This is the story of fast cars, but also of innovation in business fundraising as an Aussie business turns to crowdfunding for investment and they’ve raised almost half a million dollars already.
The business is Ultimate Driving Tours, founded by Automotive nut Anthony Moss, they offer guided trips around Australia and around the world where rev heads can take in the sights, drive amazing cars and enjoy fine foods.
With loyal customers booking trip after trip, the Covid lockdowns and border closures haven’t dampened their spirits with trips available within Australia, and their international offices working around any border issues.
But as a business doing well, how do you expand? You charge more? Nope.
You find investors? How hard is that?
Well, with crowdfunding, it’s taken a whole new turn. Unlike when a company lists on the stock exchange, crowdfunding allows a company to sell shares in their business privately.
Founder Anthony Moss explains “We have been approached many times to open the company to investors, but we haven’t been ready before. The timing was never quite right.”
“Now after a really productive 2020 planning our expansion, we’re ready. The business was created from a passion. We love what we do and are now ready to open it up to others who also want to be a part of this.”
The platform of choice here is called Equitise, think of it like GoFund me for small scale investment. In this case, the offer shows Ultimate Driving Tours selling between 500,000 and 2,000,000 shares at $1 each. Those are in addition to the existing 6,000,000 shares in the business.
It’s a fascinating approach. The company took in $1.7million in event revenue last year, with costs of the goods sold coming in under $1million, but with their Salaries and other expenses it was and still is a loss making business.
The question is, can a $500,000 injection of funds, or more – turn it into a profitable business via marketing and advertising which is primarily how the company plans to spend the crowdfunded equity.
Time will tell – given the minimum investment is just $250, it’s perhaps a fun dabble for some, but as an investment for long term return, it’s as risky as any other – just a matter of what you make of the company’s grand plans.
Whatever the case, it’s a fantastic idea – rather than living a boring retired life, people are turning to adventure for their holidays, and likewise those with the means seem keen to splash out on grand tour ideas and a supercar tour is a brilliant way to do that.
We’ll watch with interest the future of Ultimate Driving Tours!
