Equity platforms aren’t built for debt.
If you run an equity crowdfunding or investment platform, your technology was designed around a specific lifecycle: raise capital, issue shares, manage a cap table, maybe facilitate a secondary market. The investor gets equity. The company grows (or doesn’t). That’s the model.
Debt is different. Interest accrues. Coupons need to be calculated and paid on schedule. Tranches have different terms. Waterfalls determine who gets paid first. Capital repayments happen on defined schedules — or early, which means recalculating everything. Tax certificates need to go out. And the regulatory wrapper is different too.
Bolting debt onto an equity platform usually means spreadsheets running alongside your system, manual payment runs, and a support team fielding questions that the platform should be answering automatically.
We’ve seen this pattern repeatedly. Platforms that started in equity reach a natural ceiling and want to offer bonds, loan notes, or structured lending products. The demand is there — from issuers who want to offer fixed returns, and from investors who want income alongside growth. But the infrastructure gap is real.
What we’ve already built.
ShareIn has been powering debt-based investment platforms since 2014. Bonds, loan notes, debentures, IFISA-eligible offers. ShareInLend handles the operational complexity that equity platforms don’t.
Interest accrual & coupon payments
Automated daily accrual, scheduled coupon payments, and distribution calculations across fixed, variable, and blended rate structures. No spreadsheets.
Tranche management
Multiple investor tranches with different terms, rates, and priority. Waterfall calculations that determine payment order automatically.
Redemptions & early repayment
Handles scheduled maturities, early redemptions, partial repayments, and the recalculations that follow — across the full investor base.
ISA wrapper
HMRC-authorised ISA management, including Innovative Finance ISAs for debt instruments. ISA transfers in, annual subscriptions, reporting and compliance.
Client money & payments
Segregated client money accounts with CASS compliance. Investor wallets, payment processing, reconciliation, and full audit trails via ShareInPay.
Investor portal & reporting
White-labelled portal showing holdings, projected income, transaction history, tax certificates, and contract notes. Your brand throughout.
Build it yourself, or plug into a decade of it working.
This is the build-vs-buy decision, and the numbers aren’t close.
| Build in-house | ShareIn | |
|---|---|---|
| Development cost | £500k–£1M+ before ongoing maintenance | Monthly platform fee. No capital outlay. |
| Interest calculations | You build and maintain the accrual engine | Proven across 10+ years of live platforms |
| ISA management | Separate HMRC authorisation + build | Included. We’re an authorised ISA manager. |
| Client money | CASS permissions + infrastructure | Segregated accounts, CASS-compliant, audited. |
| Regulatory knowledge | Your team learns debt compliance | FCA-authorised since 2014. We’ve done this before. |
| Ongoing maintenance | Dedicated team for edge cases, tax changes, regulatory updates | We handle it. You focus on your business. |
Your engineering team should be building what makes you different.
If you’re running a platform with a sizeable development team, ask how much of their time goes on maintaining commodity infrastructure — payment processing, interest calculations, regulatory reporting, ISA compliance — versus building the features that actually differentiate your business.
For most platforms, the answer is uncomfortable. The bulk of engineering effort goes into keeping the lights on: recalculating interest after an early redemption, generating tax certificates, reconciling client money, handling edge cases in payment flows.
What that means in practice
- Your secondary market, investor experience, data insights, deal origination — that’s where your engineers create value
- Outsourcing regulated infrastructure means your team stops maintaining an accrual engine and starts building what investors notice
- The cost comparison isn’t just build-vs-buy — it’s the opportunity cost of what your team isn’t building
- Platforms going through post-acquisition integration find this is often the fastest route to a leaner, more focused operation
Who this is for.
This page exists because we keep having the same conversation with the same type of firm.
Equity crowdfunding platforms
Whose issuers want to offer bonds or loan notes alongside equity rounds. Your platform handles shares — but bonds need interest calculations, payment schedules, and different regulatory treatment.
Platforms expanding into private credit
The private credit market is growing fast. If your investors want fixed income exposure to property debt, infrastructure lending, or SME finance, you need loan management infrastructure — not just a listing page.
Platforms acquired by larger groups
Where the new parent wants to broaden the product offering without rebuilding the existing tech stack. Particularly relevant when the parent operates in a different jurisdiction and needs UK-regulated infrastructure.
Any FCA-authorised firm
That wants to add debt-based investment products and doesn’t want to spend 18 months and half a million pounds discovering what we already know.
How it works.
We’re not asking you to migrate your equity platform. Your existing technology keeps doing what it does. ShareIn plugs in alongside it to handle the debt side.
Scoping conversation
We work out what you need: which debt products, what structures, ISA requirements, how it connects to your existing platform and processes. Typically one or two calls.
Configuration & branding
We configure the platform for your product structures — interest rates, payment frequencies, tranche terms, investor categories. Your branding, your domain, your investor experience.
Integration
API-based integration with your existing platform if needed, or standalone operation. We connect payment flows, investor data, and reporting.
Live
Your first debt product goes live. We handle the ongoing operations — interest calculations, distributions, investor reporting, ISA compliance, and support.
This isn’t theoretical.
Our clients include Abundance (green bonds and ISAs), Ethex (community energy bonds and equity), Energise Africa (development impact bonds), the Octopus Energy Collective (community energy investment), and ASK Partners (property lending). Between them, these platforms have processed hundreds of millions in investment, run thousands of interest payment cycles, and managed ISA portfolios across multiple tax years. We hold ~70% market share in UK alternative finance platform infrastructure.
Your investors want income products. Let’s make it happen.
Tell us what you’re building. We’ll tell you honestly whether we can help — and how quickly.
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