Equinvest Raises €150K in Seed Funding

equinvestEquinvest, a Rome, Italy-based equity crowdfunding platform, raised €150k in seed funding.

Some unnamed angels participated in the raise.

The company intends to use the funds to launch operations in Rome and Milan.

Led by CEO Fabio Bancalà, Equinvest is a Consob-authorized online equity crowdfunding platform which allows institutional and retail investors to invest in Innovative Startups as defined by the Italian law.
As featured in a previous post on FinSMEs, the company leverages a hybrid approach: it manages the deal flow via an online platform and then operates as a traditional investor, whose capital comes from institutional and retail investors subscribing shares of a purpose-built vehicle.
The investors do not invest in the startup but acquire shares of the fund, which means that the firm appoints one or more members to the boards of the backed companies, manages shareholders issues allowing entrepreneurs to focus on their business and seeks larger investors for future rounds.
Investors are periodically reported on investment trends.

Equinvest is currently evaluating the first projects.

According to reports, the first project on the platform will be Mechatronic Meters srl, a Lecce-based developer of patented water and gas meters, which aims to raise approx. €1m to start producing the devices and increase its marketing efforts.

FinSMEs

19/10/2015

Join the discussion