Vauban, a platform that provides venture capital fund managers with everything they need to raise a fund and invest capital quickly, has closed a GBP4.7 million funding round.
Investors include co-leads Pentech and Outward, in addition to 7 per cent Ventures and MJ Hudson. A roster of high profile angel investors have also participated; this includes the CEO of Nested, Matt Robinson; the founder of Grabayo, Will Neale; the founder and CEO of ComplyAdvantage, Charles Delingpole; Partner at Augmentum Fintech Perry Blacher; and Al Giles, from legal services provider Axiom.
Through its end-to-end platform, Vauban provides VCs and angel investors with the tools necessary to raise funds, easily create angel syndicates, and effectively manage fundraising and investment activities. The platform enables users to set-up and deploy Funds and SPVs, from multiple global investment jurisdictions, at a fraction of the usual time and cost, covering everything structuring, legal documents, investor onboarding, banking and reporting within a single integrated platform.
Vauban is onboarding at least one new client every day. Over USD1 billion has been invested via the platform. Current VC users include Anthemis, Passion Capital and Octopus Ventures. In total, over 5,000 LPs are using the platform.
Founder and Co-CEO Rémy Astié says: “When raising capital, VCs are obliged to undertake a countless number of time-consuming, long-winded and expensive processes. This deter many prospective managers from raising a fund, and therefore prevent many founders from getting funded.
“Our goal is to reduce the friction between those who have the capital, and those who need it to solve humanity’s biggest problems. So, we decided to start by rebuilding the infrastructure on digital rails, because it’s mission critical in order to provide a great UX to everyone in the industry: GPs, LPs and Founders. The next step is to build a super platform and network on top of our existing platform, in order to offer life-changing services to all parties involved.”
This comes against the backdrop of unprecedented investment activity in European tech. With EUR41.8 billion raised across Europe in the first half of 2021, up from EUR32.6 billion in the entirety of 2020, the addressable market for European VC investors is increasing.
In recent years, venture capital activities across Europe have evolved, with an increasing number of established VC firms now managing several funds. More funds are using Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) to participate in specific deals, make secondary investments, or to set up ‘sidecar’ funds alongside EIS vehicles or their main institutional funds. In addition, angel investors are professionalizing and syndicating; they are grouping together to increase their dealmaking potential and access to dealflow.
These developments have led to an increased demand for access to the tools that help investors raise and pool capital – including fund structuring, banking requirements, legal documentation, fund admin, reporting, investor onboarding, ongoing LP management and more.
Ulric Musset, Founder and Co-CEO says: “One of the biggest catalysts for new startup creation was the launch of Amazon Web Services in the early 2000s. It drastically decreased the cost and complexity of launching a new tech company. Unfortunately the way these startups were funded remain in the past. That’s what we are changing. From operators-turned-investors starting their first fund to established VC firms launching their co-investment program, we want everyone to be able to seize opportunities when they arise. We believe Vauban will have the same impact that AWS has had on the startup ecosystem.”
Andi Kazeroonian, Investor at Outward VC, says: “Despite the meteoric growth in alternative investments in recent years, the infrastructure the industry relies on has failed to evolve. Simply creating and administering an investment vehicle remains synonymous with lengthy, cumbersome and expensive processes fragmented across multiple service providers. Vauban’s integrated platform has turned this on its head with a relentless focus on product and user experience, which has unsurprisingly led to exceptional organic growth and its emergence as the standout category leader in Europe. We have high conviction that Vauban will play a significant role in powering the growth of the alternate asset industry as it continues to move from the periphery of the global investment landscape into the mainstream, and are delighted that they have chosen Outward VC as its long term partners on this journey.”
Craig Anderson, Partner at Pentech, says: “We like to invest in category-leading companies with big ambitions for growth. We believe Vauban is building a modern infrastructure for the alternate asset market which enables users to set up, deploy and manage their funds and SPVs in just a few hours. We have been very impressed by what Remy, Ulric and the Vauban team have achieved to date, both in terms of building a truly compelling product and their tremendous commercial progress, and we are very excited about their growth potential moving forward.”
