Property crowdfunding firm The House Crowd is to launch a TV advertising campaign in the new year.

It made its announcements after securing £700,000 from investors this autumn.

It did so four weeks after launching its share offer.

The funds were raised in exchange for an equity stake of 3.5% in the company.

A further 1.5% of equity in the company has been reserved as an incentive for staff.

The House Crowd pools money from investors to buy and do up properties for rent.

It says it has so far acquired 150 properties.

The firm had a disastrous pitch on Dragons’ Den earlier this year when founder Frazer Fearnhead valued his business at £20m.

However, he said that total revenue to the firm over the previous 12 months was £375,000 and that it had not made a profit.

Dragon Peter Jones said no one would value The House Crowd at £20m “unless they were completely stupid”.

Fearnhead told EYE: “It was not surprising that the Dragons didn’t invest.

“I asked for £1m for a very small stake in the company. Even if I had offered them a much larger stake, no one is going to commit to that large an investment on the basis of a half-hour presentation when they know nothing else about the business.

“However, there are many people out there who recognise the huge potential of our business.

“We were approached by a number of wealthy investors after the show aired (including one of the largest private property investors in London) but, in the end, we decided we would prefer to give our own clients the opportunity to share in our success.

“We are in an enviable position as a crowdfunding company in that we have the trust of a large crowd of people and as a result have the ability to raise money more easily than most private businesses.

“We have instructed a new website to be built that will aid our scalability, have briefed a creative agency to make our first TV ad which will air in January, and will be multiplying our monthly marketing spend in the New Year.”