Meet Roundtable, a new startup backed by eFounders that wants to bring community-driven angel investments to European startups. The company has built a platform that simplifies the administrative, legal and financial challenges that come with angel investments.
Roundtable could be particularly useful for existing angel investors who want to unlock some additional capital for their portfolio companies. As they are about to invest in a startup, they can create a EU-based special purpose vehicle (SPV) and tell their friends to invest alongside them.
For individuals who aren’t professional investors, it lowers the barrier to entry as they don’t have to deal with a lawyer, an accountant, a banker, etc.
When the lead angel sets up the SPV, they can choose to get some carried interest from other investors in the vehicle — but that’s optional. Down the road, Roundtable can also handle partial exits in case some investors want to get out of a startup while others want to remain shareholders.
“We are launching a solution that meets the demands of non-professional European investors so that they can invest in ‘just a few clicks’ — extreme standardization of SPVs with legal innovations, a platform to communicate with community members and get the best out of everyone when it comes to network and experience,” Roundtable co-founder and CEO Evan Testa said. Roundtable was co-founded by Evan Testa, Julien Fissette and Simon Ternoir.
Right now, Roundtable works in France and Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Since June, the startup has facilitated 40 deals representing nearly €20 million ($20 million at today’s exchange rate). On average, there are 20 investors per investment.
Just like AngelList, Roundtable doesn’t plan to stop there. Once it has polished this experience for one-off deals, the company wants to empower super angel investors who wants to become solo general partners with their own small VC fund.
Due to the legal hurdles that come with angel investment, it’s clear that there’s an opportunity for a local equivalent of AngelList in Europe. It’s going to be interesting to see if the angel investment community embraces a standardized platform like Roundtable in the future.
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