How PIE works.
A show or film registers its interest now and is listed first once PIE launches. Its income comes back to the people who funded it.
Early money is the hardest money to find.
The gap
A new play or an independent film often needs funding before it has a name, an audience or a broadcaster behind it. The usual sources lean on a small number of buyers and a small circle of wealthy backers.
The old fix
Crowd funding works for projects that already have an audience, but not for every production. A documentary such as The Age of Stupid showed that individuals will fund a film directly, and left its producers keeping investor records and sending out revenue for years.
What PIE changes
We take that paperwork on. A producer raises from several investors, and we keep the records and work out the payouts in one place.
A claim on one production, not a piece of it.
What you hold is called a Single Production Fractional Debenture, or SPFD. In plain terms, it is a written promise from the production's company to pay you an agreed share of that production's income.
We are structuring the SPFD as a debt instrument. How it is classified is one of the questions we have put to the regulator, so the structure may change before any raise opens. Productions can register their interest in the meantime.
What it is
A right to revenue
A contractual right to an agreed share of one production's revenue.
Issued by the production's company
Not by PIE, and not by the producer's wider business.
Recorded in your name
Non-voting, and held on our electronic ledger.
What it is not
Not ownership
The production and its intellectual property stay with the producer.
Not a share in the producer's company
Your claim is on one production's revenue only.
Not a spread
Each investment is in a single production, not a basket of them.
Before anyone can invest.
Before an investor sees a production on PIE, we check who they are and whether this kind of investment is suitable for them.
Identity
We verify who you are before you go any further.
Suitability
We ask a few questions to check that this kind of investment is suitable for you.
Suitability
A short check that you understand the risks: your money is tied up, a single production can lose everything, and this is debt with no ownership of the work.
Risk warnings
Plain warnings are shown before you commit, not buried afterwards.
Cooling off
Where the rules require it, a waiting period before you can commit funds.
Screening and payment
Sanctions screening and payment verification, through our payment partner.
Four stages, each waiting on the last.
PIE is being built in stages. Beyond talking to the regulator, none of them is available today, and each depends on approval.
Talk to the regulatorUnder way
We are asking the FCA to confirm how the structure should be treated, through its Innovation Pathways service.
Launch with registered productions
The first productions open for funding, with no trading. This tests onboarding, payments, records and payouts with the productions already registered with us.
A digital version
The same entitlement is held as a permissioned digital security and tested in the FCA's Digital Securities Sandbox. Your legal right still comes from the contract.
A controlled market
Within the sandbox's limits, holders may be able to sell before a production earns. Access could widen, with extra protections, if the regulator agrees. Selling is never guaranteed.
Where PIE stands with the regulator
We're engaging with the FCA's Innovation Pathways service as we work toward full authorisation, and PIE will open to everyone once that's granted.
Engaging with Innovation Pathways does not mean the FCA has approved or endorsed PIE.
Backing a production can mean losing all of your money, and a stake may be hard or impossible to sell. Please read the risk and regulatory notice before you register.
Ready to take a closer look?
Tell us roughly how much funding your production would look for when we launch, or register as an investor to be among the first invited in.