The Innovative Finance ISA was launched on the 6th of April 2016. Under this new scheme, investors’ earnings from online lending to small businesses will be exempt from tax for investments of up to the value of £20,000 for this current financial year. An IFISA is an investment product and not a savings product. Your capital is at risk and as such FCA considers this product to be high risk.
The Crowd2Fund IFISA allows you to earn between 6 and 18% APR, before fees and bad debt, which is higher than most other ISAs on the market. This is because investors are lending directly to handpicked opportunities, cutting out the middle man. The overall IFISA return may vary slightly depending on the investment opportunities selected by investors.
Crowd2Fund collects a 1% fee of the total repayment when the repayment is made. This has a nominal impact on the actual return. Bad debt should also be taken into account with the actual APR received. Currently, written-off and defaulted loans can be checked here. Our target default rate is 0.5%, and this should be considered when investing. Past performance and forecasts are not reliable indicators of future results.
It’s important for investors to understand that by investing in an IFISA, they are putting their capital at risk, in a similar way to a stocks and shares ISA. If an opportunity they invest in fails and the funds are not recovered investors will lose their investment in that business. Therefore, it is important to invest in a number of different opportunities to manage the risk of losses.
Read more about how we estimate our APR here.
Investors activate their IFISA simply by registering to the Crowd2Fund platform and clicking the 'Activate my IFISA' button on the portfolio page. Investors are then requested to provide their National Insurance Number.
We do the rest, and inform HMRC about your Innovative Finance ISA. Register here.
If you don't want to apply or transfer via the website you can also download the form here. Simply complete the form and post it to us at our address: 242 Acklam Road, London, W10 5JJ
All opportunities listed undergo a due diligence and a strict credit assessment process. Investors select the opportunities listed on the platform that they wish to invest in. Investments have a pre-defined interest rate which is clearly shown, between 6% - 18% APR. Investors simply select an opportunity that has been carefully hand-picked and approved by Crowd2Fund and make the investment using a direct bank transfer or debit card. Investor funds are held securely in our segregated 3rd party client funds account.
All repayments are made back to investor Crowd2Fund accounts on a monthly basis. After investors have activated their IFISA, any lending on the platform will be automatically allocated towards their IFISA allowance until the limit has been met for that year.
Any opportunities listed are profitable businesses and can afford the loan repayments. All opportunities undergo our strict credit risk assessment process. This involves background checks on all directors and companies. We review historical performance of the business along with market performance. Where possible, we secure the loan against company assets and always ask for a company director to personally guarantee the loan. This means that the director is personally liable for repaying the loan in the event of a default. If a loan is secured or has a director guarantee then this is clearly indicated on the opportunity page. Read more information here.
If investors wish to transfer their cash ISA or stocks and shares ISA to Crowd2fund then they need to complete the "Transfer Authority Form". The form can be downloaded from here or can be obtained by emailing info@crowd2fund.com. Once the completed form is received, we will liaise with investor's previous ISA manager to transfer a Cash or Stocks and Shares ISA to us. In case investors change their mind, they will get 14 days cancellation rights. There is no fee for opening or transferring an ISA to us.
If you have multiple years' worth of savings within your ISA you are able to transfer these and continue earning tax free on Crowd2Fund. There is no fee for setting up an IFISA on Crowd2Fund.
There is no fee for opening an Innovative Finance ISA account. We only collect a 1% fee on interest and capital payments to the investor. This fee is collected every time a repayment is made back to your Crowd2Fund wallet.
Security is our topmost priority. The Crowd2Fund platform has been carefully built to protect you, your finances and your data against security threats.
For your account security, we will send security codes by text message as soon as you have made a pledge to a campaign, when you request a withdrawal or repayments have been processed.
We use text messages to inform our investors of the latest Crowd2Fund updates and incentives.
The costs for investors are very low. We charge a 1% fee on the value of each repayment. You can find more details about the fees on our fee page here.
There are no fees associated with using cards to add funds. This fee is 0% of the value of your transfer in. You can transfer funds for free via direct bank transfer.
We primarily earn our commission from the businesses.
A marketplace where you can resell an investment to another investor. This means you may be able to exit your investment early.
The Exchange is only currently enabled for debt investments and there is no fee for listing or purchasing an investment on the Exchange, however it may not be possible to sell or trade the investment at market value.
Crowd2Fund conduct thorough due diligence on all opportunities listed to check for their credit worthiness, before listing on the platform.
Where possible security or a personal director guarantee is taken against the loan to help recover the debt if something goes wrong. Learn more about how we manage recoveries and bad debt on the platform here.
Security from cyber attack is one of our priorities. The Crowd2Fund platform has been carefully built to protect you, your finances and your data against security threats. Many of our processes go above and beyond what other website may offer e.g. we use mobile authentication for all transactions.
We've also arranged for a third party testing company to review our platform on a regular basis to identify any security gaps.
Your funds are held by Crowd2Fund in a segregated client account held with RBS, 62-63 Threadneedle St, London EC2R 8LA.
In summary, there are always risks associated with investing. These risks must be fully understood before investments begin. Your investment can go down as well as up and you may lose your money.
Here are the key risks:
Crowd2Fund Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 623683). Crowd2Fund Limited is registered in England and Wales. Registered No. 08472687 Registered Address: 242 Acklam Road, London, W10 5JJ.
Read a detailed explanation of the risks here.
EIS is the Enterprise Investment Scheme. SEIS is the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme.
They are government schemes that allow you to claim tax relief on certain equity investments, reducing your level of risk and incentivizing investment into great British businesses.
SEIS and EIS only applies to equity investments not IFISA or other debt based investments.
Read more about EIS and SEIS here.
As part of our FCA compliance procedures, we have a plan in place that ensures your investments are managed through the platform no matter what may happen in the future. We are required to hold a capital reserve so that if the company is wound up, there is a budget in place to manage a smooth wind-down.
We also have a partner in place who will take on managing the repayments back to the platform investors.
Either via direct bank transfer or credit card.
We recommend direct bank transfer for larger amounts. Credit card transactions entail a 0% commission.
You can manage payments via the wallet section of the platform.
When you make a withdrawal request, we validate your identity and bank account using mobile authentication. The funds will then be transferred from the wallet to your bank account. This can take up to 24 hours.
To make a formal complaint please email formalcomplaints@crowd2fund.com.
Additionally, please see our complaints page for more information on the complaints process.
The Crowd2Fund App is only available on the Apple Store and requires iOS 9.0 or later. The App is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
You can manage your mobile notifications from your settings on the desktop version of Crowd2Fund. You will be soon able to manage it from the app.
Click on your name in the top right-hand of the page and select "settings". From this page, you will be able to manage your email and telephone details and notifications preferences.
The app allows investors to track their portfolio and follow their investments. Investors will also be able to receive alerts for all investments and sell their investments via the Exchange. Investors can make an investment via the app.
Click here to learn more about the available functions.
The app allows investors to track their portfolio and follow their investments. Investors will also be able to receive alerts for all investments and sell their investments via the Exchange. Investors can make an investment via the app.
The Crowd2Fund App is available for any investors registered on the Crowd2Fund platform.
The application is secure and all data is encrypted before transmitting. Funds that are added are held safely in a 3rd party bank account. It is important to make sure you have a pin code on your phone. Investments can only be made when they are validated with a secure code that is sent to users via SMS.
While we are strongly working towards improving this feature, feel free to contact Crowd2Fund support via info@crowd2fund.com. We will be happy to help and send the tax statement manually since it is not created automatically.
If there are no further errors detected, such as the image blurriness, and thus, you met the requirements, the IDs are automatically approved by Finblocks. If the ID check fails, Crowd2Fund will contact you and might need a resubmission of the documents providing your identity.
IDs can be:
If you would like an update on your submission, do not hesitate to contact Crowd2Fund via email: info@crowd2fund.com.
Yes, you are allowed to choose any amount you would like to withdraw and send to your bank account. You do not need to withdraw the whole amount at once. Please note, that some withdrawals may take some time to proceed and thus, the transaction may not be completed immediately.
If you have any issues withdrawing your funds, please, do not hesitate to contact us via email: info@crowd2fund.com .
Smart-Invest makes it easy to build and grow your portfolio with intelligent automation. It provides a once off way to automate monthly contributions, investments and re-investment to maximise your portfolio ROI. It’s putting your portfolio on autopilot and taking control when you want.
You can read more about it here.
Absolutely, you can cancel your personal Smart-Invest plan at any time. You’ll have full visibility over all your investments and will be notified via email whenever an investment is made on your behalf. You can also view pending investments and can cancel a Smart-Invest pledge before an investment is completed.
If you face any difficulties during the cancelation, reach out to Crowd2Fund specialists who are always happy to help.
Normally, it could take up to 72 hours (3 days) for a repayment to be processed. Therefore, do not worry if a repayment operation is not done immediately. We always assure our clients that we received the payment and that it will be solved within the mentioned time period.
We are working hard to improve this feature but that occasionally may still occur. There is nothing to worry about, this issue can be solved very quickly by our professionals after you let us know via our customer support email. Every account has a saved transaction history which can be viewed by our team members, so your funds will not get lost in this case.
It's really easy. We'll pick it up and try to resolve it as fast as we can. We get back to everyone that contacts us.
Raise a support requestIf you prefer to Tweet, send us a message at @crowd2fund where we'll respond as quickly as possible.
Tweet on Crowd2FundPlease contact our Head of Collections, Matthew Anderson via email: collections@crowd2fund.com
We can approve your application very quickly and get you listed on the platform. The time it takes to list you on the platform can take between 2 days to a few days, depending on your response time on any additional information we might need.
It will then normally take 2-3 weeks to get your loan, depending on the demand for your project or business opportunity.
The greater the public appeal, reward offering, interest rate or marketing activity for your campaign, the faster your loan is funded.
It costs nothing to list on the platform and we only take a fee once you have raised a successful campaign. We take a 8% fee for the first £500,000 and 2.5% for any funds raised after that. This fee is automatically taken from the funds you raise.
If you do not reach your target, we are happy to release the funds. The fee will always be calculated as a percentage of the final amount raised.
The interest rates vary from 6% APR to 18% APR. If your business is lower risk for investors, you will generally be offered a lower interest rate by our credit risk team.
Simply complete the online application form - it only takes a few minutes and it's designed to be very easy and user-friendly. The first stage is to register on the platform; you can do that from here. When you've registered, you then need to complete our simple loan application.
When we receive this information, our due diligence team will immediately review your application and respond within 3 days. Your personal account manager will give you a call to discuss your campaign and the financial offer.
While your application is being reviewed, we welcome you to create your campaign page, which will be used to help promote your business on our platform and social media channels.
To apply for a loan we will need to see three things:
We need to see that you are financially healthy enough to afford the loan.
We are happy to have a look. If we cannot do the whole amount at this moment in time, we can create an initial campaign for the amount you can afford and check on your financial health in a few months.
We find that this sometimes works out better as you can demonstrate repayment history with Crowd2Fund and also you may not require the further funding in the end, which would save money.
The Exchange is a secondary market where investors can sell their investments (loans, interest-only, equity) to another investor in order to access their capital before the investments maturity. It does not affect your investment. We will manage the transfer of the investment to the new investor seamlessly.
If you don't reach your funding target in time, you can either extend your campaign or take the funds that you have already raised and we can create a second campaign for you to fund the amount missing.
The investors are private individuals who have chosen to support and help grow businesses. Many of the investors are high-net-worth individuals who can convert into customers. All investors who invest more than ÂŁ2,000 are checked from a security and compliance perspective.
For our higher net worth investors, we have an Investor Member Club.
There are four tax incentives available from HMRC.
EIS and SEIS are the main tax incentives and allow investors to claim some of their investment back from the government. These tax incentives are generally for earlier stage businesses who are unable to access debt finance.
SITR is another tax incentive for social enterprises.
Businesses seeking to apply for these tax incentives should look at the HMRC website and the relevant application forms.
The IFISA is a tax incentive for investors, created to incentivize investment into businesses listed on our platform.
Security from cyber attack is one of our priorities. The Crowd2Fund platform has been carefully built to protect you, your finances and your data against security threats. Many of our processes go above and beyond what other websites may offer, e.g. we use mobile authentication for all transactions.
We've also arranged for a third party testing company to review our platform on a regular basis to identify any gaps in our security.
Crowd2Fund is the only platform of its type directly authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 623683). Crowd2Fund Limited is registered in England and Wales. Registered No. 08472687 Registered Address: 242 Acklam Road, London, W10 5JJ.
Crowd2Fund takes compliance very seriously; you can look at our permissions on the FCA website.
Of course. We would be delighted to help your business grow. It's why we set up Crowd2Fund in the first place.
We offer a range of pre-investment and post-investment support, tools and services. You can read all about them here or call one of our friendly managers for advice.
There are no early repayment fees or associated charges. We do, however, have late repayment fees.
You'll only pay interest for the duration of your loan, which must be paid back to its full amount, including interest.
If you are having trouble with your loan, we are here to help. You are also in charge of informing your investors of any possible late repayments or issues with said repayments.
To pay back a loan early, simply contact our support team.
If you miss a repayment you may be charged an administration fee. It's really important your investors are paid on time, or at least informed of the reasons behind your late repayments.
We conduct thorough due diligence and credit worthiness checks on your business, similar to any other lender to ensure that the finance can be repaid to your investors. We also conduct other checks from a fraud, security, and anti-money laundering perspective, as well as ID checks.
If you're interested in our approach to due diligence and would like to know more, then please feel free to contact us.
Our offices are open 09:00-18:00 UK time, Monday to Friday. Calling outside of these hours? Leave a message and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.
If you are having technical issues with the platform, please create a ticket and we will aim to get back to you within 24 hrs.
Contact usPast performance and forecasts are not reliable indicators of future results. Your capital invested is not covered for compensation in the event of a loss by the FSCS. Tax treatment will depend on the individual circumstances and may be subject to change. Please see our Risk section before making an investment decision.