A cloud accounting software company has raised £839,913 in crowdfunding from its own customers.
Clear Books used its own technology to accept applications, take payments and issue share certificates to 735 customers who wanted a stake in the business.
The cash will now be used to develop and market Clear Books Pro, a suite of software services aimed at helping accountants run their practices solely in the cloud.
CEO Tim Fouracre said: "Our philosophy has always been to have our small business customers and other fans of Clear Books as shareholders and we’ve succeeded in doing just that.
"The money raised from 93,950 shares issued will now enable us to expand our service offering, bringing even more innovative cloud based services to accountants and SMEs."
Clear Books’s ‘fanvesting’ strategy involves a business becoming a public limited company and making an offer of shares directly to the public, rather than listing on a stock exchange.
"The approach we have taken to crowdfunding ourselves is not that taken by a typical crowdfunded company," added Fouracre.
"We wanted our customers to part-own Clear Books plc. Our customers are business owners and entrepreneurs who know our company and our software better than anyone. They are investing in the platform that runs their own business."
