SeedBlink Blog

Dear investor,

Forget everything you know about crowdfunding. We started this journey inspired by the idea of providing funding opportunities to visionary founders and access to individuals investment. And it has names like these: Crowdfunding, Community, and Business Angel Investing. We learn together with you, the founders and partners, and strive to become a different kind of player. 

Professional selection, deal structuring, smart money and post-investment support, technology for personalized experiences, portfolio insights for decision making, and diversification are attributes we build on. 

Recently on the RFI show on TV, the host used etymology to describe SeedBlink as sowing radiant diamond seeds. A nice metaphor for how we see shining startup ideas. 

While we move in different categories, the mission has remained the same - to give you unprecedented access to alternative investments in tech and scalable startups and generate returns. And in less than 3 years, we have seen early investors exit with 4x returns on follow-on rounds. 

We are excited about expanding our offering in Europe - launching very soon our Nominee structure in Austria with a holding in Ireland and several other countries. We have recently added companies from Greece, Serbia, the Netherlands and Austria to our portfolio. 

Thank you for all the kind words of encouragement, it means a lot to us to receive support and feedback. This April glean brings you: 

• Portfolio Updates 
• Investors community voice 
• Tech news and trends 
• Educational Resources 

Andrei Dudoiu,

Managing Partner & President of BoD, SeedBlink 

Portfolio updates

Our portfolio companies are expanding, which is a great example of the success our investors have brought to their businesses. Lalaland joined our cohort in April, and Protio, Agremo, and Pop Market are currently raising their financing rounds.

• OTP Group leverages FLOWX.AI platform to orchestrate customer experience as key enabler for its digital growth.
• Sanopass announced a new strategic partnership with Generali Romania, under its new health insurance Generali protect, which offers more flexibility to policyholders. The company opened a new funding round in March to raise €3 million from investors.
• MOCAPP launched L!NK, an innovative technology solution for the European eCommerce market.
• Procesio announced a partnership with Growceanu Angel Investment. The Growceanu team has implemented PROCESIO to both streamline internal operations and develop the processes behind the Business Angel platform.

Dive into the full April edition of Alumni updates here. 

Community voice

We are glad to introduce members of our investor community. Today we share some early adopters and their thoughts on why they are excited to be part of SeedBlink.

“SeedBlink provided me the place to start my investment journey with the control, speed and diversity that I fully own and manage. The value added by the SeedBlink team in evaluating and managing the portfolio of startups is tremendous. Whether you are an experienced investor or just starting out, SeedBlink is a promising platform for the years to come in the tech startup industry.”

Georgi Balkandjiev - Chief Technology Officer

“The main reason for recommending SeedBlink is that you have access to powerful European investment opportunities that are not available elsewhere. The learning resources you find on SeedBlink and the community convinced me to use the platform”.

Adrian Horvat - Global Marketer Manager

Tech news and trends

Mondly, a Romanian startup with a language learning platform, acquired by Pearson

Pearson, the world’s leading learning company, announced it has acquired the Romanian startup Mondly, a global online language learning platform. Launched in 2014 in Brasov, Mondly quickly became a leading app in the mobile space. According to Statista, Mondly is currently in the Top 5 language learning apps worldwide by number of downloads.

Romanian AI startup DRUID attracts $15 million in order to expand globally

DRUID, the end-to-end platform for building AI-driven conversational business applications, announces that it has raised a fresh round of funding. Karma Ventures and Hoxton Ventures, joined by GapMinder, and four other investors from Germany, Switzerland, Poland, and Romania took part in the Series A round. Read more.

European startups elude global VC funding slowdown in Q1 2022

VC funding into Europe (including the U.K.) was up in the first quarter of 2022, CB Insights and Crunchbase data show, despite being affected by the war in Ukraine. European startups attracted $26.8 billion in funding during the first quarter of 2022: that is a 20% quarter-on-quarter increase, and 33% more than the same quarter of 2021. Read more.

Unicorns drain: Europe is still losing its most valuable startups to the US

While it might be great for the companies who get access to the lucrative US market, more talent, and more capital, some investors and policymakers say that it means Europe misses the upside of these companies success. Adopting innovative technologies at a faster pace by corporations in Europe, would boost startup success. At the same time, it would support companies being more innovative. Read more.

Quick Commerce in Western Europe: Trends, Operational Models and Prospects

Opportunities in Germany are becoming best practice in global retail: Dark store concepts now make it possible to deliver groceries within 10 minutes of ordering for a nominal delivery fee. This unbelievable speed is changing consumers’ expectations regarding what is possible. Read more.

Food for thought

You live, you learn – that's a fact. And the keener you are on learning and getting inspired by what is happening around you, the more you´ll understand about how to grow and diversify your investment portfolio. Since our last edition, in March, we’ve bookmarked a few articles that inspired us. Sharing is caring, so we want to share.

Book: The infinite game by Simon Sinek

The Infinite Game is a business book worth reading for anyone who has even the slightest question about the meaning of work, of effort, of commitment, of a startup or a corporation. Finite games are short-term zero-sum games - someone loses, someone wins. Infinite games are fluid, long-term, and can have multiple winners at the same time. They are games that can only be won together. Learn more.

Podcast with GFC’s founder on entrepreneurial approach to VC

Don Stalter is a Partner at Global Founders Capital (GFC) and has an incredible portfolio of investments including Brex, Deel, CultureAmp, Checkr, FamPay and many more. In this podcast, Don shares learnings from working on two of the most explosive marketplace companies of the last decade (Groupon and Airbnb), and trends/opportunities he's seeing in Marketplaces, Future of Work, and Fintech. Listen here.

Interview: Don’t take the bull by the horns

Ari Korhonen is one of Europe’s most successful angel investors and venture capitalists. So far, he has made angel investments in over 30 companies, with about 100 investment rounds in total. From these, he already had four successful exits: including Severa, Paytrail and The Switch. Enjoy the interview.