Dorking Wanderers Raise Investment Becoming Part Fan Owned

If you read our article from last year about the meteoric rise of Dorking Wanderers, the team who broke the promotion record after being promoted 12 times in 23 completed seasons, then you might be interested to know that you can now become an owner of the club.

The designer label wearing Marc White will still be the majority shareholder of course, but in an effort to raise the capital to take the club to the next level, he is selling up to a third of his shares in his beloved club to the fans.

The way this is happening is basically just the same as crowd funding using a specialist online platform, but instead of lots of people donating small amount of money, lots of people actually buy into the actual business for small amounts of money.

This is something many small businesses do in order to get themselves off the ground (bigger businesses raise capital too, but not usually like this), and football clubs don’t come around very often.

So if you have always fancied owning a football club and never thought you would get the chance, think again.

Rise With Us: Dorking Wanderers on Seedrs

The campaign that Dorking is running is called ‘Rise With Us’, and it invites fans and anyone else who wants to get involved to part with some cash in exchange for owning a very small percentage of the club, plus a few other benefits too.

This isn’t a gimmick, it’s genuine football club ownership, so anyone who invests will own ordinary shares, have voting rights, be entitled to dividends if they are ever distributed, capital distribution, etc.

However, Dorking Wanderers is not a public company, they are not on a stock exchange, so if you invest you won’t be able to easily sell up and get your money out.

On the other hand, if Dorking carried on their remarkable form of getting promoted every few years, then when they end up in the Premier League those shares will be worth an awful lot more than you paid for them.

Dorking are running their first ever round of investment via an online equity crowdfunding platform called Seedrs.

Seedrs opened for business in 2012, and is arguably the best platform of its kind, it’s certainly one of the most popular, and was acquired by a bigger American company called Republic in 2021 for £100 million.

They have completed over 2,000 raises for small companies, some of whom have gone on to become big companies. Fintech industry disruptor Revolut are one of the most famous to have used the platform, their valuation increased over 5,000% since their funding round, and AFC Wimbledon are another football club to have used the company, even breaking a Seedrs record for most investors in a single raise.

So it is a long standing respected platform with a proven track record, as well as being authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. This doesn’t make the investment any more likely to succeed or fail, but at least you know Seedrs is legit.

As for Dorking Wanderers, the club need at least £2 million for commercial infrastructure projects, with the aim to give the club new ways to make a more significant income, to support growth on and off the pitch.

To come from a park side to a National League side Dorking have already had to go through 3 different grounds, as well as costly upgrades to those grounds to meet the requirements for each new league, so they have form. Their leader Marc White is independently successful as a businessman outside of the club too, which explains how they have done so well thus far.

How Investing in the Club Works

Some companies on Seedrs allow investors to put in as much or as little capital as they like, be it £10 or £10,000.

Dorking Wanderers have not taken this approach, instead creating various different tiers for those wishing to invest more or less, starting at £250 and going all the way up to £100,000.

Anyone who invests will get the following:

• Lifetime shareholding
• Commemorative pin badge and limited edition scarf
• Name permanently inscribed on the Dorking Wanderers Owners Wall

Anyone who invests £1,000 or above also gets:

• Invitation to all club events including the annual player awards
• FA Cup and trophy tickets
• New merchandise including replica kits
• DWTV match highlights

After this point the level of investment needed gets a bit steep for most people:

• Premier Package – £5,000
• Platinum Package – £10,000
• Patron Package – £25,000
• Ambassador Package – £50,000
• President Package – £100,000

Obviously, most people will be going for the lower levels of investment, which means the likes of reserved car parking spaces, lifetime season tickets with padded seats, lifetime hospitality packages, signed and framed shirts, and training day experiences with the players etc. are not on the cards.

However, it’s the part ownership that will be the main attraction for most people – even the most die hard Dorking Fan would struggle to take full advantage of all the benefits of those higher level investment packages.

Once someone decides to invest, they pay their money and can track the investment on Seedrs’ platform from there, and the club are happy to be contacted too for any further information. Essentially though, once someone becomes an owner, they just watch how things unfold and perhaps get the odd bit of correspondence from the club, especially if anything needs to be voted on, not that this is an obligation.

I said earlier that the shares can’t be easily sold, and this is true to begin with at least. Seedrs have their own secondary market for shareholders, which companies who have used their platform can allow their shares to be sold on. It’s not the same as the stock market, but the principal isn’t much different.

Dorking have opted in to the secondary market, so investors would be able to offer their shares at whatever price they like, and if someone wants them then they can be sold, but liquidity is low as you would expect.

This is not a reason to buy shares in Dorking Wanderers, but it’s something to be aware of.

The Rise With Us campaign has already launched and is open for investment from those who registered for the priority list, but a nationwide advertising campaign including press coverage is next, which will alert potential investors who might have otherwise been unaware of Dorking’s story.