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Dorking Wanderers FC

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Dorking Wanderers is a National League football club that is looking to continue its record-breaking rise

184%
 - 
Funded 1 Sep 2023
£180,013 target
£333,180 from 746 investors
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Business overview

Location Dorking, United Kingdom
Social media
Website www.dorkingwanderers.com/
Sectors Travel, Leisure & Sport Non-Digital Mixed B2B/B2C
Company number 08964370
Incorporation date 28 Mar 2014
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Investment summary

Type Equity
Valuation (pre-money) £14.9M
Equity offered 2.18%
Tax relief N/A
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Business highlights

  • Invest in DWFC and become a shareholder!
  • Be part of a club with an astounding history of winning.
  • Support the next stage of the club's growth.
  • Gain access to exclusive rewards and benefits.
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Key features

  • Secondary Market
  • Nominee investment min. £13.47 +
  • Direct investment min. £10,000.00 +

Idea

Introduction

Founded only 24 years ago, when a group of friends decided to set up a team and compete in the lowest level of park football, the remarkable, well documented rise of Dorking Wanderers has placed them on the cusp of the English Football League, and the club intends to secure its legacy as one of the most successful teams in British football history by adding further promotions to its record-breaking 12 in 23 completed seasons.

To continue its strong rise, the club needs to make several investments to transition to the level required to consistently compete for promotion, and Dorking Wanderers FC Ltd, the club’s holding company, is in the process of raising equity to complete the funding required to make this transition and continue its journey.

By joining this crowdfunding campaign, you will be able to secure shares in the club and become an owner, whilst also helping the Wanderers raise the funds required to continue on its journey.

Substantial accomplishments to date

Founded by a group of friends in 1999, Dorking Wanderers started life in the lowest level of park football. In only 24 years it has enjoyed a record-breaking and meteoric rise, gaining 12 promotions in 23 completed seasons. The club are now just one promotion away from the English Football League, and achieving an incredible feat.

Monetisation strategy

Dorking Wanderers is seeking to raise a minimum of £2m to invest in a number of revenue-generating commercial infrastructure projects that will provide the club with the aim of providing the club with a sustainable income to support growth and help transition the first team to the level required to consistently compete for
promotion.

These investments include the development of academy and community playing facilities, plus food and beverage services and hospitality upgrades that will generate commercial revenue opportunities and improve matchday and community experiences.

Additionally, the club is focused on enhancing its commercial operations and targeting gradual income growth in various revenue streams. This growth will be supported by expected increases in attendance and targeted significant growth in digital audiences. The main sources of revenue are:

Matchday Ticket Sales
Retail Sales
Sponsorship and Advertising
Food & Drink

Use of proceeds

Dorking Wanderers has managed it’s remarkable rise through taking a controlled approach to expansion and growth, ensuring long-term sustainability is kept at the forefront of business decision making. The club’s goals with the funds are to accelerate progress towards the Football League whilst continuing to outperform revenues in all areas year on year.

The club does not intend to use the funds raised through Seedrs to pay off debts or taxes and neither do they aim to use these funds for creating a non-sustainable playing budget. This raise is solely focused on delivering key objectives that will ultimately help the club establish itself as a consistent performer in this division and to aim for promotion to the EFL.

The decision to choose crowdfunding as a fundraising tool is to galvanise its rapidly growing fanbase and followers through creating an opportunity to buy into the club at an early stage and become an owner.

Key Information

Team Commitment

The management team of Dorking Wanderers football club consists of owner/directors (who are not on the club's payroll), volunteers, and part-time staff.

The directors are also the sole owners and management team of a digital marketing agency, Promote UK Ltd (PUK). Promote UK Ltd does not compete with the football club; however, it is a key sponsor of the club and provides shared staff resources. The directors currently spend approximately 30% of their weekday working hours at DWFC and 70% at Promote UK. As the club evolves the Directors expect to grow the senior management team at PUK to enable them to increase their day-to-day involvement at DWFC.

Share Class

The company currently has 2 classes of shares, Ordinary Shares and A Shares. All investors in this round, including Seedrs investors, will be receiving Ordinary Shares.

The rights attached to the share classes are as follows:

• Ordinary Shares

○ Voting Rights: Holders of Ordinary Shares have one vote per share.

○ Dividends: They are entitled to receive dividends declared by the company, pro rata to their shareholding percentage.

○ Capital Distribution: In the event of the company's liquidation or any other return of capital, Ordinary Shareholders have the right to receive a pro rata portion of the remaining assets after the settlement of company liabilities.

○ Pre-emption Rights: Ordinary Shareholders have the right to subscribe for additional shares pro rata to their holding of Ordinary Shares.

• A Shares

○ Voting Rights: Holders of A Shares have a fixed 2.5% of votes.

○ Dividend Rights: Holders of A Shares are entitled to a 2.5% fixed proportion of the Company’s dividends.

○ Capital Distribution: In the event of the company's liquidation or other distributions, A Shareholders have a fixed 2.5% right to any surplus assets remaining after the settlement of company liabilities.

Debt

The company has the following outstanding loans:

£400,000 loan from a boutique investment bank at an interest rate of 12% per annum. The loan is to be repaid by June 2026.

£60,000 loan from DCMS at an interest rate of 2% per annum. The loan is to be repaid by March 2041, with the first payments starting in Sept 2025.

The funds raised from this investment round will not be used to repay these loans.

Investor Perks

Please note that any discounts, rewards and/or offers listed by a company in its campaign are subject to the terms and conditions applied by that company. It is the company’s responsibility to honour such discounts, rewards and/or offers and Seedrs does not take any responsibility for them.

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Only shareholders can access this page

If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.

Buy shares

Only shareholders can access this page

If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.

Buy shares

Only shareholders can access this page

If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.

Buy shares

Only shareholders can access this page

If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.

Buy shares

Investing involves risks, including loss of capital, illiquidity, lack of dividends and dilution, and should be done only as part of a diversified portfolio. Please read the Risk Warnings before investing. Investments should only be made by investors who understand these risks. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change in future.

This campaign for Dorking Wanderers FC has been approved by Seedrs Limited (trading as Republic Europe) ("Republic Europe", "us" or "we"), as of 2 August 2023 as a financial promotion. Republic Europe is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority with firm reference number 550317. In approving this campaign, Republic Europe has concluded that the information, taken as a whole, is "fair, clear and not misleading." This means that for factual statements we have reviewed evidence of their accuracy, and that for aspirational statements we believe they are phrased appropriately in light of their speculative nature. You should note that in the case of factual statements, the evidence we review is provided by the business, and we do not audit it, which means that we may not be able to identify forged or altered evidence. You should further note that in the case of aspirational statements, the nature of the type of businesses presented on the Republic Europe platform is such that they are likely to have high ambitions, and we may approve statements that convey those ambitions even where we do not believe, or we do not have a view on whether it is likely, that they will be fully realised. The pre-money valuation and investment sought in the campaign are those set by the business: they are not reviewed or established by us, and the valuation is not an independent view of what the business is worth. Given the nature and type of businesses presented on the Republic Europe platform, it is possible that the business has very little cash remaining prior to receiving this investment, and the investment sought may be necessary for the business's on-going existence.

Republic Europe does not make investment recommendations to you. No communications from Republic Europe, through this website or any other medium, should be construed as an investment recommendation. Further, nothing on this website shall be considered an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any security to any person in any jurisdiction to whom or in which such offer, solicitation or sale is unlawful. Republic Europe does not provide legal, financial or tax advice of any kind. If you have any questions with respect to legal, financial or tax matters relevant to your interactions with Republic Europe, you should consult a professional adviser.

Tax Relief (SEIS)

This business is eligible for SEIS relief - providing qualifying investors with income tax relief of 50% of their investment and certain other tax reliefs. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change in future. Click to learn more.

Tax Relief (EIS)

This business is eligible for EIS relief - providing qualifying investors with income tax relief of 30% of their investment and certain other tax reliefs. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change in future. Click to learn more.

Valuation (pre-money)

Valuation rounded from £14,897,012

This is the fully-diluted pre-money valuation of the business (i.e. before the new investment comes in and including issued options and other equity interests). In contrast, the post-money valuation is based on inclusion of the new investment in the value.

It is calculated as the pre-money valuation plus the amount of new investment. e.g. If Company A is ascribed a pre-money valuation of £1,200,000 by prospective investors investing £300,000, its post-money valuation is £1,500,000.

The investee business is responsible for setting its own valuation, it has not been prescribed by Seedrs.

Pitch type

Investing in a regular equity campaign is the simplest and most common way to invest in a startup. You decide which business you want to invest in, and if the campaign hits its funding target then you will become one of their shareholders. As the company becomes more valuable, so do your shares; allowing you the opportunity to share in the future success of the business.

Learn more about pitch type on Seedrs

Equity Offered

The equity offered is the percentage of the company’s shares being issued in return for the amount of investment raised.

When the amount raised is less than 100%, the equity offered is based on the target raise. Once the company has raised over 100% it is based on the total raised.

In some scenarios, entrepreneurs may accept additional direct investment after closing their Seedrs campaign. Provided this is within 6 months of the closing and on the same terms, we do not typically offer pre-emption rights on that extra investment (where you have the opportunity to invest again to maintain your percentage shareholding).

Learn more about investing and pre-emption rights.

Nominee investment

This shows if you are able to choose, when making an investment, that you be represented by, and your shareholding be managed by, the Nominee investment.

Find out more

Custodian

If you invest in this Campaign, Seedrs will act as Custodian rather than provide our standard nominee service. This is due to the fact that the business is not directly involved in the share sale and Seedrs will not benefit from any rights under a shareholder agreement. As a result, Seedrs will handle administrative tasks as we do normally, but you will not have information or voting rights, updates from the business, preemption on future fundraising, or ongoing support about business trading activity.

Learn more about Custodian here

Secondary market

This shows if the business has opted-in or opted-out of allowing its shares to be bought and sold on the secondary market.

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Direct investment

This is an option to invest and hold shares 'directly' in the company (rather than via the Nominee investment). This option is only available to those investing over the threshold amount, which is determined by the fundraising company.

If you choose to hold your shares directly, you will be responsible for any contractual or administrative arrangements with the company you are investing in.

Find out more

Payment options

We are not able to accept card payments for investments into this sector. You can pay for your investment by creating a bank transfer, using funds in your investment account or create a Pay by Bank payment. Your investment will only be completed once the funds have reached our account.

Business Involvement

This Campaign offers shares for sale in business that is not directly involved in this Campaign or the sale. As a result, the Campaign and post-investment experience, including investor rights, will differ from a business-led campaign on Seedrs. Most notably, the business will not engage with investors in the discussion forums both during and after the sale or provide any updates to investors.

Learn more here

Payment options

We are not able to accept Pay by Bank payments for investments into this sector. You can pay for your investment with a card payment, by creating a bank transfer or by using funds in your investment account. Your investment will only be completed once the funds have reached our account.

Drawdowns

This campaign offers the ability to pay for an investment by drawdowns.

Security Token

A security token is a digital asset that represents ownership or other rights. It is a digital form of traditional investments. In the future, you may be able to trade your investment through compatible exchanges.

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