Crowdcube · UK

Freetrade’s 2021 crowd investors: 0.13x, in the sale that paid others up to 15x

Freetrade's November 2021 crowd round sold at 924.99p a share, and IG Group's 2025 purchase paid £1.19 on the commonest, an 87% loss. First backers saw up to 15x.

Past returns are not a guide to future returns. General information, not advice.

The figures

Multiple 0.13x for the 2021 round; up to 15x for the earliest backers Realised

Platform
Crowdcube
Country
UK
Crowd round
2021
Entry price or valuation
924.99p a share in November 2021, at a £650m pre-money valuation
Exit or latest event
Bought by IG Group for £160m, at £1.19 a share for A Ordinary and B Investment holders

Freetrade: crowd round in 2021; entry at 924.99p a share in November 2021, at a £650m pre-money valuation; exit or latest event: Bought by IG Group for £160m, at £1.19 a share for A Ordinary and B Investment holders.

The round

Freetrade, the share-trading app, raised nearly £30m through Crowdcube over several rounds, Tech.eu (opens in a new tab) reports. This page is about two groups of holders in the same company.

The first came in by 2016, the year the company was founded. The second came at the top. On 24 November 2021 (opens in a new tab) Freetrade opened its seventh public round at 924.99p a share and a £650m pre-money valuation, 138% above the price of its Series B that March. Crowdfund Insider (opens in a new tab) recorded more than £8.7m from 6,926 investors.

What happened

The price did not hold. Tech.eu (opens in a new tab) reports a cut of 65% to £225m in a 2023 crowdfunding round. In January 2025 IG Group agreed to buy the company for £160m in cash, below even that, and the deal completed on 1 April 2025 (opens in a new tab).

What each holder got depended on the class of share. Tech.eu (opens in a new tab) quotes an analyst's breakdown: £1.19 a share for A Ordinary and B Investment holders, £2.08 for Series B1 and £2.60 for Series B3. An analyst's post (opens in a new tab) says most crowdfunded investors held the £1.19 kind.

What the figure does and does not say

924.99p to £1.19 is about 0.13x, a loss of about 87%. That is our arithmetic from the company's price (opens in a new tab) and the analyst's breakdown, not a figure Freetrade or IG published, and it assumes the £1.19 share class applied to those investors, which rests on the analyst's account.

At the other end, Crowdcube's co-chief executive told Tech.eu (opens in a new tab) that some early investors would receive up to 15x, more than eight years after the first opportunity. "Up to" matters, as it marks the top of a range. So one sale produced both figures, and a person's outcome depended almost entirely on the price they paid and the class of share they got.

Two things sit in that. A company can grow, sign up customers and be sold to a listed buyer while many of its crowd investors lose most of their money. And the classes of share (opens in a new tab) were paid differently, which shows only at a sale. A sale like this one also counts as an exit in the base rates on the exits index, which is why an exit and a gain are different measures.

Timeline

  1. By 2016

    First Freetrade investment opportunity on Crowdcube, as the platform's co-chief executive dates it. Tech.eu (opens in a new tab)

  2. 24 November 2021

    Seventh public round opens at 924.99p, at a £650m pre-money valuation. Mondo Visione (opens in a new tab)

  3. 2023

    Valuation cut 65% to £225m in a crowdfunding round. Tech.eu (opens in a new tab)

  4. January 2025

    IG Group agrees to pay £160m. Tech.eu (opens in a new tab)

  5. 1 April 2025

    The purchase completes. IG Group RNS (opens in a new tab)

Sources

  1. Tech.eu, 16 January 2025: Early crowdfunding investors bag returns but late investors lose out as Freetrade snapped up for £160M (opens in a new tab)
  2. Freetrade via Mondo Visione, 24 November 2021: Freetrade raises crowdfunding at £650m valuation (opens in a new tab)
  3. Crowdfund Insider, December 2021: Freetrade secures £8.7M+ from 6,926 investors via Crowdcube (opens in a new tab)
  4. IG Group RNS, 1 April 2025: Completion of acquisition of Freetrade (opens in a new tab)
  5. Fintech Nomad, Medium: My breakdown of Freetrade's exit (opens in a new tab)

By Raise Sonar. Published . Sources read .

Every case, with the base rates · Equity crowdfunding raises open now