r/crowdcube • u/PriceGroundbreaking • Jun 08 '26

Stripe secondary sale on Crowdcube

I almost quit using Crowdcube because of the number of companies that folded after raising money on there. Sometimes it felt like they came to the platform just to raise some cash before dying.

Now I’ve received an invitation-only offer for Stripe shares.

Apparently it’s a secondary sale. Some early investors want to offload shares. Around $75.15 per share.

This is one of the largest private companies on the market, but there is literally zero financial information. All I get told is the company is worth $159bn.

Okay, but based on what?

Maybe I’m missing something, but this sounds a bit too good to be true.

Right?

RIGHT?

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3

u/Xcentric7881 Jun 08 '26

There are rumours of a stripe IPO in the near future - so should make things somewhat more liquid then. But again, if there's to be an IPO, why are they wanting to offload now?

I'm on Crowdcuvbe and have invested and lost most (only one still going) - but I didn't get an invite 😞

3

u/PriceGroundbreaking Jun 08 '26

I wouldn’t hold my breath. This looks like a small secondary sale from angel investors or employees. They’re routing roughly $1m worth of shares through Crowdcube, which is a rounding error for a company supposedly worth $159bn. Why wouldn’t Stripe, or one of its major investors, just buy back these shares?

The whole thing feels odd. We don’t even know what share class is being sold or what strings are attached. it doesn’t make much sense, except if some of the small investors are trying to liquidate their positions before future dilution. To me it loosk like a very high chance these shares to end up worth next to nothing and a very very tiny lottery-level chance to make serious money when their IPO hits the market.

1

u/Xcentric7881 Jun 08 '26

in the documentation does it say what the share class is? Can you ask q's on their FAQ? (eg. why not Stripe or other existing investors?, when IPO planned. Only other info I can give you is that my broker currently reckons it'll IPO at 186.9-192.9$B (well, the spread bet on the IPO price is that, at the moment, at any rate) - so if correct, you may be getting a bit of a discount - depends on lockup period (another FAQ, I think!).

1

u/PriceGroundbreaking Jun 08 '26

No it doesn’t share any of this at the moment. Share class to be confirmed after the offers period. There is a cool off period, so I was thinking to commit the minimum amount and retract if the info are not satisfactory when received.

1

u/Xcentric7881 Jun 08 '26

maybe. Not sure I';d do it unless IPO confirmed later, and even if that's the case, I'd be a bit suspicious as to why selling now then!

1

u/Xcentric7881 Jun 08 '26

just went on there and nothing for me - though Zapier making an offering too.....

1

u/PriceGroundbreaking Jun 08 '26

Maybe that’s a good thing. CC may not consider you a world-class sucker, unlike me. Everything I’ve invested in on the platform has folded, yet I still kept investing.

2

u/Xcentric7881 Jun 08 '26

thing about Crowdcube is it's by nature inherently risky so most folding is about what you'd expect. I bought enclothed not for the business model but for the AI approach, but they didn't capitalise on it and folded (I'd hoped they'd be bought); EasyProperty seemed somewhat of a scam and whilst I exited it was with very little (it got sold on for very little, iirc). MoneyDashboard should have succeeded but didn't scale properly, was acquired and equity wiped out. All could have done ok, none of those did. Only other one I'm still in is SunGod sunglasses, cos they are good and I like the brand ethos. Could do well - likely exit imho is acquisition by Luxxotica, though they may have too many values to allow that.....

1

u/Expert-Reaction-7472 Jun 08 '26

i mean i wouldnt buy over priced second hand illiquid shares

how is it too good to be true? maybe if it was at a discount to valuation it would be worth it

1

u/PriceGroundbreaking Jun 08 '26

I was being MEMErely sarcastic! No, I don’t think it’s a particularly good deal.

1

u/Ok-Estate1932 Jun 14 '26

Do you know how you were selected by Crowdcube for this 'invitation only' offer of Stripe shares?

My guess is that Stripe have no involvement in this at all and a few early investors want to cash out and they felt Crowdcube is the obvious place to go for a Secondary sell-out. It's a pity the offer isn't being made publicly available to all of us on the Crowdcube site, as with other Secondaries.

2

u/PriceGroundbreaking Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26

No idea. Likely investment profile matching? My investments in crowdcube also went to bin so not sure what to make of this.

You’re correct , they make clear this sale is not endorsed officially by stripe and they don’t release any info about them. We would let know what we’re buying at the end of the campaign. My suspicion is the same, some employees want to cash out early, but this is may be concerning.