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8. July 2021

Crowdinvesting - we have reached incredible 5 million CHF

We have written history as a Swiss start-up: Our crowdinvesting campaign started at 7 a.m. on Monday, 28 June 2021, and we reached 5 million CHF in no time - madness! We would like to sincerely thank you, our more than 1,700 crowdinvestors. And an equally heartfelt thank you goes to all 4,133 interested people who registered for the crowdinvesting and participated in lively discussions at our Q&A sessions and in the forum - some of whom were a little less fortunate on the subscription day.

Why did we do a crowdinvesting?

With neon, we’ve created something that has reversed trends in the Swiss banking world in a very short time. Instead of accounts that keep on getting more expensive – like those products still stuck in the 2000s – this is a modern smartphone account with a neon heart. From Switzerland, for Switzerland. Since we would never be where we are right now without your support - namely with 70,000 neon users - it was high time that we let you share in neon's success beyond a good product and a good experience.

A few more reasons below for our crowdinvesting campaign - from the neon team and existing investors:

Why in this form?

We also wanted to take on a pioneering role regarding the form of our crowdinvesting: Our crowdinvestors will receive digital shares that are still new in Switzerland: tokenised, non-voting shares (participation certificates). This gives crowdinvestors the opportunity to participate in neon's success and acquire shares of neon. If neon grows successfully and the value of our company increases, the value of the shares held by the investors increases analogously. When we distribute profits, our 1,715 investors will receive their share.

What a day - what a crowd!

06:45 a.m.: The coffee machine is already running at full speed in the Zurich office - with caffeine in their veins, the whole neon team has their eyes on the (crowdinvesting)-ball.

07:00 a.m.: Let’s go! The rush is so great that the crowdinvestors have to be patient for a few minutes. At peak times, 2,000 people use the crowdinvesting page with 800 simultaneous registrations.

07:17 a.m.: The crowdinvestors have barely had the chance to invest when the originally targeted investment of 1.5 million CHF has already been reached. We are raising it to 5 million CHF. There’s nothing like Twitter to sum up the mood:

07:41: We just barely managed to communicate our increase from 1.5 to 5 million CHF when we’ve already reached the 5 million CHF.

07:54 a.m.: Reality is also slowly reaching us: We have reached 5 million CHF in less than an hour - madness!

Jump to 14:00: After a joint lunch, the dust and adrenaline has settled a bit. We go over the books and realise that we have subscribed some users twice - so there is still 1.1 million CHF available.

04:30 p.m.: We open the crowdinvesting again.

04:57 p.m.: Within 27 minutes it's over again, the 5 million CHF are now finally exhausted - and we are joyfully exhausted, what a day!

What have we achieved with our crowdinvesting?

Here are some facts & figures:

  • 5,848 neon users have registered for our crowdinvesting.
  • 1,715 of them bought shares on Monday, 28 June.
  • A total of 29,571 tokenised participation certificates found new owners.
  • The average investment amount of 2,914 CHF is significantly higher than the minimum investment amount of 507 CHF.
  • The highest investment amount per person of 49,855 CHF was subscribed 7 times; amounts over 10,000 CHF were subscribed 114 times.

What did it sound like in the media?

Our crowdinvesting found some resonance in the Swiss media, the Handelszeitung reported on the capital increase amongst others. We particularly liked the comment from startupticker: «The success of the campaign is remarkable on the one hand, because Swiss startups have had a hard time with crowdinvesting campaigns so far. On the other hand, it shows that the tokenisation of shares can open up a new way of financing for Swiss startups. » MoneyToday also congratulates us for the successful crowdinvesting «not only because of the full cash register», but also praises the early-rising and at the same time «woke» neon investors.

Where do we go from here?

Our crowdinvestors will receive a free wallet from our Swiss partner Sygnum. The tokenisation – with other words: the digital provision of the shares - is expected to take place at the end of September. The tokenised, non-voting shares (participation certificates) and other tokens can be easily stored in the wallet.

Since we have just received money from our existing investors for further growth, we are using the crowdinvesting as a way to gain additional speed on topics that are close to your hearts. And to make sure that we change the Swiss banking world in the long term and sustainably.

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