Fractional investing platform Hedgehog has surpassed its original crowdfunding target of £1m by more than 50%.
At the time of writing, Hedgehog has raised £1,566,428 from 380 investors on the crowdfunding platform Seedrs.
“Having been self-funded by our co-founders to date, we deliberately crowdfunded our first ever round of external funding to build a high calibre shareholder community that understands the problem we are trying to solve,” said Michael Ward, co-founder, Hedgehog.
The crowdfunding capital will be put towards Hedgehog’s marketing and product development, such as increasing its investment offerings and adding the option to sell tokens.
Hedgehog’s service is currently live in the UK, US and Switzerland. It also plans to launch into new geographical markets.
A Hedgehog spokesperson told UKTN:
“We’re also investigating the opportunity to promote our investments in the UAE and the decision on how and when we proceed in this regard will partly be influenced by forthcoming regulatory changes in relation to digital assets.”
Its platform lets investors buy fractions of shares in commercial property and green energy infrastructure through the purchase of tokens on the blockchain. This allows investors to purchase in dollar value instead of whole shares.
Hedgehog, founded last year, says it has a portfolio of over $1.5bn (£1.4bn) in assets based in the US.
Rob Lamb, co-founder, Hedgehog said: “Our new community of shareholders understands first-hand the problem we are trying to solve and has experience and expertise to help us execute the Hedgehog mission.
“They will be of major value as we seek to lower barriers to entry for more people to access real-world investments, including real estate and renewable energy.”
Before Hedgehog, Ward worked in Goldman Sachs’ investment banking team. Meanwhile, Lamb is also a non-executive director for the Development Bank of Wales.
Seedrs’ platform lets the public invest in companies in exchange for equity.
Investment firm Republic’s £86.5m acquisition of Seedrs was completed last month after the announcement was made in December.
Other platforms competing with London-based Hedgehog to be the go-to investment platform are Wombat, Moneybox and Shares.
