Don't invest unless you're prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong.
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Risk Summary

Estimated reading time: 2 min

Due to the potential for losses, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) considers this investment to be high risk.

What are the key risks?

  • You could lose all the money you invest
  • Most investments are shares in start-up businesses or bonds issued by them. Investors in these shares or bonds often lose 100% of the money they invested, as most start-up businesses fail.
  • Checks on the businesses you are investing in, such as how well they are expected to perform, may not have been carried out by the platform you are investing through. You should do your own research before investing.

You won't get your money back quickly

  • Even if the business you invest in is successful, it will likely take several years to get your money back.
  • The most likely way to get your money back is if the business is bought by another business or lists its shares on an exchange such as the London Stock Exchange. These events are not common.
  • Start-up businesses very rarely pay you back through dividends. You should not expect to get your money back this way.
  • Some platforms may give you the opportunity to sell your investment early through a 'secondary market' or 'bulletin board', but there is no guarantee you will find a buyer at the price you are willing to sell.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket

  • Putting all your money into a single business or type of investment for example, is risky. Spreading your money across different investments makes you less dependent on any one to do well. A good rule of thumb is not to invest more than 10% of your money in high-risk investments. Learn more here.

The value of your investment can be reduced

  • If your investment is shares, the percentage of the business that you own will decrease if the business issues more shares. This could mean that the value of your investment reduces, depending on how much the business grows. Most start-up businesses issue multiple rounds of shares.
  • These new shares could have additional rights that your shares don't have, such as the right to receive a fixed dividend, which could further reduce your chances of getting a return on your investment.

You are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong

  • Protection from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), in relation to claims against failed regulated firms, does not cover poor investment performance. Try the FSCS investment protection checker.
  • Protection from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) does not cover poor investment performance. If you have a complaint against an FCA-regulated platform, FOS may be able to consider it. Learn more about FOS protection here.

If you are interested in learning more about how to protect yourself, visit the FCA's website here.

For further information about investment-based crowdfunding, visit the crowdfunding section of the FCA's website here.
Insights
Jenna Taylor
· 1 min read
· Updated on

Employee engagement startup Hive welcomes first dedicated team member

Currently live and raising capital on GrowthFunders, employee engagement startup Hive, have gotten their funding campaign and growth journey off to a great start.

You can find out more about this investment opportunity by reading our Q&A post with founder John Ryder or by visiting Hive's pitch page now.

As well as making their first hire (which you can find out more about below), Hive have also recently had some fantastic meetings with a number of potential new clients. John Ryder has been focusing on the business development side of things and has had positive discussions with both a national footwear retailer and an international print solutions provider, amongst others. John's advice is to keep-an-eye on the pitch for further updates on this.

Meet Hive's latest team member

HiveHR Ltd reached another milestone last week as the company hired its first dedicated employee.

Hive_Jamie

 

 

 

Jamie Burnip, a PHP Software engineer, joined the business to help Visualsoft CTO, Matt Burton, complete final stages of development on the software ready for beta testing later this month.

I'm really excited to have joined Hive. I was attracted to the exciting nature of the product and was drawn to the vision that John and the senior team at Visualsoft have for Hive.

As Hive prepares for launch in November, Founder and Managing Director, John Ryder, is now working on Hive on a full-time basis, having recently left his post as Head of Innovation at Visualsoft.

I've really enjoyed my role as Head of Innovation but it was time to concentrate wholly on Hive. New business development has been really positive over the last few weeks and focussing on Hive means that I now have even greater scope to build on that in the build up to going live.

To date, Hive has raised £44,000 of it's £150,000 target.

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Driving Growth.
Creating Value.
Delivering Impact.

Backed by

Growth Capital Ventures (GCV) is backed by funds managed by Maven Capital Partners, one of the UK’s leading private equity and alternative asset managers.