SeedBlink Blog

Dear investors,

Crowdinvesting is going mainstream.

On November 10, the European Crowdfunding Regulation came into force. This aims to harmonize the way we can all invest in startups and private companies across Europe. Startups can raise up to €5 million from the crowd (retail investors) over a 12-month period. We are ready and welcome European investors and startups to our community!

Another event was the attempt to auction a rare copy of the US Constitution via a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization). The Ethereum-based project eventually raised $46.3 million from thousands of donors. The auction bid was lost. But it was also the largest crypto-crowdfunding-like project, with the community and a desire to change the status quo leading the way.

We see the power of communities harnessing disruptive innovation.

But not all crowdfunding projects are the same. We founded Seedblink to provide the freedom to own shares in emerging startups. Also, to have access to the tools, insights, and infrastructure to help each of us execute our own venture capital strategies.

In less than two years, we empowered investors with the ability to exercise preemptive rights in new rounds of their portfolio startups. Next, we are enabling a secondary market. We continue to improve the experience and outcomes for both investors and entrepreneurs.

I am incredibly grateful to be learning alongside you as we advance our journey to startup investor success.

Andrei Dudoiu,

Managing Partner & President of BoD, SeedBlink

PORTFOLIO HIGHLIGHTS

• FLOWX raised $8.5 million, one of the biggest seed rounds in Europe this year. The round was led by PortfoLion, and saw the participation from Day One Capital and SeedBlink investors.
• EcoTree raised another $500K to digitize waste management in Romania. The news follows the company’s first financing round of $250K last year - from Sparking Capital and SeedBlink, and brings the company’s total investment pool to $750K.
• MOCAPP and Oveit (Streams.live) announced a partnership that will allow Romanian online stores to increase their sales with Live Shopping - the latest innovation in global e-commerce, offering consumers the opportunity to be guided by influencers when shopping online.

COMMUNITY PERKS

New Partnership with EBAN (European Business Angels Network)

EBAN provides investors and entrepreneurs with unparalleled access to knowledge and best practices on how to professionally invest in startups, training of high net worth individuals, helping to develop local angel ecosystems. Dive into EBAN Academy, EBAN TV - after you create your account.

SeedBlink Academy #2: Power Talk with Marius Ghenea

Excerpts from the second edition of SeedBlink Academy event dedicated to Elite Investors is up: Power Talk with Marius Ghenea. Marius was kind enough to share with us the events from the most recent part of his career - since he has run the Catalyst I and II funds - with a focus on funding technology startups for scaling-up. Discover some of the main highlights here (RO).

TECH NEWS & TRENDS

Alpha AR – winner of Spotlight 2021

Meet  Alpha AR, the winner of the €350,000 grand investment prize from the How To Web 2021 Spotlight competition. Alpha AR is an AI-based, deep tech solution from Estonia, that makes 3D easy and scalable for AR/VR, NFTs, games and marketing.

Funding in CEE through the lens of gender diversity

This Report is analysing the funding landscape from the gender perspective. Implementing diversity & inclusion strategies at the level of investors and VC funds is paramount to tackling the deeply rooted inequalities and finding new solutions for women-founded companies to succeed in competitive industries.

Theranos Trial and its Key Lessons

Elizabeth Holmes, famous for the now-defunct tech startup Theranos, is now facing 11 fraud and conspiracy charges. It is considered by some “the trial of the century”, as it is questioning profoundly the "fake it (until you make it)" practices from Silicon Valley, the tech hype, and using false marketing and lies. The case is explored in more detail in the book "Bad Blood", but also live in the podcast "Bad Blood - The Final Chapter".

NON-TECHY TALKS

The most important question of your life

Rather of asking people “What do you want in your life?”, ask them (and yourself) What pain do you want in your life? What are you willing to struggle for? A great article exploring a question that seems to be a greater determinant of how our lives turn out.

100 innovations from 2021 changing how we live

Every year, TIME highlights the inventions that make the world better, smarter and a bit more fun. The result is a list of 100 groundbreaking inventions — including vaccines for COVID-19 and malaria, and an emotional support robot for hospitalised children —that can change how we live, work, play and think about what’s possible.

BRAIN FOOD

The Meb Faber Show is a podcast helping you grow and preserve your wealth. Each week he’s discussing the craft of investing, helping you uncover new and profitable ideas in the global equity, bond, and real asset markets. You can also expect to hear from some of the top investment professionals in the world, as his guests.

Sam Barondes’s book “Making Sense of People” is useful to everyone. Its “big five” is considered the equivalent of gravity in the academic literature on personality, being a great tool in assessing startup founders. It comes with the “OCEAN” big five: open minded, conscious, extroverted, agreeable, neurotic.

“The Barefoot Investor” by Scott Pape has been a phenomenon, disrupting the way publishing deals are done and changing attitudes toward money, saving and banking.