26th June 2025
Since January, we've raised over £1 million to support 24 growing UK businesses, backed by more than 2,659 individual investor pledges.We've also seen 15 businesses repay their loans in full, returning £712,511 to investors. It really is great to see the ecosystem working, knowing that we are supporting small businesses to thrive and investors to see a return in such a challenging global political climate. We’ve added some strong new people to the team, consolidated our systems, held a cracking event, and been nominated for one of the most prestigious awards in FinTech. My focus for 2025 is on growing the business, and in the first half of the year this has been about ensuring the fundamentals are solid before we begin to drive our marketing: treating both investors and borrowers like VIPs; resilient, scalable tech; a frictionless user experience; and platform improvements based on user feedback.
My first six months at Crowd2Fund have flown by. It really is a pleasure working with such an amazing team. Building on our past success is a good feeling, but what excites me most is the change underway, the business’s potential, and the plans we have for the future.
As always, I’m keen to speak with investors, borrowers, and our partners — the team are getting to know my mantras, one of which is: “Feedback is a gift.”
-Toby Wootton
2025 is already shaping up to be a defining year for Crowd2Fund as we continue to advance our mission: supporting UK entrepreneurs and giving investors the opportunity to back real businesses with purpose and potential.
From technical upgrades to business model innovation, we’ve been focused on improving the experience for our community, and it’s been fantastic to see that work recognised externally too.
We were proud to be featured in The Times as one of the “10 Experts for Money and Legal Matters" in 2025 and are even more delighted to have been shortlisted for the 2025 PAY360 Awards in the Best Lending Programme category. This recognition highlights the measurable impact we’re making in supporting UK SMEs — helping founders access the capital they need to grow, while offering investors new, transparent ways to participate in their success.
These milestones reinforce our commitment to building a financial ecosystem that genuinely works — for small businesses, and for those who believe in backing them.
Improving Performance Through Product & Tech
To support our continued growth, we’ve expanded our in-house team with two new Back-End Developers. This is part of a strategic move to bring more of our technology and product capability in-house, enabling faster iteration, deeper user feedback loops, and a more forward-thinking product roadmap.
Since joining, the tech team has delivered a number of improvements designed to boost overall platform performance and operational efficiency. Their focus on discovery, automation, and bug resolution has made day-to-day processing smoother — both for our users and internally across the business.
Listening to You: Survey-Led Improvements
Since running our surveys, we’ve gathered invaluable insights into what matters most to you. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who took the time to share their feedback — your input has been crucial in shaping our priorities and driving the improvements we’ve already begun implementing.
From your responses, we’ve initiated a series of projects targeting four key areas: communications, due diligence, customer service satisfaction, and user experience.
One noticeable change is the removal of the live chat feature from our website. Many of you told us it wasn’t helpful and that you preferred quicker responses via email or phone. In response, we’re developing a major customer experience initiative to unify all communications into a single system, enabling us to manage interactions more efficiently and provide a smoother, more personalised service.
We’re also refreshing our campaign pages to help you find the information you need faster. These updates enhance the investor journey and simplify the application process for businesses seeking funding, allowing for easier, direct applications through the platform.
Looking ahead, we’re preparing a full refresh of the Crowd2Fund website, with updated content and platform-wide improvements. Additionally, we’re transitioning to a new Know Your Customer (KYC) provider to boost user experience, reduce risk, and support our plans for future international growth.
What’s New: Products & Business
We’ve been testing a range of new investment opportunities, including loans with lower APRs, lower risk profiles, and shorter 15-day campaigns — all designed to offer more flexibility and attractive returns for investors, while supporting more businesses with tailored finance options.
We’re also trialling a new Open Banking provider to augment our existing underwriting tools. This will improve the accuracy and depth of our credit checks pre-loan as well as providing real-time monitoring of borrowers’ accounts during the loan term. This will further strengthen our due diligence process as well as our oversight of Collections.
In parallel, we’re working to improve our communications around collections and recovery. For cases where all recovery options have been exhausted, we’re in discussions with a debt purchase firm to help close the loop more effectively and bring certainty to Investors earlier than before..
For those that invested in our Reboot Britain programme, we are in the final stages of work with our solicitors and with a capdesk provider to be able to provide more tangible proof of your share ownership, the share value and the options open to you moving forward.
Team & Events
Earlier this year, we had the pleasure of attending and sponsoring The British Kebab Awards to show our support for UK SMEs. We also hosted our first in-person event since 2019. ‘Spring Forward’ was a brilliant opportunity to reconnect with our community and celebrate how far we’ve come. If you couldn’t make it, here are some highlights from the evening.
We’ve been making time for more team socials lately — from mini golf to darts — and recently settled into a larger office space. One highlight we're especially proud of is our externally measured and anonymous Gallup engagement score, which has jumped significantly to an impressive top quartile 75%.
Gallup helps organisations improve performance by strengthening workplace culture, boosting employee engagement, developing leadership, and building lasting customer relationships. We truly believe that a great business starts with a great team. That’s why we’re committed to making Crowd2Fund one of the best places to work by 2026.
There’s a real sense of momentum, and we’re genuinely excited about what the future holds.
To all our investors, partners, and entrepreneurs — thank you for your continued support and loyalty. We’ll keep sharing regular business updates to keep you informed.
Lastly, we’re delighted to announce the launch of our Investor User Forum at the end of August — a dedicated space to listen, exchange ideas, and share our future plans with you.
If you’d like to get involved, please feel free to reach out to us at info@crowd2fund.com.
