a self-assessment calculator, like many other fintechs, to help those affected work out how much support they could receive.