Effective immediately, new users can gain access to PrimaryBid through a simplified registration process and instantly be able to monitor companies. Once registered and verified, users can signal their interest in participating in future broker-led share placings by adding any AIM company to their watchlist. Users can also choose to actively bid on companies to create demand for future share issues.

Broker-led placings
Stockbrokers are increasingly approaching PrimaryBid as part of their traditional book building process in order to leverage additional investor demand coming through the PrimaryBid crowdfunding platform. An investor on the platform who has been ‘watching’ a particular stock may be notified by PrimaryBid when a share issue is taking place. This gives unprecedented and democratic access to PrimaryBid investors, offering them the opportunity to participate on equal terms with institutional investors.

PrimaryBid-led placings
Users who want to bid on companies will no longer be required to deposit funds in advance. Subject to a verification check, users will receive a per-company bid limit of £100,000, with a minimum bid of £1,000.

Successful bidders will only be asked to confirm their bids and provide payment once a potential share placing has reached a sufficient demand threshold and has been accepted by the AIM company.

These service improvements allow even greater flexibility for investors to both track and bid on any of the thousand plus AIM companies.

To date, PrimaryBid has sourced more than £3.7 million of funding for AIM-listed companies with demand continuing to grow on the platform. PrimaryBid users are actively ‘watching’ over 50% of all AIM companies and more than 80 individual AIM companies have received live bids totaling more than £53 million worth of potential equity value.

Commenting on today’s announcement, Dave Mutton, COO, PrimaryBid said:

“Since our formal launch in March 2016, PrimaryBid has demonstrated that there is real appetite for equity crowdfunding from both AIM companies as well as their brokers.

“Following these enhancements to our offering, we believe it will be even easier for our investors to participate in new share issues by AIM companies and for these companies to tap-into the additional demand that our proprietary platform generates.

“With no deposit required for users who want to actively bid on companies and an augmented broker-led placing process, we anticipate both a boost to our investor base and in bid volume on the platform, with an overall increase in the pool of demand for both companies and brokers to utilise. This will further enhance PrimaryBid’s role as a funding source for AIM companies and our role in democratising the traditional book building process.”