Downing's Bond platform has been named 2017 Best Investment Platform from a strong shortlist of competitors at this year’s Growth Investor Awards.
The third annual Growth Investor Awards, held this month by alternative finance research consultancy Intelligent Partnership, saw 450 key decision makers brought together from across the SME investment sector to celebrate the achievements of the industry.
The Downing Bond platform faced stiff competition for the highly coveted award of Best Investment Platform from major industry names including Syndicate Room, Seedrs and Abundance.
The award itself recognises the volume of investment achieved by each platform, as well as user experience and product innovation, with particular emphasis placed on how a platform differentiates itself.
The judges recognised that since its launch in March 2016, the Downing Bond platform had:
“made a major splash in the market”, describing it as a “slick operation from an established fund management house” that had “grown rapidly” thanks to strong distribution, particularly in the IFA market.
The award follows a string of other finalist nominations for Downing. Head of Crowdfunding at Downing, Julia Groves, is currently in the final shortlist for the upcoming Investment Week Women in Investment Awards in late November 2017. Downing also made it through to the final shortlist for Best Crowdfunding Platform at the 2017 Shares Awards, and Specialist Debt Provider at the Investment Allstars awards. Downing LLP received a number of additional finalist nominations at the 2017 Growth Investor Awards too, including Best BPR Investment Manager (Downing LLP) and Industry Game Changer (Downing Crowd).
Commenting on their success at the Growth Investor Awards, Julia Groves said:
“The crowdfunding market is a dynamic sector in rapid growth, so it’s a real honour to have our impact in the market acknowledged at what is still a fairly early stage of the Downing Crowd journey.”
“Downing Crowd has been pushing for higher standards of transparency and due diligence – standards we pride ourselves on upholding – right across the crowdfunding landscape and this award gives us confidence that our industry is also starting to recognise the benefits of this approach.”