Meet Round tablea new startup supported by eFounders that aims to bring community-driven angel investment to European startups. The company has built a platform that simplifies the administrative, legal and financial challenges associated with angel investing.
Roundtable can be especially helpful for existing angel investors looking to free up some additional capital for their portfolio companies. Since they are about to invest in a startup, they can create an EU-based special purpose vehicle (SPV) and tell their friends to invest with them.
For individuals who are not professional investors, it lowers the barrier to entry as they do not have to deal with a lawyer, accountant, 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. Moving on, Roundtable can also handle partial exits in case some investors want to exit a startup while others want to remain shareholders.
“We are launching a solution that meets the requirements of European retail 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 the best out of everyone when it comes to network and experience,” said Evan Testa, co-founder and CEO of Roundtable. Roundtable was co-founded by Evan Testa, Julien Fissette and Simon Ternoir.
Roundtable currently operates in France and Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Since June, the startup has facilitated 40 deals, worth nearly €20 million ($20 million at the current exchange rate). On average, there are 20 investors per investment.
Like AngelList, Roundtable doesn’t intend to stop there. Once it polishes this experience for one-off deals, the company aims to empower super angel investors who want to become solo general partners with their own small VC fund.
Due to the legal hurdles associated with angel investing, it is clear that there is an opportunity for a local equivalent of AngelList in Europe. It will be interesting to see if the angel investment community will embrace a standardized platform like Roundtable in the future.
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