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.
Investing
Insights
Industry Insights
Craig Peterson
· 3 min read
· Updated on

Why Andy Murray decided to invest for growth and impact

Last month, Wimbledon's defending champion Andy Murray was knocked out of the world's most famed tennis competition at the quarter final stage. Hampered by a hip injury, he left Wimbledon at the quarter-final stage at the hands of the US's Sam Querrey.

Whilst Andy is understandably taking time out to regain full fitness, the world's number two tennis star will have some time to reflect on his burgeoning investment portfolio - and no doubt planning how he aims to grow and diversify in what now seems like his second passion of investing in startup and early stage businesses.

Investing in the next wave of British businesses

In recent times Andy Murray has made a range of investments in a number of startups and early stage businesses, taking a stake and helping to develop the British business market.

 

To date, Andy has invested in everything from healthy eating chain Tossed through to Trillenium, a builder of online shopping experiences (itself backed by online retailer ASOS).

"Being able to support British businesses and entrepreneurs in an innovative way definitely appeals to me and there are plenty of brilliant ideas and talented people out there"

He's also an active part of the Fuel Ventures Fund, a fund that invests in e-commerce companies and is run by Mark Pearson of myvouchercodes.co.uk.

Additionally, the multi-millionaire’s off-court business interests include stakes in sports nutrition business MiTonics and mobile advertising firm Adludio.

Having been building up his business assets over the past few years, Andy has invested in his own management agency - 77 Management (which interestingly used to be called 'Parched Investments') - which has £11m in cash and over £16m in assets further to a number of Andy's lucrative sponsorships, whilst also controlling the Cromlix hotel near Dunblane, his hometown.

Making investments in an area of expertise

The Wimbledon champion has a clear interest in health, sport and the environment, and he's taking his knowledge and experience in these areas to his investment career.

Having made over 25 investments so far, many perfectly show his interest in the above areas of expertise.

What's particularly interesting is these areas naturally lend themselves well to impact investing, that being opportunities which not only generate high growth investment returns, but also generate social and/or environmental impact - essentially doing some good.

"I'm hoping I can learn something from how they are edging ahead of the competition and take that vision onto the court with me"

A perfect example is his investment into Mindful Chef. Investing alongside Olympian gold medallist Victoria Pendleton and rugby champion Will Greenwood, Mindful Chef is a service that delivers ingredients for meals, giving the customer everything they need to cook healthy and nutritious meals with minimal waste.

In a similar vein, an investment was made in 2016 into calorie-conscious Oppo Ice Cream, which reported "a like-for-like revenue growth of 744% in May and June [2016]. That was 340% above its revenue target."

Similarly, he's also helping reduce carbon footprints by investing in Sell My Livestock, a company that supplies meat direct from the farm, whilst his investment in MacRebur helps support the company use waste plastic to build longer-lasting roads.

It doesn't take much digging to see the common themes with Andy Murray's investments - the vast majority are within sectors he's involved in whilst being designed to make an impact.

Portfolio diversification - achieving high growth returns whilst doing some good

Although only 30 years old, Andy Murray is almost a perfect example of a successful celebrity investor. Not only is he investing in causes whereby he has knowledge and experience, but it's evident he truly understands the importance of a varied investment portfolio.

Taking into account the investments already mentioned, Andy has also invested in benefits scheme Perkbox, peer-to-peer travel money platform WeSwap, cycle navigation app Beeline, pet monitoring app Dog Tracker Nano, and 'beauty on demand' service blow LTD.

“It’s important to me that I back people who I believe have the same dedication, hunger and professional standards as myself and always strive to be their best"

Fully appreciating the need to build a broad investment portfolio, his approach is not only impact driven so to have a positive impact on society but provides a stable foundation to mitigate loss and see financially growth.

The appeal of impact investing

One of the reasons Andy Murray is such an interesting celebrity investor is he clearly has a focus on impact investing - and this is one of GrowthFunders' core areas.

Impact investing can be a great way to add diversification to a core investment portfolio. We want to help investors invest in opportunities that make a difference and that specifically provide measurable solutions to long-term social and environmental challenges.

The GrowthFunders approach to impact investing provides capital to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges in our chosen sectors - growth SMEs, property and clean energy.

Mainstream impact investment is financially driven, but positive impact must be core to a company’s business strategy and guide their technologies, products, services and business models.

And from the 30-year old's investments to date, it's crystal clear that Andy Murray is fully aware of this and is investing in a way that will truly impact on the world.

This post is part of our UK celebrity investors series. You can find our introductory post to the series here.

 

 
Driving Growth.
Creating Value.
Delivering Impact.

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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.