Andy Murray Serves Three Ace’s to British Entrepreneurs on Seedrs

World number one tennis champion Andy Murray continues to back early-stage businesses in 2017 as part of his strategic relationship with Seedrs, today investing undisclosed amounts into ambitious British companies Den and Morpher as well as exercising preemptive rights in Landbay’s latest equity round.

Den is a revolutionary Smart Home system that looks like a normal switch but will reduce your bills, alert you if you leave the TV on and warn you if a loved one has been inactive in the house for a period of time! The company has now raised over £2.1million on Seedrs from over 1,150 investors, overfunding to 219%. Den will make an appearance in households around the globe from the end of the year when the Smart Home technology provider that promises to save the UK economy £2 billion in wasted energy costs hits the shelves.

Morpher is the world’s first flat folding helmet. Morpher folds and unfolds quickly and easily, so it’s perfect for cyclists and other sports enthusiasts who don’t want to carry around a bulky helmet when it’s not in use. The startup has now raised over £659,000 from almost 400 investors on Seedrs. The innovative product was invented by two times British Inventor of the Year, Jeff Woolf, for the 83% of cyclists who don’t wear a helmet because they are too cumbersome to carry.

Landbay, the Zoopla backed marketplace lender that provides finance to the UK’s Private Rented Sector has so far raised £2.3 million overfunding to 157% in a private preemption round only open to existing investors. Landbay direct-matches investors’ money to mortgages using the resource and capital efficiency of peer-to-peer and with a world-class track record, was one of the very first peer-to-peer platforms to be granted full authorisation by the FCA at the end of 2016.

Murray said about the investments, “Den is exactly the kind of innovative smart technology households around the globe will utilise in the future, and Morpher is a product that the modern cyclist should own – one that has been dutifully perfected by an award winning inventor.  Investing in both of these start-ups allows me to continue to build my portfolio whilst diversifying.  I also invested in Landbay for a second time, exercising my pre-emption rights.  The future for the company looks good and I’m pleased to be able to maintain my shareholding as the company grows.”

Yasser Khattak, Founder of Den comments: “The team at Den are so excited to welcome Andy Murray as a shareholder in Den and we would relish the chance to kit out Andy’s hotel Cromlix House with our smart-home technology. Den is on a mission to power millions of homes around the world.”

Jeffrey Woolf OBE, CEO and Founder of Morpher says: “We are overwhelmed to have a tennis legend like Andy Murray invest in our crowdfunding campaign alongside almost 400 crowd investors. So many members of our community have backed Morpher, all of whom will play a part in our future success but to have a sporting hero’s endorsement is incredibly special.”

Gray Stern, the Co Founder of Landbay commented: “Andy Murray following on in this round is pretty cool. As a property investor himself we hoped he’d be impressed by Landbay Turnkey; our new Buy-to-Let investment wrapper that we are launching later this year. Turnkey will offer investors a complete off-the-shelf property investment framework; from a tax efficient financing structure right through to furnishing, letting and management.”

Thomas Davies, Chief Investment officer of Seedrs: “We are delighted that Andy continues to be so active in early-stage investment and his recent investments on Seedrs into Den and Morpher reaffirm this. More exciting still is to see Andy taking advantage of the preemption rights our nominee structure facilitates with his first follow-on investment into Landbay. With our recent announcement of the upcoming launch of the Seedrs Secondary Market, Andy will also be given the opportunity to sell some of his shares and realise returns.”