Hab hits £1.5 million crowdfunding target
Kevin McLoud’s Hab housing company will close its crowdfunding investment campaign on a high this Sunday after banking more than £1.5 million
The cash was raised in only thirteen weeks via crowdfunding website Crowdcube and will now be used to fund the expansion of the business which has a slew of schemes underway including 108 homes in Oxford designed by AHMM.
Sums ranging from £100 to £150,000 have been invested by just over 500 individuals who now own around 20 per cent of Hab.
Hab project director Simon McWhiter said the majority of the individuals had paid in ‘single digit thousands’ with a handful paying substantially more.
‘Crowdfunding is bloody hard work, it’s not the most straightforward way to bring in money,’ McWhirter said. ‘ But it reflects what HAB does, which is projects with a significant amount of community involvement.’
The money raised by Hab – which was formed in 2007 and which stands for Housing, architecture, beauty – is a world record in terms of equity crowd funding where the contributors get to own part of the company as opposed to just raising money for a specific project.
McWhirter said the cah injection would be used to fund three core business streams; joint ventures with its housing partner GreenSquare under the Haboakus banner, standalone new builds and finally developing its custom build housing model (see below).
Source: AJ