Further funding allows us to accelerate our growth faster... which means we can build more features, for loyal Plumsters like you.

This money will allow us to accelerate our European expansion, refine our products further to best serve our customer’s needs and build an even faster, more cohesive app.

An Advanced Subscription Agreement, or ASA, is an investment for equity, but with the shares priced and issued at a later date. That means investors effectively pre-pay for shares that will be allocated during a subsequent funding round. Plum investors who take part in this round will receive their Ordinary Shares within 6 months. ASA investors will typically pay less for these shares than other equity investors (i.e., they buy shares at a discount) as a reward for investing at this stage.

There are a number of scenarios in which your investment will be converted into shares:

• If we have a Series B funding round;
• If we sell the business;
• Or after 6 months if neither of the above happens.

Our priority is growing the business sustainably to be in a position for IPO at the appropriate juncture.

Monzo, Brewdog and Oculus VR are just a couple of examples of companies who used crowdfunding in their early stages… and were highly successful.

Just like any other investment, your money is at risk because the value of your investment can go down as well as up. However, the process of making your investment in Plum is handled by Crowdcube. They’re authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and with more than one billion pound invested with them worldwide, are well equipped to handle your investment via their secure platform.

We’ve raised funds before through an ASA. We prefer this to a convertible note because our investors could benefit from a discounted share price as well as receiving their shares within a shorter timeframe. They may also benefit from EIS tax relief.

We have chosen to raise money via an ASA for two main reasons. Firstly, we’re looking to do a more limited campaign now having secured £5 million of debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank. That makes an ASA a more appropriate instrument to raise additional funds, as the shares are allocated in the future. Secondly, many companies are choosing to use ASAs for fundraising currently given the market is volatile. This is an uncertain period and strong performances are not consistently being merited with the appropriate valuation in the current environment. Using an ASA allows us to set the valuation based on the next round’s pricing which we aim to do next year.

The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) allows eligible investors to claim up to 30% income tax relief on investments up to £1 million per tax year, as well as access other tax benefits.

More details can be found here.