Cloud accounting firm Clear Books stages DIY IPO

Accountancy Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) firm Clear Books has developed its own cloud-based crown funding toolkit in order to carry out a ‘do it yourself’ IPO.

The organisation, which provides services to small businesses and sole traders, has issued a share offer to raise £839,913 having recently re-registered as a public limited company (PLC).

Clear Books claimed it turned to the idea of raising money from customers and ‘fanvestors’ following the reluctance of banks to invest in or lend to small businesses in the current economic climate, as well as what it claims are the short-term agendas of venture capital firms.

The company also rejected traditional crowd funding sites as they charge upward of five per cent in fees, adding that full stock market listing fees are even higher. According to the firm, the total fees associated with its own IPO will be one per cent.

The Cloud Funding toolkit, as it has been dubbed, accepts share applications online and also takes payment for shares, as well as providing access to an investor module where share certificates can be downloaded.

The toolkit also automatically accounts for the transaction in the investor’s Clear Books account, assuming they are a customer.

The company has also said it is considering making the tool available to its own customers if they wish to carry out a similar ‘DIY IPO’, although it has not made a firm decision on this yet.

Tim Fouracre, CEO of Clear Books, said: “We have always developed internal tools to run our own business more efficiently and then made this software available to our customers to benefit from too.

“We have done this with accounting, payroll, human resources and document management. So helping our small business customers raise funds is an exciting opportunity to help small businesses in the UK grow faster.”