Funderbeam said it has raised $2.6 million from investors including Tim Draper, UK-based VC IQ Capital partners, and Thomson Reuters, and said it was opening the investment round to all other investors.
Any investor can join the funding round on Funderbeam
Funderbeam launched in April the world’s first primary and secondary market for early-stage startup investments, starting to bring liquidity to a market where investors have had to wait years for an exit.
One of the most prominent venture capitalist globally, Tim Draper, shared his excitement about Funderbeam already during the launch event.
“I love what they’re doing. You know, the existing market is not working. The public markets just aren’t working and Funderbeam is doing something about it. And boy, is this going to be exciting! We’re going to have tradable [investments] in the private markets and I’m so proud of everyone at Funderbeam for making this thing happen. I love these Estonians. They’re crazy!” Draper said then.
He continued on Wednesday.
“Over the past 10 years stock markets have stopped working. They’re just not functioning anymore. Companies used to go public to gain access to growth capital, now they list for cashing out. Angels, VC’s, and private equity is gradually replacing the need, but the flow is “offline” on papers and there is no liquidity,” he said in a statement.
Starting the change
For startups the marketplace provides a new way to raise capital globally and solves also the challenge of having to deal with many small investors in early days of building the company, something typical for equity crowdfunding companies.
To date, Funderbeam has launched four successful funding campaigns, and all these investments are now tradable on the blockchain.
In addition to the new investors, all previous investors of Funderbeam are also joining the round, including Rockspring, 3TS Capital Partners, Jaan Tallinn, Kei Aar, David Braben, Chris Wade, Joe Schorge, Tim Parsonson, Richard Parsonson, Simon Thorpe, Murali Krishna, Pascal Isbell, David Cummings.
Funderbeam was founded in 2013 by Kaidi Ruusalepp, Urmas Peiker and Villu Arak. To date, the company has raised $4.6 million.
