A PUBLISHER which produces books to teach children about money has expanded with the help of ‘crowdfunding’.

Crowdfunding is one of the latest trends in non-bank finance, enabling investors to put money directly into a venture.

Bournemouth-based Financial Fairytales, which aims to produce inspirational children’s books, raised £19,750 from 21 investors via the online crowdfunding platform Crowdcube.

Daniel Britton, founder of Financial Fairytales, said: "We were looking to expand our business and weren’t able to secure lending from a bank so we looked at crowdfunding.

“Via Crowdcube, we were successful in raising nearly £20,000 in just seven days from a total of 21 investors.

“We now have developed new books and money-related learning products and as a direct result have been able to help many more children, parents and schools in the UK and beyond.”

Crowdfunding sees investors put up money in return for a stake in the business (equity crowdfunding), for a reward of some kind (reward-based crowdfunding) or as a loan (debt crowdfunding).

Exeter-based Crowdcube is the UK’s leading crowdfunding platform, in terms of number of companies funded and funds raised. It has raised more than £20m for 103 businesses since it launched in 2011.

Crowdfunder, based in Newquay, is the UK’s largest reward-based crowdfunding platform.

Rockpool Investments, a London-based hybrid crowdfunding-private equity company, is moving into the region with offices in Bristol and Exeter. It says this is the first step in establishing a UK-wide network and that the region has established itself as a centre for alternative funding to small and medium sized enterprises.

The company operates a model similar to crowdfunding, in that people can invest directly in private companies, but it has a team of private equity professionals who carry out due diligence on all companies before they are offered to investors.