London-based Funderbeam, a funding and trading platform that connects companies and investors to buy and sell equity stakes, announced on Thursday that it has secured $40M (nearly €36.16M) led by VentureWave, a Dublin-based venture private equity group.
This round also saw participation from Mistletoe, Draper Associates, and Kaidi Ruusalepp, the founder of Funderbeam.
Tim Draper, founder of Draper Associates, says, “Private companies from venture investments have a long history of difficult liquidity. Funderbeam together with VentureWave allow venture-backed startups to be liquid. This is a major breakthrough and the new liquidity will allow for GPs and LPs to more easily trade otherwise illiquid positions.”
How will VentureWave support Funderbeam?
VentureWave’s mission is to impact investing and support high-impact entrepreneurs. And by investing in Funderbeam, it hopes to establish a global leader which will serve institutional and angel investors in venture deal execution and secondaries.
In order to scale Funderbeam’s technology across venture assets, VentureWave says it will play an active and strategic leadership role. Through the institutional venture platform Vestiver, the Group now has a developed strategy for entering the US market.
Vestiver links family offices, VC firms, and institutional investors with impact-driven businesses. It assists founders in managing investor interactions after obtaining capital and manages their venture-stage funding process online. In 2024, the Vestivers solution will be prepared to hit the US market.
Alan Foy, Chairman of VentureWave, says, “VentureWave’s investment in Funderbeam is a game-changer for the industry, shaping the future of venture markets and enabling access to global venture deals and secondaries.”
“Together, we have the necessary assets, technology, and capital to take on the entire venture investment life cycle. This represents a transformative moment to put impact at the centre of the investment industry.”
Once this deal is completed, VentureWave will target the entire life cycle of global venture investments and secondaries, from early-stage angel funding to pre-IPO secondaries.
Funderbeam says it will continue to support investor networks and offer Private Market as a Service; ‘Angel Market’. This deal will also allow the company to serve institutional clients – VC funds, family offices, brokers, and investment banks.
Founder of Funderbeam, Kaidi Ruusalepp, says, “This transaction creates a powerful platform to fast forward Funderbeam’s vision which is to serve venture investments across borders and create a unique secondary market for private assets.”
“The timing of the transaction couldn’t be better – we are strong at a time when the market is ready for our solution.”
Since Funderbeam holds investment firm licences in the UK, Estonia (covering EEA) and Singapore, it will have to wait for approval from the three regulators to make its corporate-level actions and decisions.
About Funderbeam
Founded in 2013 by Kaidi Ruusalepp and Urmas Peiker, Funderbeam is a global funding and trading platform that works with the mission to shake up traditional models of funding and trading of private companies.
The infrastructure of Funderbeam is designed to support investor networks, accelerators, and other venture investors in managing their syndicated investments, post-investment flows, and secondary international transactions.
Funderbeam Marketplace offers live and direct auto-match trading, allowing buyers and sellers to interact 24/7, 365 days a year without the need for brokers or other third parties.
In September 2019, the company also became a Recognised Market Operator by MAS and can offer a fully regulated exchange service worldwide.
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