Press room
Meet the Crowdfunding Panel at this year’s EU-Startups Summit – featuring Europe’s leading platforms, Crowdcube, Seedrs and SeedBlink
This year, we have a very exciting panel discussion covering all things equity crowdfunding – something that might prove extra useful this year with VCs tightening their purse strings.
On April 20-21, we will be welcoming you all to Barcelona for the 2023 edition of our annual flagship event: The EU-Startups Summit! And this year, it’s going to be bigger and better than ever before. We will gather over 2,000 people for two days of networking, inspiration and learning. It’s a great opportunity to learn from and connect with some of Europe’s most influential, successful and impactful founders, investors and innovators.
This year, we have a very exciting panel discussion covering all things equity crowdfunding – something that might prove extra useful this year with VCs tightening their purse strings.
Crowdfunding is a way of accessing capital by raising money from people, opening up your business to a community following. It’s long been a popular fundraising approach for startups as it helps create a follower base (which can provide useful market insights and new customers), doesn’t require nerve-wracking pitching to investors, and is pretty accessible and secure. There are a few different types of crowdfunding approaches, including peer-to-peer, equity and rewards and across Europe, different platforms to get started on.
The panel discussion, which will give you a deep-dive into how to navigate the world of crowdfunding will feature representatives of Europe’s leading equity crowdfunding platforms: Matt Cooper, Co-CEO Crowdcube, Kirsty Grant, Managing Director and CIO Seedrs and Carmen Sebe, CEO SeedBlink.
Matt Cooper is the Co-CEO at Crowdcube. Matt is a real financial expert, able to draw on over twenty years of experience in this space. His early career centred in the fintech capital, London, where he worked for both US and European Investment Banks including Merrill Lynch. In his current role, he has driven the growth of the platform from pre-Series A to profitability. He has also advised companies like Monzo, Revolut and BrewDog.
Since its 2010 launch, Crowdcube has carried out 1,800 successful raises and has a community of over 1 million members who have invested €1.5 billion collectively. It’s enabled the likes of Qonto to engage their communities and customers and create globally impactful businesses. The firm was the first to receive authorisation under new crowdfunding regulations, harmonising UK and EU rules, and, secured €11.8 million in 2021.
Kirsty Grant is the Managing Director & Chief Investment Officer at Seedrs – recognised as one of Europe’s leading private investment platforms. She is passionate about democratising investment, supporting Europe’s most innovative high-growth companies and revolutionising the way venture capital is distributed in the European startup ecosystem.
Under her leadership, London-based Seedrs has become the most active investor in early-stage private companies in the UK since its 2009 launch, with over 1,800 deals and has over £2.3 billion invested on the platform to date. The platform enables people to invest in future unicorns and exiting startups from just £10 and takes away the legal hassle. In 2021 the firm was acquired by US-based Republic in an €88 million deal.
Carmen Sebe is the CEO of SeedBlink. Leveraging extensive international experience in the tech market, Carmen is an expert in understanding markets, driving revenue, managing expenses and developing talent. She has overseen the growth of companies from their inception to the completion of hundreds of millions of euros in online transactions worldwide, as well as their eventual strategic exit.
SeedBlink launched in 2020 and has become one of the fastest-growing pan-European networks and investing platforms. So far, with Carmen’s leadership, the firm has attracted over 250 European portfolio companies and a strong network of tech and business leaders, business angels and venture capital firms.
This Panel Discussion is sure to be full of interesting insights and valuable takeaways. Make sure you secure your ticket today so that you’re there to join us. In the meantime, more information can be found on our event page, and, you can also get a taste of what’s to come this April by checking out this video from last year’s event:
PublishedFebruary 15, 2023
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As a startup founder, I am happy to witness SeedBlink’s dedication to expanding their support for early-stage companies beyond funding, towards a healthy equity management via Nimity. A solution to help better navigate relations with stakeholders, employees and future investors is needed in Europe. Less admin work and bringing transparency to the cap table are immediate benefits I was able to test.
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SanoPass
SeedBlink is a transparent solution that connects entrepreneurs with great business plans, with investors, at different stages in their development. It is a great tool for us, a democratization of access to funding, I would say.
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FLOWX.AI
We really loved the SeedBlink journey. We reached our fundraising goal within hours of launching. About 100 investors joined our vision and invested almost $2 million in FLOWX.AI through the Private Deal Room. At the same time, working with SeedBlink to prepare for the funding round was an excellent exercise for our entire team, and we received and felt the support from the SeedBlink team members who took on an advisory role.
Dan Vidrașcu
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VOXA
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Tinu Bosinceanu
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Upgrade Education
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Income
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Svilen Rangelov
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Dronamics
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Mihai Darzan
Founder
Procesio
Our main expectation has been to raise the amount we were aiming for, and both rounds launched on Seedblink exceeded our targets, so we’re very happy with that! Even though the launched funding campaigns have been purely crowdfunding rounds, we are thrilled to actually receive extra support from some of the investors, who have chosen to get involved and help us generate product awareness, whenever they can.
Catalin Mester
Founder
Voxa
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Dragoș Iliescu
Founder and CEO
Brio
In the early stages, we have been funded by several early (angel) investors, and one and a half year ago through an equity crowdfunding campaign on SeedBlink. Of course, this impacted our growth in many positive ways, partly due to the cash influx that, evidently, was sorely needed, but in a larger part due to the fact that our responsibility towards our shareholders has become more stringent and explicit, becoming embodied in our market approach.
Costin Tudor
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Diwaker Singh
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Crikle
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Florin Stoian
Co-Founder & CEO
Milluu
SeedBlink boosted our brand exposure and facilitated the financial support we were seeking. Having a campaign on the platform allowed us not only to meet a team of professionals - that guided and helped us prepare the necessary materials - but also opened doors for increasing our brand awareness and have discussions with VCs & angel investors we have never reached before. This campaign gave us the encouragement we needed to push the product further, while the record-breaking fundraising (only 2 hours from the launch of the campaign!) was a great confirmation that our product is needed in this market and that we should continue innovating.
Raluca Jianu
CEO & Co-founder
Epic Visits
SeedBlink has created a vital ecosystem for startups at the beginning of their journey by equipping entrepreneurs with expertise, encouraging honest and sometimes uncomfortable but necessary discussions about risks and vulnerabilities through a suite of tools, and facilitating connections with investors who share the founders' vision and can contribute to their success. I have greatly appreciated the constant support of Eric and the entire team at all stages of the campaign. Thank you so much!
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