The benefits of Seedrs Private Deal Room
At Seedrs our community of entrepreneurs and investors sits at the heart of everything we do. We consistently endeavour to harvest honest feedback and implement that into all of our features.
Private Deal Room has been built for Angel, Sophisticated and High Net Worth investors, specifically to solve some of the problems that these individuals experience every day in the private equity market.
So, what new features can investors expect to see?
More variety in investment opportunities
When building a platform specifically tailored to Angel investors, an important feature was always going to be diversity of deal flow. Private Deal Room goes beyond the typical equity crowdfunding deals – which usually provide access to post-seed, consumer focused growth companies – and gives investors access to a far broader range of opportunities, at an earlier stage.
The four new deal types on Private Deal Room;
- Introducer Campaigns – angel invest directly into companies from £10k. These transactions occur offline and allow investors to take a far more meaningful and collaborative role in the growth of a startup than might happen through a standard Seedrs equity crowdfunding investment.
- Private Offerings – invest in later stage companies, regardless of whether they’ve raised through the crowd before. We expect these more sophisticated investments to largely be available in pre-IPO companies, often via a secondary share sale. If you’re an early investor in a late-stage company and would be interested in selling your shares on Seedrs, submit your details on this page.
- Venture Capital Fund LP Opportunities – invest in top VC funds through Seedrs, giving investors exposure to an actively managed portfolio of companies, vetted and supported by some of the best minds in venture capital.
- Pre-emption Allocations – invest in existing Seedrs portfolio companies. Eligible investors can either follow-on their initial investment in an earlier round, or if they missed the chance to invest earlier, investors can now access the limited additional allocation that becomes available when businesses raise further growth rounds following an initial primary fundraise on Seedrs, all powered by Seedrs’ innovative nominee structure.
Whether an investor is seeking to invest £10k as an Angel into an early stage B2B service provider, or they’re seeking to invest in a leading VC fund, the Private Deal Room can facilitate both.
Eligible investors on the Seedrs platform will begin to see a broader range of deals than on any other private equity platform in Europe.
More control for Angel investors
We heard from our Sophisticated and High Net Worth investor community that the structure of campaigns for very early stage businesses should have a greater focus on financials and other key information. Whilst the campaign videos and content typically found on later stage equity crowdfunding pitches are useful for context, they can be less useful when considering an angel investment.
Private Deal Room pitches, especially Introducer Campaigns, are structured slightly differently from those on the public platform. We keep it brief, giving a short introduction, the key details on each deal, and for Introducer Campaigns, Seedrs will not verify any of the information provided, instead directing investors to the company’s pitch deck and providing direct introduction to founders. Our Investor Relations team will be on hand to provide bespoke support if further information is required.
Reduced time pressure
Our High Net Worth and Sophisticated investors have made it clear to us that more time is often required when considering investing larger sums. If an investor is seeking to invest £10k pre-seed, we realise the time needed for independent due diligence will be greater than for a smaller investment into a company at a more advanced stage.
For that reason, pitches on Private Deal Room will be less time sensitive (except for pre-emption allocations), and with Introducer Campaigns there is no timeline attached to close the deal. Pitches will outline the minimum investment amount and the overall desired round size, and the opportunity is live until the allocation is filled. For the other types of pitches, these will be open to investment until the target amount has been raised, or sold (e.g. a Secondary Share Sale).
Access to founders and information
We’ve heard from our investors that when making larger investment decisions, High Net Worth and Sophisticated investors want greater access to documentation and founders in order to perform their own due diligence prior to making an early stage investment.
For Introducer Campaigns in the Private Deal Room we provide direct access to investment decks, the opportunity to request further documentation including financial models, and the chance to set up due diligence calls with founders.
Invest in companies directly
The majority of our crowdfunding campaign investments are made under the innovative Seedrs Nominee structure.
The Nominee is the legal shareholder in the companies funded on Seedrs, designed to remove the administrative hassle when making smaller private investments, and providing institutional grade protection to all investors. The nominee structure also allows investors to exit on the Seedrs Secondary Market (subject to the company’s participation and Secondary Market terms), transforming the returns timeline of traditional private investments.
However, we’ve heard from our Angel community that for them a direct investment model is preferable, so with our Introducer Campaigns we introduce Angels to founders and let them negotiate their own terms of investment, outside of the Seedrs Nominee.
