Kontinuous – Raising Capital 24/7

Kontinuous - Raising Capital 24/7

This week I spoke to Ross Murray-Jones and Helen Ginter from Kontinuous. Kontinuous helps established, community-led brands raise capital 24/7/365 from their website.

Hi Ross, Hi Helen! Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to me. I’ve been so excited to speak to you and learn about Kontinous!

First, up - the pitch!

Hi Hannah! Kontinuous helps established, community-led brands raise capital 24/7/365 from their website. 

We make the process of issuing shares digital, permissionless and continuous whilst significantly simplifying the management of a large pool of investors. In short, we make direct share offers an option for UK SMEs.

So how is what you’re doing different? I’ve seen white-label crowdfunding platforms and, of course, centralised crowdfunding platforms - how is Kontinuous different?

Firstly, Kontinuous is not a crowdfunding marketplace; we’re an always-on direct offer provider. We’re redefining the fundraising process by making it accessible at all times, removing the need for episodic fundraising rounds altogether. 

This means that founders can let their execution do the talking instead of spending years on an endless investment roadshow. Essentially, with Kontinuous, your product and implementation become your pitch. By inviting anyone who lands on their website to invest at any time, founders will reclaim control of their time spent fundraising to focus on their business.

Our fundraising infrastructure also recognises a community grows and develops over time, and risk appetites differ from person to person. It doesn’t matter whether a retail investor wants to invest £500 or a sophisticated investor intends to invest £100,000; the choice is theirs to support when ready. Right now, so much capital is left on the table because rounds are inaccessible and periodic compared to the fluidity of the crypto or public markets.

“It is imperative for our vision that retail investors gain access to the investment opportunities we enable at the same time as sophisticated investors within a safe environment.”

Now for the R word - smoother fundraising processes are always better for Founders but staying within regulation can be tough. What have been the regulatory considerations for Kontinuous and how have you worked through them?

Retail investment services are heavily regulated in the UK, especially in the alternative finance sector. It is imperative for our vision that retail investors gain access to the investment opportunities we enable at the same time as sophisticated investors within a safe environment. Trust is paramount, and regulation provides the level of protection required to offer that trust.

To get this part of our business right from the start, our founding team has experience with regulated services. We have also been working with several reputable law firms on our product, licensing requirements, and so on. Hopefully, we’ll have some good news to report from this front shortly!

“Trust is paramount, and regulation provides the level of protection required to offer that trust”

What are your thoughts on the future of crowdfunding?

What’s next for the industry and what do you see as the big threats and opportunities?

Crowdfunding provided access to an untapped cash source and paved the way for Kontinuous to come into existence with a solution that better serves the needs of SMEs in the UK.

The way we see it, ignoring small shareholders is becoming much harder to justify as technology improves and the market demands access. But there's a massive gap for growth and late-stage businesses who don’t have a vehicle to raise capital from their community once they’ve been in the market for a few years and found product-market fit. Nothing exists. There's equity crowdfunding, of course, which is a £240M a year industry in the UK, but Seedrs and Crowdcube's business is 95% early-stage. This leads to an extreme scenario like Brewdog, which undertook all the complexity and cost itself to raise £84M going-it-alone via its direct offer on its website. Imagine if we could offer a turnkey solution to brands like Brewdog all over Europe?

We think that decentralised finance can play a crucial role in addressing one of the main issues with today's crowdfunding - liquidity. This technology has the potential to make private markets as liquid as public or crypto markets. And given the significant growth trend in retail investments, this industry will be unstoppable once we achieve liquidity.

“We think that decentralised finance can play a crucial role in addressing one of the main issues with today’s crowdfunding - liquidity.”

What’s the long-term vision for Kontinuous? 

At Kontinuous, our vision is to make investments into the private sector more akin to the public or crypto markets, essentially more dynamic, accessible and ultimately liquid. And placing an 'Invest' button on any website is the first step on this journey.

The second step is unlocking liquidity for the private markets. We believe the key to that is tokenising the whole cap table - this will allow real-time transactions between everyday investors and institutional investors and everyone in between, 24/7, regardless of where in the world you are based. Truly free movement of capital. 

“This technology has the potential to make private markets as liquid as public or crypto markets. And given the significant growth trend in retail investments, this industry will be unstoppable once we achieve liquidity.”

What are the big next steps for Kontinous? What should we look out for?

We are launching our token to showcase how the product will work and allow our supporters to invest in Kontinuous easily. If you like what you saw in this interview and would like to hear more, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to receive public updates, including when our KONT token goes live. 

If you're interested in launching a direct offer via your website, reach out to us on our website or simply email info@kontinuous.co.

Finally, who else should I talk to? Who are your favourite companies innovating in the alternative finance space?

Our favourites are Odin and Zash!

Amazing! Thanks so much for your time - I’ll be looking out for your launch and following along!