Latest news with #AndrewWebley
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Smarter Web Company becomes tech unicorn after stock surges six-fold in two weeks
Smarter Web Company has become the UK's latest tech unicorn, achieving a valuation of more than £1bn after its stock saw a six-fold increase in just two weeks. The web design and online marketing company saw its stock climb 18.3 per cent by the end of the day's trading session on Friday to 500p, ending a week-long run of gains and bringing its total market cap to £1.1bn. That has come off the back of the firm's new Bitcoin treasury policy, in which it invests all its spare cash into Bitcoin, emulating a model made famous four years ago after its adoption by US firm Microstrategy and its billionaire co-founder Mike Saylor. The company now holds 346.63 Bitcoin with a combined market value of £27.2m. The stock surge means that Smarter Web Company has now become one of the 250 most valuable listed companies in the UK, meaning it would rank around the middle of the FTSE 250 index. The Smarter Web Company, which offers web design, web development and online marketing services, has now raised funds five times since its IPO in April, following another £30m raise last week. It is already comfortably the most valuable constituent of the Aquis exchange. 'The company believes that Bitcoin forms a core part of the future of the global financial system and as the company explores opportunities through organic growth and corporate acquisitions is pioneering the adoption of a Bitcoin Treasury Policy into its strategy,' Smarter Web Company said. The company's founder, ex Hargreaves Lansdown head of digital Andrew Webley, controls a 12.4 per cent stake in the business worth over £100m. 'By taking a pioneering approach to treasury management using digital assets, including Bitcoin, we believe we offer investors an excellent opportunity,' Webley said.
Daily Mail
21-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
British bitcoin company goes from £4M to £1BILLION in just two months on the stock market
'I'd like to be a FTSE 100 company,' Andrew Webley, founder of The Smarter Web Company told This is Money upon listing on the UK stock market in April. This is Money used his quote again two weeks later, when we reported that Webley's high-risk firm had seen its share price double on the Aquis Exchange it is listed on. At the time this perhaps seemed a lofty ambition for a company with a market cap of £3.7million following its IPO, although that was notably oversubscribed. 'People might laugh when I say that,' Webley said at the time. Now, two months later, it is doubtful many are, except for Webley who at this rate may be laughing all the way to the Footsie. On Friday afternoon, Webley's Smarter Web Company surpassed a billion-pound market cap, reaching £1.1billion at the time of writing. The key to its rapid growth is not the firm's core business - web design - but Webley's strategy of becoming a bitcoin treasury company, allowing stock market investors to back it holding large amounts of the crypto. This is a move that has paid off handsomely for US firm MicroStrategy but had not been done before in the UK. It makes Smarter an extremely high risk investment - and Webley himself says that it has 'beefed up the risk warnings' and he doesn't want people investing who don't understand what it is doing. The next most valuable company trading on Aquis, housing and social care provider Mears Group, is worth just a third of Smarter, at around £347million. In fact, if traded on the London Stock Exchange, Smarter's current market cap would place in the top half of the FTSE 250, broadly level with household names Pets at Home, Trainline and Wizz Air. It won't come as a shock that Webley feels he is proving his doubters wrong. He told This is Money: 'I said it, and I believed it at the time, and I still believe it. 'Now we are actually of the size that if we move to the London Stock Exchange, which may happen in the near future, potentially, then we would be in the FTSE 250.' We bought 104 bitcoin this week On 19 June, Smarter made further bitcoin purchases of 104.28 bitcoin, at an average of £77,751 per token. This increased the firm's bitcoin treasury to some £27million worth. Smarter also announced it has signed a subscription agreement for a further 21 million new shares, which could see it raise a further £80million or so. By issuing new shares into a market hungry to buy them, a company can increase its cash balance. In a bitcoin treasury company's case this can then be deployed to buy more of the crypto. Earlier in the week, the firm raised £29.3million through the issue of 16million new shares at 180p each. On Friday, Smarter shares had risen to 500p on Aquis. This valued Smarter Web Company at an astonishing £1.1billion at the close of trading for the week. More than 250 times the valuation it listed at in April. It doesn't take a financial wizard to see that there is a big gap between Smarter Web Company's bitcoin treasury holding and its total valuation, however. It's safe to say that things are moving rapidly for the firm, with its market cap a week ago less than half of what it is today. So, how can that be justified? According to Webley, and based on a bitcoin metric known as 'days to cover mNAV', it would take Smarter around 35 days 'grow into its valuation'. The metric measures how long it would take a firm to accumulate enough bitcoin to reflect its market cap based on its current multiple of net asset value and daily bitcoin yield. In comparison, Strategy, as MicroStrategy is now known, has a 626-day horizon to earn its mNAV, according to Coindesk. We've really beefed up the risk warnings 'I know all these metrics are new to a lot of people that haven't been in the space for as long as me,' Webley said, 'I understand why we trade like we trade, and it's not for everyone 'We've really beefed up the risk warnings because we really want to be transparent, and we don't want people buying our shares if they don't understand what we're doing. 'We have been working really hard, harder than the regulators have asked us to work, on making everything as transparent as it can be.' Since the beginning of the week, it has also appointed a bitcoin strategy consultant, Jesse Myers. Smarter says Myers' bitcoin valuation framework was adopted by Michael Saylor when he was chief executive of MicroStrategy. In fact, Webley claims this is the key to his success; Smarter is following well-trodden path. He said: 'If you look at companies that do something similar to what I do globally, what is happening? 'Yes, it's a bit faster for us. Maybe that's because no one's done it in the UK before. But it's not actually different to what's happened in other countries. Yes, it's surprised me. But no, it's not unusual for a company that's doing what I'm doing.' Suffice it to say, not everyone is convinced that investing in a company like Smarter is a wise move. Like bitcoin and crypto, such shares are an extremely high risk proposition and the risk is magnified by the gap between a company's valuation and holdings. Webley told This is Money: 'I'm doing exactly what I said I'd do very honestly and transparently. I'm keeping everyone informed. 'I said to you right at the start [prior to the IPO] that I wanted to do something that the UK could be proud of. And if it's making a difference to people's lives because they believe in the strategy, and we're hopefully going to perform in the long term, then that's a really cool thing.' What the rapid ascent has done though, is make Webley and Smarter shift their plans to the larger side. He says: 'The thing that has evolved is that initially we were thinking of acquiring companies with around £500,000 free cash flow, profitable businesses but small ones. 'Realistically, the size of these acquisitions is going to have to be bigger.' He added: 'I'm happy to share that we have already looked at three acquisitions, but none of them were quite right.' Nor has the core business, web design, been neglected. 'I still pick up the phone and I speak to people when they inquire,' Webley said, 'I'm absolutely convinced the listing is making a difference to our business, the inquiries are definitely up, the web traffic that we're getting is way up. 'If you do this treasury management strategy properly, you can then actually grow your core business, and in our case, the acquisition strategy.' This is just the beginning, he says. 'I'm very, very much looking forward to the future… the sky's the limit with this. If we can execute the strategy properly, with integrity and transparency, then there really isn't a limit on it.'
Daily Mail
25-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
I've bought 39 bitcoin for £3M in a week: British holding company builds its stake as price soars
The Smarter Web Company has doubled its bitcoin holding in the past week, building its stake to almost 60 bitcoin. The web design firm which also operates a digital assets treasury policy to make it a bitcoin holding company, purchased 16.42 bitcoin on 20 May, spending £1,280,000 at $104,202 per coin. On 23 May the company purchased a further 23.09 bitcoin at $107,424 per token, bringing its total holding 58.71 tokens. Boss and founder Andrew Webley wants to make Smarter Web Company into a UK version of US tech firm Micro Strategy, which has shot to prominence for its bitcoin holdings. He explained to This is Money that he is happy to buy bitcoin now, as the short-term price is less important for his strategy than it's long-term potential as 'the best asset in the world'. Stock market listed Smarter Web Company's market cap has rocketed from just under £4million at its IPO in April to almost £100million now. At the time of publishing, bitcoin was trading at $107,000, making the Smarter Web Company's bitcoin holding worth $6.3million, or £4.7 million. Webley, chief executive of the firm, said: 'We have announced that we have acquired a total of 58.71 to date at an average purchase price of $104,398 and as we have been acquiring Bitcoin our average price has crept up. 'As I believe that bitcoin is the very best asset in the world, hence our Treasury policy of holding a large amount of bitcoin on our balance sheet, I am less interested in the short-term price as I am thinking what it could be valued at several years in the future.' Earlier this money, on 14 May, the company also purchased 8.61 bitcoin at $99,871 each for £650,000. Bitcoin soared past $110,000 a coin on Thursday for the first time, reaching a new record high of $111,886.41, its first new high since Trump's inauguration in January. The surge in the cryptocurrency came after the US dollar slipped amid concerns over growing US debt. The Smarter Web Company launched its public offering back in April, with an IPO price of 2.5 pence per share, giving it a market cap of £3.7million. On Friday afternoon, shares in the firm were trading at 56 pence per each, and its market cap of £97.27million is on the cusp of breaching the £100million mark. Since listing, the firm has undertaken further fundraising, most recently raising £6.83million through the issue of 13.9million new shares at 49p each. Webley said: 'It is also worth saying that as we have raised additional capital we have done this at the market price and at higher prices each time so when we compare the dilution of an equity raise against the capital injection it is pretty impressive.'
Daily Mail
04-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
My British bitcoin holding company had its IPO two weeks ago and shares have doubled
'I'd like to be a FTSE 100 company,' Andrew Webley, founder of The Smarter Web Company, told This is Money last month, as the firm launched its retail offering on the Aquis Exchange. Two weeks later it looks like this dream is edging slowly closer to being within his grasp. We spoke to Webley as the Smarter Web Company launched its IPO with a price of 2.5 pence per share, raising £1million through its IPO alone. The Smarter Web Company offers web design and digital marketing services to more than 250 different clients but that's not the driving force behind the IPO and its success. Instead, a major part of its strategy going forward, and undoubtedly the selling point to investors, is the firm's adoption of a digital asset treasury policy centered around bitcoin - making it the UK's answer to US star Microstrategy. As at 2 May, Smarter Web Company shares had almost doubled and were trading at 4.88 pence each, and the firm's market capitalisation has risen from £3.7million to £7.16million. Webley told This is Money: 'We were really pleased that we could do the retail offer, which is a little bit unusual with an IPO for a small company.' While having only commenced trading on the Aquis exchange on 25 April, the Surrey-based web design firm has become the most traded stock on Aquis by volume. The firm's average daily volume since it started trading is 82,861, with 404,415 shares changing hands this week alone and 9,890 on its first day of trading. Webley said: 'It's a bit overwhelming, the response has been brilliant. I've had so many supportive messages, with people saying 'I love what you're doing with your company. 'It's been really nice just to see people in the UK get behind what we believe is a very good story from the UK. I suppose that's the answer to the volume, people see that we're trying our best and we're working hard.' He added: 'Before we decided to be a public company, we've done everything transparently. The prices of our web design packages are on our website. We give people the truth, you know, at all times we're professional with them. 'We don't try and overcomplicate something that doesn't need to be overcomplicated. That's the same approach that we've taken to our investor relations. So we're just trying to be transparent.' The firm this week announced its latest bitcoin purchase worth £244,000, increasing its holdings to 5.74 bitcoin worth £414,000. The company also set out a ten-year plan, indicating that it is looking to grow its client numbers in the short term, as well as its intention to make strategic acquisitions. These sit alongside its other ambition to continue the growth of its digital asset holdings. Webley said: 'We are focused on accelerating short-term growth by scaling our proven core services, while also exploring strategic acquisitions that could unlock compelling value. 'By taking a pioneering approach to treasury management using digital assets, including bitcoin, we believe we offer investors an excellent opportunity.' Webley says the combination of a scalable business as well as the firm's digital asset treasury offers different attractive features for different investors. He said: 'Some people will look at our business and say "I like what you're doing on your organic growth," and others will say, "I like what you're doing with your innovative approach to Treasury management," investors choose the bits of the business that they like, and that's why they invest in it.' Webley added: 'I just want to be very clear about how grateful we are for the support that everyone has shown… if people didn't get behind it, it wouldn't be as exciting as it is. 'With that excitement obviously comes responsibility. We've now got to execute our strategy.'
