I’m continuing my theme of the current realities of Crowd Funding a business. In this case, I’m sharing some thoughts garnered from . He (or rather Crowdcube) have literally just flicked the “on” switch for a £600,000 equity raise from the “Crowd” – about 16% of the company (ie, post money valuation of some £3.7million).

This theme is linked to the wider discussion about the overall sustainability of the various forms of Alternative Funding. CLICK HERE if you want to attend the Alternative Funding Network seminar on the issue – we’ll have a wide spectrum of the industry attending.

I must mention that I have no financial or other interest in Ventive – though I like the look of what they are doing. I have no financial interest in Crowdcube, either, for that matter! My interest is in sharing knowledge about the ways in which Crowd Funding for business is developing.

First, Ventive. They are a Clean Tech business, busy developing solutions that improve air quality in buildings, but without the need for electricity. Take a look at Rob’s  (which covers the funding requirement as well).

Ventive already have some sizeable commercial contracts in place, and have previously raised some £1.5million through a mix of Seed/Angel/VCT money. The decision to go the Crowdfunding route at this point is based on a mix of things – but I sense that, above all, Crowd Funding simply “seems right”. Ventive are an attractive business, deal with something that touches the emotions a little and have good reach in to a wide community. Clean Tech is “good” and the Crowd tends to like that. Ventive also makes things and has contracts (and sales). The other aspect here is that a good Crowd Funding round can be done at some pace, while also widening awareness through the activity itself. I’m writing about it after all.

So, what new can be learnt here (knowing that I am writing this BEFORE the campaign goes live)? First there is a LOT more due diligence than tends to get assumed about the Crowd funding route – listening to Rob, though smaller in scale, it doesn’t sound so very different to the exercise I went through when taking Ovum plc on to the AiM market (though rather cheaper). Every single claim has to be supported and verified, and that’s before the “Crowd” start asking questions. This has taken Rob by surprise I think, but he made an interesting comment “personally I’d now hesitate less in making an investment myself (through a Crowd Platform)”. The process with Crowdcube also played a key part in setting expectations over valuation.

Another aspect relates to the marketing effort involved. Rob and his team have invested a lot of time and effort in Ventive’s social media presence, website pitch, video and also the employment of a PR agency (). We will find out in the coming weeks whether that effort brings results in terms equity investment. I like the fact that you can  your investment interest via the Ventive site, and be kept up to date with progress in advance of the Funding launch.

Ventive are doing their raise via Crowdcube – the latter have had success with Clean Tec and boast of some 280,000 registered investors now. Quite a Crowd id they prove active.

Good luck Ventive – I’ll be watching, and hope to do a follow up with Rob in due course!