Vauban, a London company that enables Venture Capital fund managers to launch and run new funds online, announced that it has raised £4.7M (approx €5.5M) in funding co-led by Pentech and Outward.
Others, including 7percent Ventures, MJ Hudson, and a roster of high profile angel investors like Matt Robinson (Nested), Will Neale (Grabayo), Charles Delingpole (ComplyAdvantage), Perry Blacher (Partner at Augmentum Fintech), and Al Giles (Axiom) also participated.
Fund utilisation
The UK company will use the funds to deepen its tech and regulatory infrastructure and launch a new office in Luxembourg to strengthen its European offering.
Founder and Co-CEO Rémy Astié says, “Our goal is to reduce the friction between those who have the capital, and those who need it to solve humanity’s biggest problems. So, we decided to start by rebuilding the infrastructure on digital rails, because it’s mission-critical in order to provide a great UX to everyone in the industry: GPs, LPs, and Founders. The next step is to build a super-platform and network on top of our existing platform, in order to offer life-changing services to all parties involved.”
What does Vauban solve?
In Europe, an increasing number of established VC firms are managing several funds. More funds are leaning towards Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) to participate in specific deals, make secondary investments, or set up ‘sidecar’ funds alongside EIS vehicles or their institutional funds.
These developments have increased demand for access to the tools that help investors raise and pool capital. And here’s where Vauban comes into play.
Reshaping private investing
Founded by Rémy Astié and Ulric Musset, Vauban provides VCs and angel investors the tools necessary to raise funds, easily create angel syndicates, and effectively manage fundraising and investment activities.
The platform enables users to set up and deploy Funds and SPVs from multiple global investment jurisdictions at a lesser time and cost – covering everything from structuring to legal documents to investor onboarding – and reporting in a single integrated platform.
Vauban says over $1B has been invested through the platform since 2018 with over 5000 investors onboarded. Current VC users include Anthemis, Passion Capital and Octopus Ventures. In total, over 5,000 LPs are using the platform.
Investors
Based out of Edinburgh, Pentech Ventures is a venture capital fund focused on finding category-defining software companies. The company aims to help founders develop their startup into an internationally successful organisation.
Craig Anderson, Partner at Pentech says, “We believe Vauban is building a modern infrastructure for the alternate asset market which enables users to set up, deploy and manage their funds and SPVs in just a few hours. We have been very impressed by what Remy, Ulric, and the Vauban team have achieved to date, both in terms of building a truly compelling product and their tremendous commercial progress, and we are very excited about their growth potential moving forward.”
London-based Outward is a VC firm focused on UK-based startups in Fintech and Enterprise software.
Andi Kazeroonian, Investor at Outward VC, says, “Vauban’s integrated platform has turned this on its head with a relentless focus on product and user experience, which has unsurprisingly led to exceptional organic growth and its emergence as the standout category leader in Europe. We have high conviction that Vauban will play a significant role in powering the growth of the alternate asset industry as it continues to move from the periphery of the global investment landscape into the mainstream, and are delighted that they have chosen Outward VC as its long term partners on this journey.”
