Estonian Business Angels Network (EstBAN) and investment and trading platform Funderbeam have signed a collaboration agreement to create more value by offering angel investors a smoother co-investing experience.
The idea behind the collaboration is to offer business angels a syndication process that is simple, convenient, and fast. The essence of syndication is to pool the financial contributions of several small investors into one larger investment – into a promising startup company.
For EstBAN members, the Funderbeam platform is a tool to simplify the syndication process while also opening up the possibility of trading shares on the secondary market afterward. EstBAN’s syndicate investment rounds are private; both the lead investor and other investors must either be network members or approved by the lead investor. The first pilot projects are already waiting and ready to be launched.
“We are very pleased that the cooperation between EstBAN and Funderbeam is now formalised and that we have a detailed process in place to make it happen. The EstBAN-Funderbeam syndicates are an important step for the startup ecosystem in Estonia, the Baltics, and Scandinavia, creating a unique value proposition for startups and investors operating in the region,” said Lauri Antalainen, Vice President of EstBAN.
“We are honored to launch a new kind of partnership with business angels and to do it in Estonia – the land of unicorns. EstBAN has been in business for almost a decade and has the expertise and an early eye on activity in the startup scene. In addition to the local level, EstBAN also cooperates with other similar associations in the Nordic countries and elsewhere in Europe,” said Kaidi Ruusalepp, Funderbeam’s founder and CEO. “We see the partnership with EstBAN’s business angels as a way to expand further and stimulate the market,” she added.
The Estonian Business Angels Association EstBAN is a network of private investors investing in early-stage startup companies, intending to develop the business environment and facilitate angel investments. Today EstBAN has over 250 business angel members. EstBAN welcomes all who are interested in innovative early stage companies.
Funderbeam is a global platform for funding and trading private companies. It serves investors from 130 countries and companies from Europe, Asia and the US. To date, companies have raised over €47M on Funderbeam, traded more than €22M worth of investments on its exchange and the monthly trading volume exceeds €2M. 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.
Funderbeam was founded in 2013 and is led by Kaidi Ruusalepp, a former CEO of Nasdaq Tallinn Stock Exchange and Central Securities Depository. The company has offices in London, Singapore, Copenhagen, Tallinn and Zagreb. Funderbeam has investment firm licenses from the UK, Estonia (EEA) and Singapore.
