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Here ’s an interesting move . Founders Future , a well - known VC firm in the French technical school ecosystem , acquired an equity crowdfunding marketplace calledSowefund . While price of the trade remain undisclosed , Sowefund has been profitable since 2022 with around 20 employee .
With its crowdfunding platform , it tally retail investors with startups that want to raise money from their residential area of drug user or from personal finance experts who need to diversify their delivery with risky but potentially rewarding investiture . go forward , Founders Future and Sowefund will still operate completely on an individual basis — there wo n’t be any synergy between these two activity .
So why would a VC firm go downriver and adopt a crowdfunding political program ?
“ We noticed two major tendency . The first trend , which you have for sure noticed , is that you have a new propagation of investor who need to get more mitt on — with both public and private company . They want transparency and they want to invest in the existent economy , ” Founders Future father and CEO Marc Menasé told me .
“ The second watching we ’ve made is that , our job with the fund is very professional and very disciplined in its Clarence Day - to - day approach . And we can institute these methods to a company involved in crowdfunding financing . And it ’s true that this has n’t been done much , ” Menasé added .
And Founders Future has already seen how crowdfunding company figure out with some of the house ’s portfolio companies — for representative , Taster and 900.care raised some money on Crowdcube , the British investiture platform thatexpanded to France in 2022 .
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Raising the bar for equity crowdfunding
Sowefund ’s two Centennial State - founders Benjamin Wattinne and Georges Viglietti will remain at the helm of the crowdfunding program sound forward . But Founders Future has a multimillion - dollar mark investment program to grow Sowefund ’s team in the coming year or two .
“ What we require to do is bring our know - how to ensure that Sowefund becomes more professional and truly the go - to program for co - investment funds with professionals . That ’s really what we want to attain , ” Menasé said .
Since 2014 , Sowefund has handled 103 crowdfunding crusade . Overall , companies have raised € 81 million from more than 110,000 retail investors ( that ’s $ 86 million at today ’s exchange charge per unit ) — no parole on the performance of these investments . Recent campaigns include Ekwateur , Agriloops , Lunii , Axioma , Extracadabra and Futura Gaïa .
More late , Sowefund incur an agreement to be certified as a European crowdfunding service provider . It mean it can operate on in other European countries in the time to come .
But the Sowefund squad ( and Founders Future ) want to go one tone further bet on regulative variety . finally , Sowefund would like to offer the opportunity to invest in funds , such as VC funds , impact funds , etc . But that ’s not yet possible .
Founders Future ’s move is also interesting because of the timing . VC investiture have slow down down over the past match of years around the world . As many VC business firm are still passing on deals that would have made sense a few year ago , it ’s time for startup CEOs to find creative elbow room to extend their runways .
“ The likely investing kitty among individuals is enormous . So you have the great unwashed who want to empower in companies they know and utilise — or they have a positive thought for these company . And there are a huge routine of them , ” Menasé said . “ So I think what ’s great about fairness crowdfunding is that it ’s an option or a full complement in a context where financing is difficult for company . ”
