Don't invest unless you're prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong.
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Risk Summary

Estimated reading time: 2 min

Due to the potential for losses, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) considers this investment to be high risk.

What are the key risks?

  • You could lose all the money you invest
  • Most investments are shares in start-up businesses or bonds issued by them. Investors in these shares or bonds often lose 100% of the money they invested, as most start-up businesses fail.
  • Checks on the businesses you are investing in, such as how well they are expected to perform, may not have been carried out by the platform you are investing through. You should do your own research before investing.

You won't get your money back quickly

  • Even if the business you invest in is successful, it will likely take several years to get your money back.
  • The most likely way to get your money back is if the business is bought by another business or lists its shares on an exchange such as the London Stock Exchange. These events are not common.
  • Start-up businesses very rarely pay you back through dividends. You should not expect to get your money back this way.
  • Some platforms may give you the opportunity to sell your investment early through a 'secondary market' or 'bulletin board', but there is no guarantee you will find a buyer at the price you are willing to sell.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket

  • Putting all your money into a single business or type of investment for example, is risky. Spreading your money across different investments makes you less dependent on any one to do well. A good rule of thumb is not to invest more than 10% of your money in high-risk investments. Learn more here.

The value of your investment can be reduced

  • If your investment is shares, the percentage of the business that you own will decrease if the business issues more shares. This could mean that the value of your investment reduces, depending on how much the business grows. Most start-up businesses issue multiple rounds of shares.
  • These new shares could have additional rights that your shares don't have, such as the right to receive a fixed dividend, which could further reduce your chances of getting a return on your investment.

You are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong

  • Protection from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), in relation to claims against failed regulated firms, does not cover poor investment performance. Try the FSCS investment protection checker.
  • Protection from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) does not cover poor investment performance. If you have a complaint against an FCA-regulated platform, FOS may be able to consider it. Learn more about FOS protection here.

If you are interested in learning more about how to protect yourself, visit the FCA's website here.

For further information about investment-based crowdfunding, visit the crowdfunding section of the FCA's website here.
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Lauren Miller
· 3 min read
· Updated on

Hive.HR: introducing the team

Last week, my colleague Jordan had the pleasure of introducing you to Hive.HR (“Hive”), one of the latest EIS-eligible investment opportunities to launch on GrowthFunders.

Hive is an early stage business that helps organisations to improve employee engagement levels, communication and recognition in their workforce on an ongoing basis through a mix of industry leading SaaS technology and tailored paid support in the form of coaching, training and facilitation.

Hive offers an 'always-on' approach to employee engagement, enabling organisations to gather insightful employee feedback throughout the year in manageable chunks, without having to rely on the traditional annual survey. Hive automates surveying initiatives and presents data to projects, teams and management in a real-time and accessible way using an intuitive reporting dashboard. Less admin, more impact.

Read more: an introduction to AIM athleisure and their SEIS and EIS-eligible investment opportunity

The company currently has a senior leadership team of four individuals with extensive experience spanning employee engagement, software & product engineering and design, innovation, customer success and entrepreneurship. The founders also have strong backgrounds in strategy development across the digital, online and engagement sectors. 

John Ryder | Founder & CEO

John’s passion is innovation. Having graduated with a BA Honours in Market Research, Product Development and Marketing, he spent 13 years at digital marketing agency Silverbean. As a founding member of the Senior Leadership Team, John was instrumental in establishing the agency as a major player in the emerging areas of affiliate marketing and search engine optimisation.

John’s relentless pursuit of finding new and better ways to do things saw the company grow from a small start-up to a multi-award-winning agency employing over 50 people.

This talent for innovation led him to Visualsoft where the idea for Hive was born.

Having seen first-hand how an engaged workforce can positively impact productivity, efficiency and profitability, he set about creating a way for organisations to measure and improve employee engagement outside of the dreaded annual survey.

In just under three years John has built a strong leadership team within Hive to drive forward product development, delivery, customer success and marketing. Under his leadership, Hive has seen strong year-on-year growth and a host of exciting brands using Hive to improve their employee engagement initiatives.

Lisette Nicholson | Strategic Advisor

Lisette has over 25 years of experience in employee engagement, latterly working in senior roles in the public sector. In her last role, she was responsible for Leadership, Culture and Values. She applied her expertise in the full engagement survey lifecycle, demonstrating tangible impacts on organisational performance and behaviour. Furthermore, as part of the Leadership Team Lisette was responsible for developing strategy and managing operational performance for a variety of teams.

As a regular facilitator of the Executive and Board’s Strategy and business planning activities, Lisette has a wealth of experience that she brings to the Hive Senior Team through her advisory role. 

Graeme Littlewood | Technical Director

Graeme has worked in software engineering for over 10 years, specialising in website, web application and mobile app development. In his most recent role pre-Hive he was responsible for developing and leading the online strategy for a major motor retailer, Benfield Motors. The project Graeme led - to bring the brand to life through the online offering - gained national recognition by winning the coveted ‘Best Desktop Category’ in the motor industry ‘Click’ Awards as voted for by customers.

Graeme is instrumental in the product/service innovation and delivery at Hive, with ownership of the development roadmap and the skills to build an award-winning product.

Ryan Tahmassebi | Head of Delivery

Prior to joining Hive, Ryan was helping to drive cultural change in his role as Head of Leadership Development at Newcastle Building Society. Ryan started his career as a Business Psychologist in 2012 after joining Sir Cary Cooper and his team of wellbeing and engagement experts at esteemed consultancy Robertson Cooper. During his five years there Ryan supported a number of businesses to create cultures characterised by positive, psychologically healthy and thriving employees.

His experience includes working with director-level engagement strategies that have a big impact for both the business and each individual employee, as well as designing and delivering a range of projects for organisations including Nestle, Crossrail and John Lewis. 

The live EIS eligible investment opportunity

Hive is seeking investment to grow and scale the business, contributing to their existing team, skills and technology.

Looking to raise £0.3m in exchange for 13.04% equity, Hive has secured follow-on investment from experienced professional investors who took part in Hive’s 2016 Seed round.
Driving Growth.
Creating Value.
Delivering Impact.

Backed by

Growth Capital Ventures (GCV) is backed by funds managed by Maven Capital Partners, one of the UK’s leading private equity and alternative asset managers.