Crowdcube acquires business reporting software Supdate in all cash deal

Equity crowdfunding platform, Crowdcube has announced the acquisition of business reporting software company Supdate.

Through this new product, Crowdcube funded companies will be more connected with their shareholders than ever.

Founded by Duane Jackson’s own frustration as an angel investor after he sold accounting software company Kashflow for a multi-million pound deal in 2015 and the startups he’d backed didn’t always keep him updated regularly, Supdate offers SaaS for businesses to create and share company news and metrics with shareholder

The idea was that well-designed software could help streamline and to some degree automate these updates, helping investors stay in the loop without a founder using up too much bandwidth writing reports.

This acquisition advances Crowdcube’s strategy of developing an ecosystem of services for entrepreneurs and investors using its platform. This new product will add to the existing suite of post-funding benefits available to businesses on Crowdcube, such as access to Amazon’s Launchpad Programme, to allow them to fully benefit from their crowdfunded raise.

The terms of the acquisition were undisclosed.

Supdate provides businesses with a platform to create, share and monitor company news and updates on performance with its shareholders.

Darren Westlake, Co-founder and CEO of Crowdcube commented: “Crowdcube has funded over 600 companies, averaging 350 investors each and so ensuring businesses can easily connect with their shareholders to keep them updated is really valuable to our investor community. We’ve been fans of Supdate for a long time, and when we recently began talking with Duane in more detail, it quickly became obvious that Supdate would be a natural fit for Crowdcube and our growing Funded Club.”

Duane Jackson, Founder of Supdate added: “Collaborating with a crowdfunding platform is an obvious route to market for Supdate, which is why I why approached the best in town – Crowdcube. Conversations about how we could work together quickly progressed to Crowdcube’s acquisition of Supdate, given their focus on connecting companies with their shareholders. Entrepreneurs are in safe hands with the team at Crowdcube and I’m pleased that Supdate will now be made available to more people through the work they do.”

Crowdcube will give its alumni of over 600 funded businesses access to Supdate, as well as providing ongoing access to Supdate’s existing customer base.