Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Crowdfunding |
Founded | 16 March 2009 |
Founders | Jeff Lynn, Carlos Silva |
Headquarters | London , United Kingdom |
Area served | UK, Europe |
Key people | Jeff Kelisky (CEO) |
Parent | Republic |
Website | Official website |
Seedrs is an online equity crowdfunding company, headquartered in East London's Tech City, founded in 2009 [1] and launched by Jeff Lynn and Carlos Silva in 2012. [2] [3] Since 2022 it has been a subsidiary of American crowdfunding company Republic.
In 2020, Seedrs announced that 250 startups had raised funding through its crowdfunding platform during 2019. [4] [5] By 2022, Seedrs reported that over £1.9 billion had been invested through the company. [6]
The company was founded in 2012 by Jeff Lynn and Carlos Silva as part of an MBA project at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. [7]
In March 2012, Seedrs raised $1 million in seed funding from private investors including venture capital firm Draper Esprit. [8]
In May 2012, Seedrs became the first equity crowdfunding platform to receive regulatory approval from the Financial Conduct Authority. [9]
In July 2012, Seedrs launched its platform to the public. [8] [10]
In November 2013, Seedrs raised £750,000 in funding through its own platform. [11]
In June 2015, professional tennis player Andy Murray joined Seedrs in an advisory role, having previously used the platform as an investor. [12] [13] [14]
In June 2017, Seedrs launched a secondary market, becoming the first equity crowdfunding platform to allow investors to buy and sell shares in unlisted companies. [15] [16] [17]
In August 2017, Jeff Lynn stepped down as CEO to take up a position as Executive Chairman. Former COO Jeff Kelisky was promoted to CEO. [18] [19]
In August 2017, Seedrs raised £4 million investment for challenger bank Revolut. [20] [21]
In October 2017, Seedrs announced it had raised £10 million in funding. [22] [23]
In December 2018, Seedrs launched a venture capital fund aimed at passive startup investors. [24]
In August 2019, Seedrs raised £4.5 million in funding. [25]
In 2020, Seedrs and Crowdcube agreed to a merger. [26] This was abandoned on 25 March 2021 after the Competition and Markets Authority raised concerns about the deal. [27]
In December 2021, Seedrs announced that it had agreed to be acquired by Republic, a US-based equity crowdfunding platform, for $100 million. [28] The acquisition was criticised by some of Seedrs' small investors over preferential treatment given to large shareholders. [29]
Index Ventures is a European venture capital firm with dual headquarters in San Francisco and London, investing in technology-enabled companies with a focus on e-commerce, fintech, mobility, gaming, infrastructure/AI, and security. Since its founding in 1996, the firm has invested in a number of companies and raised approximately $5.6 billion. Index Venture partners appear frequently on Forbes’ Midas List of the top tech investors in Europe and Israel.
Indiegogo is an American crowdfunding website founded in 2008 by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California. The site is one of the first sites to offer crowd funding. Indiegogo allows people to solicit funds for an idea, charity, or start-up business. Indiegogo charges a 5% fee on contributions. This charge is in addition to Stripe credit card processing charges of 3% + $0.30 per transaction. Fifteen million people visit the site each month.
Seedcamp is a European seed-stage venture capital fund, headquartered in London, launched in May 2007 by a group of 30 European investors. The fund's Managing Partners are Reshma Sohoni and Carlos Espinal.
CircleUp is a financial technology company based in San Francisco that focuses on consumer goods startups. Since its official launch in April 2012, CircleUp has helped several consumer companies raise equity, including Back to the Roots, Halo Top Creamery, Little Duck Organics, Rhythm Superfoods and others. General Mills has an investment fund that is partnered with CircleUp to invest in companies listed on the platform.
SeedUps is an equity crowdfunding platform for seed investment to launch and focuses on startup companies. It was founded by Michael Faulkner and Gavin Gallagher in 2010 and is aimed at tech startups in the USA, Ireland and the UK. Since launch over 2200 tech businesses have registered. It is only available to accredited or sophisticated investors. The platform is headquartered in Republic of Ireland with offices in the UK, US and Canada. Each funding project on SeedUps lasts for the same duration, namely 180 days.
MicroVentures is an equity crowdfunding website that offers investments in early stage companies. It connects accredited investors with startups, businesses and services looking to raise funds or participate in select secondary market opportunities.
Crowdcube is a British investment crowdfunding platform, established by Darren Westlake and Luke Lang in 2011.
AngelList is an American software company for fundraising and connecting startups, angel investors, and limited partners. Founded in 2010, it started as an online introduction board for tech startups that needed seed funding. Since 2015, the site allows startups to raise money from angel investors free of charge. Created by serial entrepreneur Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi in 2010, Avlok Kohli has been leading AngelList as its CEO since 2019.
Mark Pearson is a London, United Kingdom-based entrepreneur and investor. He founded and was CEO of Markco Media, a European discount network. Markco Media is the parent company of MyVoucherCodes.
Junction is a San Francisco–based online investment platform that allows accredited investors to purchase limited partnership interests in funds that invest in major motion pictures. It differs from donation-based crowdfunding for film as members of Junction receive investments indirectly in the film projects rather than gifts, and the projects listed on Junction are already fully financed. Investors become limited partners in a fund that has economic exposure to the project through an investment agreement with one of the film's financiers.
SeedInvest is an equity crowdfunding platform that connects startups with investors online. The company was founded in 2012 and launched in 2013. SeedInvest has focused on building liquidity in the platform by attracting high-net-worth individuals, family offices and venture capital firms. SeedInvest screens and vets deals before allowing them to take advantage of the JOBS Act exemption permitting General Solicitation. In September 2014 the company launched a partnership with Angel Investing website Gust. In October 2018, SeedInvest was acquired by peer-to-peer payment company Circle Internet Financial Ltd.
Onevest, a New York–based investment crowdfunding site for startups that was acquired by Business Rockstars in April 2018, allowed entrepreneurs to raise capital from accredited investors. In July 2014, startups launching on Onevest had collectively raised over $66 million.
SyndicateRoom is a UK venture capital fund, headquartered in Cambridge, founded by Gonçalo de Vasconcelos and Tom Britton in September 2013. The company is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Equity crowdfunding is the online offering of private company securities to a group of people for investment and therefore it is a part of the capital markets. Because equity crowdfunding involves investment into a commercial enterprise, it is often subject to securities and financial regulation. Equity crowdfunding is also referred to as crowdinvesting, investment crowdfunding, or crowd equity.
Revolut is a global neobank and financial technology company that offers banking services for retail customers and businesses. Headquartered in London, it was founded in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko. It offers products including banking services, currency exchange, debit and credit cards virtual cards, Apple Pay, interest-bearing "vaults", personal loans and BNPL, stock trading, crypto, commodities, human resources and other services.
Pod Point is a UK provider of electric vehicle charging station. It provides charging units for home, business and public use. Since forming in 2009, Pod Point has manufactured and sold over 220,000 charging points. It has also developed one of the UK's largest public networks, connecting EV drivers with charging stations nationwide at locations such as Tesco, Lidl, Sainsbury's, Center Parcs and Southern Rail. Since 2014, when it signed a partnership with automaker Nissan, it also operates in Norway.
DSTLD is an American clothing company, founded in 2014 by Corey Epstein, Ryan Jaleh and Mark Lynn and backed by Asher New York Holdings. The California-based company designs and retails a line of mostly denim-based clothing. The company has become known for its relatively affordable pricing, environmentally friendly design and manufacturing, a direct-to-consumer retail strategy.
Molten Ventures, formerly Draper Esprit, is a venture capital firm, investing in high growth technology companies with global ambitions, with offices in London, Cambridge and Dublin. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Republic is an investment platform headquartered in New York City that allows individuals to invest in startups, growth-stage pre-IPO companies, real estate, video games, and crypto companies.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)