Startup investing

Crowdfunding platform Seedrs has announced that an unnamed Championship football club will soon fundraise on the platform. The company wants to target more sport teams and expects that it will add more of these campaigns in 2024.

UK-based crowdfunding platform Seedrs is laying off 15 percent of its European workforce. The company is closing offices in Spain and Sweden. However, the company is not withdrawing from those markets. It will still offer its services there.

Based in the United Kingdom, the new online investing platform Obu, wants to increase the number of female investors in the country. The platform aims to connect women angel investors with female-founded businesses.

European crowdfunding platform SeedBlink has launched its own secondary market today. Users can buy and sell startup investments there. The launch thus provides early-stage liquidity.

Equity crowdfunding platform Wefunder has opened an office in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The company has already received the ECSP license. The platform is now able to offer its services in Europe.

While tech companies have historically received high valuations, company shares have been traded below asking price on secondary markets lately. According to secondary markets platform Forge Global, the gap between asking price and bids is currently 22 percent. This has resulted in a dramatic decrease in trade volume.

Investors have invested more than 100 billion euros in European tech startups during 2022. A year earlier, these startups raised more (118.8 billion euros in total). The difference is linked to difficult market conditions in the past year.

Dutch equity crowdfunding platform Symbid has been acquired by Romanian crowdfunder SeedBlink. Combined, the platforms have invested over 110 million euros in 250 tech startups in total. Symbid users now gain access to more European investment opportunities.

Only 15 percent of all general partners at European venture capitalists are women. European startups were able to raise 100 billion euros in 2021. Only 1.1 percent of that capital went to startups with only women founders and 8.8 percent went to startups with a mixed founder team. This is most likely linked to the lack of women in leadership positions.

Investors are preparing for economic hard times due to the ongoing war in Ukraine and increased inflation. Venture capital firms call on startups to cut costs. Additionally, companies are told to give up hope for new investment rounds.