Dutch crowdfunding platform Symbid gets acquired by Romania’s SeedBlink to fund European tech innovation

Dutch-based Symbid, an investing platform that specialises in sourcing, vetting, financing, and scaling tech startups, announced on Tuesday that it has been acquired by Romania’s SeedBlink, a co-investment platform in tech startups.

The deal is expected to accelerate SeedBlink’s coverage of Europe as a whole, expanding its geographic reach into CEE and Benelux, while furthering its goal of consolidating and constructing the equity investment infrastructure for European tech startups at all phases of development.

The companies are currently working to integrate the teams, customers, brands, services, and technologies, which is expected to be completed in early 2023.

Co-investment platform for tech startups and scaleups in Europe

Founded in 2011 by Dutch entrepreneurs Robin Slakhorst and Korstiaan Zandvliet, Symbid claims to be one of the first investment crowdfunding platforms in the world. Since its inception, the firm has built a community of 50,000 investors in startups, mainly from the Benelux.

In its first 10 years of operation, until the end of 2021, Symbid backed over 180 startups with investments totalling €35M in equity and convertible notes, 67 of which were from the technology sector.

Founder Robin Slakhorst says, “We believe Europe needs more tech innovation to become more competitive on the global stage. Bold founders need to be financed with sufficient capital to fuel those ambitions, and individuals need professional and structured access to these venture opportunities. The combined forces will help us lead the entrepreneurial ecosystem, by offering a unique digital financing infrastructure, a secondary market and a fast network of professional investors co-investing with individuals throughout Europe.”

According to a statement, the Symbid team will continue to lead the investment efforts in Benelux and its investors will gain access to pan-European investment opportunities. Robin Slakhorst will serve as Board Advisor for SeedBlink, while Robbin Hoogstraten, Commercial/MD at Symbid, will serve as SeedBlink’s Country Manager for the Netherlands.

Aim of this acquisition

With the combined effort, both communities will gain access to a variety of investment options from a combined deal flow and more advanced investing tools. Additionally, access to more deals with strong VCs will also be made easier. Ambitious tech founders will also benefit from simplified and valuable ways to raise growth funding.

Ionut Patrahau, MD & Corporate Development at SeedBlink, says, “Both companies have made a name for themselves in providing private investors with access to curated European startup opportunities, so this is a natural move looking for the European consolidation game. Innovation is driving the new economy, and the combination of SeedBlink and Symbid will support portfolio diversification and investment infrastructure, putting together both east and west advantages. Benelux is on everyone’s mind as it remains a strong tech region in Europe thanks to the presence of top tech cities, wealthy countries, a strong government presence, and a well-connected and educated workforce.”

To date, the two platforms have helped more than 250 startups secure investments of over €110M, including Dronamics, Druid, FlowX, Hunch, Kinderpedia or Cyscale (from SeedBlink’s portfolio), and Goboony, Madaster, Goal 3, Paper on the Rocks or Sustainer Homes (from Symbid’s portfolio), with a combined network of 62,000 individual investors.

Brief about SeedBlink

Founded in early 2020, SeedBlink is a tech-specialised venture investment platform that helps individual investors to fund top-tier European tech startups and scale-ups alongside established institutional investors.

The platform has already attracted over 12,000 individual investors from 60 different countries and has facilitated investments totalling €79.2M for more than 62 technology startups and scale-ups. In less than 3 years, investors have already recorded liquidity events with returns ranging from 2.5 to 4.75 times their investments.