Business Legal Services
Crowdfunding Legal Services
We’ve helped dozens of clients achieve their growth goals through crowdfunding across a variety of platforms including Crowdcube and Seedrs.
Crowdfunding your early-stage business is an increasingly mainstream way to get the finance you need to grow. Despite the straightforward approach and simplicity of the model, crowdfunding does come with some risk. You need to have your wits about you and take legal advice early on to maximise the benefits of raising finance in this way.
Contact us today to find out how to prepare your business for a crowdfunding pitch and successfully manage the crowdfunding campaign through to completion.
Experts in crowdfunding legal services
Our team can assist you across all areas of investment and finance law, including:
What we do: Crowdfunding
Our team of expert corporate solicitors can help you decide whether crowdfunding is right for you and support you through the crowdfunding process. As part of our legal services for early-stage ventures, we can:
Be a sounding board to support your business plan, potential pitch and funding goals
Providing feedback to help you meet any regulatory or investor requirements. This can also include liaising with a corporate finance advisor if you have one.
Liaising with the crowdfunding platform and individual investors for example, issuing EIS certificates.
Help you prepare your company with the necessary due diligence for a crowdfunding campaign
Dealing with issues raised by the crowdfunding platform such as question marks around ownership of intellectual property, the status of employees and any existing contracts.
Give you legal advice on the contract you’ll be entering into between the platform, your business and investors
Making sure the deal is clear and unambiguous before you move forward with funding.
Help you understand how this fundraise my impact previous or future investment
For example, assessing whether there are any restrictions and what impact the investment will have on sharehold.
Advise on your intellectual property rights ensuring you have a clear roadmap and understanding of potential and current registrations.
This should be addressed before you start your campaign as you will want potential investors to understand the value in your IPR strategy.
Create or update your crowdfunding documents including Articles of Association and shareholders agreements
Resolve any outstanding issues between you and your business partners and existing shareholders/investors
These relationships will have to be disclosed in your pitch and any problems sorted out, pre-pitch. For example, having clearly identified roles for existing founders, shareholders agreements and the formalisation of any existing loans or service agreements.
We understand what it takes to run a successful campaign
Our expert crowdfunding lawyers understand what it takes to run a successful crowdfunding campaign, and will help you tailor your business so it’s an attractive proposition for investors
You may be new to raising funds via crowdfunding, but we’ve been there before. We’ll make sure your offering is legally watertight so you’re free to concentrate on the commercial angle. Here are some of the most common questions our crowdfunding clients ask us:
- I’d like to launch a pitch on a popular platform. But the terms and conditions are long-winded and full of jargon. How can I be sure this is the right route for me, and that I won’t expose my business to risk?
- Will I have to offer shares in my company as part of a crowdfunding campaign?
- How can I protect my business idea if I launch a public campaign? What’s involved in getting a patent or trademark and do I need one?
- What will I need to prove to potential investors so that they know I’m a good bet?
- How will any crowdfunding investors sit alongside existing shareholders or founders, and how can we protect our position?
Who we help
We specialise in helping start-ups raise finance to grow and scale. With our transparent pricing model, you can access expert City-grade legal advice from partner-level solicitors at a fraction of the cost of traditional law firms. We understand that during the early stages of growing your business you need to protect your interests as best you can, without impacting your cash flow. Our rates are designed to help with that.
Why work with specialist crowd-funding lawyers?
We’ll make sure you’re not offering more than you can deliver as part of your crowdfunding pitch
We know it can be tempting to offer juicy rewards in return for funding. But you need to make sure you can deliver what you promise. Despite its informal nature, you’ll be entering into a contract with your investors, so you need to be cautious when developing your offering. We can craft your campaign so you’ll be legally watertight when you close the funding.
We’ll vet your offer for legal glitches
Whether it’s questions over IPR ownership, or uncertainty around the status of workers, these will have to be sorted out when you pitch for crowdfunding. We make sure these are ironed out pre-campaign so that you can focus on selling your idea and raising finance.
Know where you stand, tax wise
Don’t be caught off-guard by any tax issues relating to the funding raised. We’ll liaise with your tax advisors so you understand your tax position and advise how the finance should be dealt with.
We’ll help you set up an appropriate legal infrastructure to receive the funds
While anyone can buy a company ‘off-the-shelf’, you’ll need to tailor your business so it’s in an appropriate format for investment. We’ll make sure you’re in good shape to receive investment and divide up your capital between the founders and any new investors. This could involve creating or updating a capitalisation table so you can see the impact of investment on shareholdings.
Testimonials
What our clients say
Why choose our crowdfunding solicitors?
Wherever you are in your start-up fundraising campaign, we’ve got a member of our specialist team who’s been there before. We can offer expert advice, hands-on support, and access to our network of contacts. Our team of corporate solicitors has extensive experience and we’ve provided legal advice in numerous, high-profile transactions. Find out more about the team here:
Pricing and service plans
Legal support designed
to fit your business needs
Our three transparent service plans are designed to give you the widest possible access to high-quality legal advice, whatever the size and nature of your business:
Engage
Flexible access to senior solicitors at highly competitive rates
An alternative to our subscription plans, offering access to full service legal expertise on a project-by-project basis.
Enable
Purpose built legal support for start-ups and smaller businesses
Monthly subscription plan for £239 per month, with £159 monthly credit and access to all legal services at 50% discount on our Standard Rates.
Extend
Comprehensive legal partnership for established businesses
Fully account managed and scalable annual subscription plan with support from a curated team of partners and senior solicitors, with up to 33% discount on our Standard Rates.
