The Four Multilateral Trading Facilities in the UK that are categorised as SME Growth Funds.

TOPICS: LSE's AIM, The Four Multilateral Trading Facilities in the UK that are categorised as SME Growth Funds, Archax's new Primary Raise Platform, Aquis' Access platform.

I had always wondered why I couldn't skip startup loans and business angels, and jump straight to an IPO, and a couple of years ago, inspired by Blackbird/Forbidden Technologies' AIM (Alternative Investment Market) listing, I made enquires with one of the AIM listing NOMADS, who told me I wasn't ready for the London Stock Exchange's AIM, and wouldn't outline a pathway to becoming ready.

Recently I discovered that AIM is considered an SME Growth Fund, and that this is a particular category of MTFs (Multilateral Trading Facilities), that is currently being encouraged in the EU, and the UK has retained them from its time in the EU. So, I thought - okay - let's find out what other SME Growth Funds exist besides AIM.

Turns out there are only four in the UK (registered with the Financial Conduct Authority) - one is AIM, two are by the same company - so beyond AIM, there are just two other companies running markets to enquire with.

archax.com - launched their SME Growth Fund this March, and only two companies have launched on it so far. Archax themselves begun a while ago to enable institutions to invest in crypto-currencies and other digital assets - so their market was for digital assets initially, and this year, according to their press release, they're doing stuff to help startups raise capital too:
https://archax.com/news/Archax_Launches_Primary_Raise_Platform
I reached out for more info, and an initial contact said they'd get the relevant person to email me back next week.

aquis.eu/stock-exchange/for-companies - Aquis looks more normal than Archax - and what's attractive to me, is that in addition to their Apex market that looks similar to AIM, they also have an Access market - for startup companies that may have zero operational history, and less than two years of trading.
So a meeting has been set up for next week,
and we'll get to know one another better, and see if we can help one another, in the short term or the long term.