A £300,000 crowdfunding campaign by options-focused trading start-up Investa has closed early after raising more than double the target amount.
In a LinkedIn post yesterday, Investa’s co-founder and CEO Alec Beasley stated that the campaign on crowdfunding platform Crowdcude had surpassed the £300,000 target in just two hours.
“We’ve now reached an amazing milestone – 200% overfunded in less than two weeks,”.
The “overwhelming demand” has led the firm to close the campaign early, at 11:59pm yesterday, 22 October.
In response to questions from the Good Money Guide, Beasley said that Investa had raised more than £1 million before the campaign went public. And that before the crowdfunding campaign went live “there was £230k of signed commitments before opening the Early Access window and then capacity was hit within two hours”.
Crowdfunding can provide a good source of capital for start-ups, but is a high-risk investment for participants as they are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong with the business.
He sees a big opportunity for the platform in the UK, where he estimates that the market for options trading could be “a lot bigger” than that for CFDs, which have been traded by around 1.7 million investors. Though this would require “the right education”.
“We believe there’s been a real accessibility problem over the previous few years,” he added.
“Stocks, Crypto and CFDs have soared in popularity because of how accessible they’ve been. We’re aiming to solve the accessibility issue for options.”
Investa was incorporated in July 2022 and has an early access waitlist for users. It plans to offer commission-free trading in stocks and options.
Instead, the firm charges a foreign exchange fee of 0.99% for converting pounds into another currency when trading international stocks or options.
The firm’s website states: ”We are currently building our product and will keep everyone who joins the waitlist updated ahead of launch. It won’t be long, stay tuned!”
Beasley previously worked for more than three years as a markets and sales analyst at Citi before co-founding the company.
Investa’s other co-founder is former letting agency founder Ross Lynch.
According to Companies House, the firm operates from 33 Cavendish Square in London’s Mayfair district.
If you are interested in trading options see the Good Money Guide’s roundup of some of the best platforms and brokers for options trading.
Robin has more than six years of experience as a financial journalist, most of which were spent at Citywire, and covers the latest developments in the investing, trading and currency transfer space. Outside of work, he enjoys reading literature and philosophy and playing the piano.
You can contact Robin at robin@goodmoneyguide.com
