Reply to: anyone purchase shares in FreeAgent

[jpdw]

More shares to (potentially) pay 7.5% divi tax on.....

More seriously, I use / like the service they offer, but as I heard about the FreeAgent crowdfunding the same week as the budge I thought if I had £X additional spare to invest in / bet on shares that I'd be better off putting it in something that is allowed inside an ISA.

Interesting to see them taking this approach though.

[GazCol]

I don't think there's any danger of them going bust, if anything the likes of IRIS and Sage will probably acquire them - especially IRIS who already have some form of working relationship with them.

[billridley]

Thanks - i've just taken a copy of my data - only takes a couple of minutes.

Thanks. I will start taking regular backups too

[Waldorf]

You say financed by share premium but this is just past investors in the business buying shares. The accounts have little detail but in the past year they have effectively reduced cash by £276K and increased long term debt by £820K, and now we hear that they are seeking more funding of £1.2 million, hardly sounds like the next Google, Facebook etc.

I would guess that they missed the boat, they should have tried to get critical mass by partnering with the likes of Nixon Williams, SJD etc to get a dominant position.

[ContrataxLtd]

Personally, I can't see Freeagent going anywhere. Yes they have retained losses but these are financed by share premium and long term debts (making some assumptions based on the accounts at C/House). They have over £1m in the bank at 31st March 2015 and appear to be able to service their short term creditors with current assets.

They have also raised some £1.2m in crowdfunding pretty easily which means investors must have some faith in the company surely.

In terms of data, if anyone is worried then take regular backups as has been mentioned. However, if the worst did happen and they went bust then the administrator/liquidator would probably take control of all data and ensure this is accessible to users but this would (should) be covered in the terms of user.

I think the fact Iris move from Freeagent to Kashflow as pointed out by Craig is a red herring, plenty of reasons to do this not least by the fact that as I understand it they now pretty much own Kashflow = much more control!

[saptastic]

Be interested to know why they were crowdfunding - how they pitched it.
8 years established I would have thought you need a good pitch to raise money.
i.e. investment in new technology, new markets etc to grow.
But if the current proposition is losing money its a hard sell. Good call to ensure back ups up to date.

[OrangeSquash]

If you're paranoid about your FreeAgent data disappearing without warning, you could take regular backups. Settings> Export All Data.

Thanks - i've just taken a copy of my data - only takes a couple of minutes.

[SimonMac]

If I was thinking about investing in them though, I would question a couple of things:

• FreeAgent has previously been backed by some form of venture capital/private equity; I would be interested in why that investor isn’t increasing their stake (and thus letting them crowd fund) if they believed that the business was going to provide a return.

Perhaps the owners want to dilute the holding of early investors to curb their influence on the company now its established? Maybe the Angel Investors have got out now they have made their money

[Craig at Nixon Williams]

My work over the past couple of years has been centred on online accounting, as there is a demand for this among our customers and it is certainly the direction of the market. As part of this, I have had a look at the various offerings off-the-shelf, but we took the decision to build our own as it was more appropriate for our business – something like FreeAgent is ideal for smaller accounting practices though as it is a very slick, feature rich, system; and it’s evident from comments on CUK that users like it.

If I was thinking about investing in them though, I would question a couple of things:

• FreeAgent has previously been backed by some form of venture capital/private equity; I would be interested in why that investor isn’t increasing their stake (and thus letting them crowd fund) if they believed that the business was going to provide a return.
• The other thing is that FreeAgent were previously associated, in some way, with IRIS – however IRIS acquired Kashflow last year and seem to now be pushing that. I would be interested to know why IRIS changed their strategy on this.

[Waldorf]

You should only be worried if you are thinking of investing in the company. As a service it's brill. Most startups lose money before they get started. I'm sure it's factored in to their business model.

Normally, but Free Agent started out in 2007 so they should be flying by now.

[northernladuk]

I use free agent via my accountant. Bit worried now after reading this.

You should only be worried if you are thinking of investing in the company. As a service it's brill. Most startups lose money before they get started. I'm sure it's factored in to their business model.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

If you're paranoid about your FreeAgent data disappearing without warning, you could take regular backups. Settings> Export All Data.

[cojak]

I use free agent via my accountant. Bit worried now after reading this.

Don't panic. I use freeagent and am not worried. I'll keep an eye on it of course, but I'm not going anywhere at the moment.

[billridley]

Freeagent

I use free agent via my accountant. Bit worried now after reading this.

[anthony]

No, didn't know they were seeking more funding. Just looked at their accounts and lost at least £2.1 million last year so after several years, big backers and changes in the PSC market, this one is only for the very brave.

Yeah, they been pushing for a couple months now - nearing the end of it. They raised over £1.2m this round - but as you've said; previously they've lost £2.1m

And yes for the brave indeed.

Good question RE what happens to the data...