Crowdcube sees flood of ‘green’ businesses

Last year Crowdcube saw six times the number of green and sustainable businesses looking to raise capital, versus what they saw in 2017.

Capital going into those companies has also risen nearly 650 per cent during that period, from £5.5m in 2017 up to £41.1m for the year ending April 2022.

Among the most successful raises have been the likes of Finisterre, a sustainable outdoor clothing brand that raised over £4.5m in 2021, and fintech Clim8 which last year raised over £2.7m.

“Our data shows the retail investment community to be teeming with vigour and passion to help solve the biggest climate issues facing society today,” said Matt Cooper, chief commercial officer at Crowdcube.

“Fast-growing businesses that put the environment at the heart of everything they do would be irrational not to consider turning to the crowd when looking for funding; it is made up of passionate, committed investors whose values will align perfectly with your own.”

However, the demographics of those crowd investors backing green and sustainable firms is not quite what you might expect.

Rather than being dominated by younger investors, Crowdcube found that its over 65 users had the largest percentage of their portfolios invested in sustainable businesses, nearly double the amount that its 25-34-year-old users did.

Overall under 35s accounted for just 14.6 per cent of the total value of money invested in green firms, however, they had a larger quantity of green investments accounting for nearly a third (30.4 per cent) of Crowdcube’s ‘green’ investor audience.