Edinburgh-based FinTech company FreeAgent has floated on AIM, managing to raise £10.7 million. The SaaS accounting software provider raised the cash with a market capitalization of £34 million.
First launched in 2007, it is known to be the first equity crowdfunded company to have raised growth capital before going public in the UK, the firm’s flotation comes after it raised over £1.2 million on Seedrs in July last year. Now, it is cultivating its reputation as one of the UK’s largest and most popular online accounting services, helping thousands of freelancers and small businesses demystify the accounting process, and manage their company accounts in a unique, simple, stress-free way. Going from one strength to the other, climbing one rung at a time, their goal is to fundamentally change the relationship small businesses have with their accounts.
Ed Molyneux, CEO of FreeAgent, commented on the news,
We are very pleased to have today been admitted to trading on AIM – this is a transformational event for FreeAgent. I am delighted by the interest shown in FreeAgent by investors, resulting in our successful placing, and equally delighted to welcome on board our new shareholders. Our entry to the AIM market is a positive step that marks the next phase of FreeAgent’s development as we progress our growth strategy. We look forward to our future as a quoted company with confidence.
FreeAgent’s flotation follows from Worldpay having raised £2.48n billion in the largest FinTech IPO of 2015 and the second largest IPO in London in the last 10 years after it went public in October last year. James Clark, business development – tech and life sciences at the London Stock Exchange, said FreeAgent’s listing symbolized that the city’s markets continued to be open and available to firms established across the UK as a whole. He continued,
The significant capital raised on AIM this year is a clear sign of the market’s enduring capacity to connect to dynamic companies to permanent institutional and retail capital.
