27th March 2020
At Crowd2Fund we have implemented an emergency support plan to protect your businesses and investments. The steps below demonstrate what we are doing to help with the national effort to support entrepreneurs and therefore protect your investments and the wider economy.
1. Helping businesses access emergency relief funding
There are multiple support schemes being made available for small businesses, as the government believes the situation to be temporary and very different from previous economic crises. The core relief policy is the CBILS Emergency loans currently being deployed by partners of the British Business Bank. There has been £330bn of government-guaranteed loans being made available for businesses undergoing distress due to the crisis. We are currently helping businesses access this emergency credit as quickly as possible, so they can continue maintaining your repayments and keep their businesses running.
Download relief guide:
https://bit.ly/39o2qQw
2. Working with businesses to provide flexibility if severely distressed
If businesses are unable to access emergency credit via the British Business Bank, then we will carefully review their situation. Every business is submitting full statutory accounts and we are conducting a forensic review to understand their circumstances and the impacts of the virus. Our strategy is to offer businesses who are on fixed loans to move to revenue loans. This gives a clear structure to see the crisis through with lower payments and then when business revenues rise to repay the loan – hopefully on track with the original schedule. This will mean investors may get paid back less capital in the short term but will earn more interest overall.
Apply for a revenue loan:
https://www.crowd2fund.com/marketing/business/revenue
Capital at risk.
3. Giving information about other government support schemes
There is an array of schemes available for businesses over and above the CBILS Emergency loans. This includes tax relief, reduced business rates and government grants. The government are also offering contracts for vaccines, innovations and ventilators - we’re helping our community access these. We are working with our partners and clients to provide as much information as possible about how the new schemes work and can be accessed quickly.
https://www.gov.uk/business-finance-support
4. Supporting businesses to modify their business model
The market landscape has suffered significant change due to the virus. This means businesses also need to adapt, from remote working to establishing new supply chains to different market demands. We are observing what businesses are doing within our community and where possible providing support and advice on how they can adapt to these unprecedented times.
5. Providing additional investment capital for growing businesses
We are still listing great businesses and viable entrepreneurs onto the platform for you to invest in. So please continue to invest, earn great tax-free returns and support great British entrepreneurs through this challenging time. Many businesses are going to be in a great position when this virus has been defeated to expand and grow. To do that they will require expansion capital that you can provide via the platform.
https://www.crowd2fund.com/investment-opportunities
Capital at risk.
6. Mobilising our army of 15,000 entrepreneurs and investors
We are a well-established community of 12,000 entrepreneurial investors and 3,000 businesses. We will keep you informed of anything that may impact you economically because of this crisis. Partially those of you who are connected to businesses who may be able to help with the national effort. Any support the government needs where our army of entrepreneurs can help, we will be notifying you and get you in touch with the right people.
7. Not putting any investor restrictions on the platform
Unlike other platforms and investment funds, we are operating on a free market principle. We will put no constraints on investments, the Exchange or withdrawals. If you wish to sell your investments, you can do so on the free market exchange. Currently, there is a high number of opportunities listed offering generous interest rates of up to 15%. All account withdrawals will operate as per usual, however, we would be sorry to see you withdraw funds rather than re-invest them in great British entrepreneurs.
8. Actively modifying our credit policy
Our senior credit analysts are already assessing the impact on the market and evolving our credit policy in these fast-changing circumstances. This is to ensure your funds are protected but also as we emerge we are all in a great position to scale up the policy and make sure that businesses are being reviewed.
9. Support the government with on the ground information about small businesses
We are feeding information directly into Her Majesty Treasury, the British Business Bank and the Department of International Trade to ensure they have visibility on what is happening on the ground. Please continue to inform us about what is happening to your business and we will escalate relevant information to the correct department with haste.
10. Helping investors understand and providing transparency
Any investors who want to understand more information about their investments and our plans then please do not hesitate to contact us directly and we would be more than delighted to hear from you and answer any questions you may have. We will continue to provide regular updates on our news section and circulate information via email and social media.
11. Zero fees for 6 months for NHS staff
Finally, we have decided to offer any employee of the NHS zero fees to support them given the efforts they are doing to keep us alive. If you work for the NHS and are an investor via Crowd2Fund then please let us know, and we will give you our fee discount as a show of appreciation for your amazing work in looking after us all.
Capital at risk.
