Monzo Crowd funding

ColdIron

£7.71 for some pixels? Blimey, I'm in the wrong business

6022tivo

and an investor card!

short_butt_sweet

dont_use_vistaprint wrote: »

I agree but that's how the world of start-up is, those that invest first take the biggest risk, often on just an idea, now's its become a brand name and has a customer base theres less risk , so surely that's fair that those investing now get much less benefit and the owners make much more money because their idea has now worked ?

losing £30m a year is working?!

a business idea isn't working until it's making money. pretty much by definition.

to be lower risk, IMHO it should be making money and not have vulnerabilities such as high debt, or tiny profit margins that could turn to losses in unfavourable conditions.

i'd also struggle to justify calling any unquoted shares lower risk.

OTOH, if you look at the business very cynically as being 1 of selling the earlier investors' shares to new investors, then perhaps it is already working.

Malthusian

dont_use_vistaprint wrote: »

now's its become a brand name and has a customer base theres less risk

No there isn't. Now that it's a brand name and has more customers, it's haemorraging more money, as confirmed by its financial results.

Venture capital isn't a race. I've seen no figures whatsoever that support the idea that Monzo is three times more valuable than when it was last tapping up CrowdCrap.

londoninvestor

dont_use_vistaprint wrote: »

I agree but that's how the world of start-up is, those that invest first take the biggest risk, often on just an idea, now's its become a brand name and has a customer base theres less risk , so surely that's fair that those investing now get much less benefit and the owners make much more money because their idea has now worked ?

I'd say it's not so much that it's unfair, just that someone looking to invest now has to focus exclusively on whether an investment made now beats out competing investment options in terms of risk and return.

I haven't followed Monzo closely, but my general question would be: it has a customer base, but how big an economic moat does it really have? How difficult is it really for a competitor to replicate its model and do so efficiently?

And specifically for a first-time investor with £20k to invest, it's almost certainly too high risk an investment. In fact if Monzo apply the FCA criteria properly (basically those in masonic's post #2), the OP won't be allowed to invest.

(Edit: actually it looks like the maximum purchase per investor is £2k, so the investor would just about be a qualified investor on the "less than 10% of net assets invested in illiquid securities" ground.)

underwhelmed_saver

I wouldn't, I don't really understand how they make money.



What % of Monzo's base actually use their loans and overdrafts facility?


I'm willing to bet most of Monzo's customers are wealthy (in relative terms) millenials who travel abroad a lot and have decent paying jobs, so don't need to make use of any bank credit.


I'd be hesitant to invest in any company because you are fond of them or whatever, too much emotional attachment.

londoninvestor

underwhelmed_saver wrote: »

I'd be hesitant to invest in any company because you are fond of them or whatever, too much emotional attachment.

One has to admit that if there's an area where Monzo and a few of the other "finapps" have been a huge success - it's the generation of emotional attachment!

Not saying this (only) to be snarky - there is something that other businesses can learn from there.

dont_use_vistaprint

londoninvestor wrote: »

One has to admit that if there's an area where Monzo and a few of the other "finapps" have been a huge success - it's the generation of emotional attachment!

Not saying this (only) to be snarky - there is something that other businesses can learn from there.

Its nothing new, after functional usability in the 80s/90s came UX (user experience) and a large part is all about creating emotional and pleasurable experiences. Its a key indicator of success for a tech startup. Monzo nails it - no tangible benefits, no current account interest, no incentives to switch, just an experience. Value is what the customer perceives it to be.

Malthusian

londoninvestor wrote: »

One has to admit that if there's an area where Monzo and a few of the other "finapps" have been a huge success - it's the generation of emotional attachment!

But Monzo for one hasn't been a huge success. It loses money hand over fist.

If number of users is the yardstick for "success", then give me £50 million of venture capital money and money scammed from clueless noobs on CrowdCrap and I'll give you an app with 10 million users. Here's how it works: you download the app, press a button, and it sends £5 into your bank account. Bam! 10 million users, massive success. We're going to IPO or sell up any day now, spank that overdraft and invest quickly before I increase the made-up share price again.

danplum5

I'm really surprised at how negative most of you are being.

Monzo are growing at an incredible rate (over 3,000 new customers a day) are completely transparent and are constantly innovating their product based on customer feedback.

Ok, it's a bit of a punt and it's unlikely that you'd see any returns for at least 3 years, but as far as crowd-funding opportunities go this is one of the better ones.

If you do want to invest you better be quick, they're up to £16M out of the £20M.
All those thousands of poor people making a mistake right?