qodeo, a company that monitors the global venture ecosystem, and is rolling out the first global service that automatically matches best fit investors with entrepreneurs, has announced a crowdfunding campaign on crowdfunding platform Seedrs.
Qodeo is raising funds to roll out its next generation global venture matching service, which aims to revolutionise the global funding landscape.
Qodeo has already raised half of its total funding target for this round of GBP500,000, from follow on investments by many of its 23 existing angel investors, plus new investors, including Christopher Clement Davies, formerly Director at S G Warburg and partner at law firms Fulbright & Jaworski, Wilde Sapte and Vinson & Elkins; and Sir Harvey McGrath, formerly Chairman & Chief Executive of the Man Group & Chairman of Prudential.
Qodeo is seeking to close the round with funds from business angels, supplemented by this Seedrs crowdfunding campaign. The Seedrs target is GBP220,000, and is open to public investment immediately for a limited period.
Christopher Clement Davies, qodeo angel investor and former Director at S G Warburg, says: “This thrilling venture from qodeo fills a yawning gap in the global VC market, and I am excited to help the business address this compelling market need across the entire global venture ecosystem.”
Sir Harvey McGrath, formerly Chairman & Chief Executive of the Man Group & Chairman of Prudential, says: “Effective markets require effective intermediation built on timely, relevant and accurate data. This is what qodeo seeks to provide for the PE/VC markets. Qodeo addresses the challenges that many entrepreneurs face when they’re seeking capital, as well as the challenges investors face when they’re seeking returns.”
Other angel investors include entrepreneurs, CEOs and former partners of Ernst & Young and law firm, Clifford Chance, and Division Director or Macquarie Bank, spread across Asia-Pacific and Europe.
Qodeo’s upgraded, online service, the first of its kind, will smartly and automatically feed matches to investors, currently VC & PE firms, and entrepreneurs, across all stages and sectors. This angel and Seedrs campaign will fund the roll out of this upgraded Freemium experience, which is based on Qodeo’s original platform, which tracked the profiles and investment needs of 17,000 organisations globally, including 1,500 leading VC & PE firms. Qodeo curates its unique dataset to drive matching results, featuring in-person interviews, to date with 700 VC & PE firms worldwide, enabled by collaboration with 24 leading business schools.
Serial Entrepreneur Julian Ranger says: “Finding investors is never easy, and ones that can bring more than money even harder – qodeo provides the data and the toolset to make the process easier for entrepreneurs and the whole ecosystem”.
Tech start-up founder of Plan Snap, a Techstars graduate, Louise Doherty said: “Raising investment isn’t an easy process, and one of the most time-consuming aspects is finding the right investors. You’d think that there’d be a solution to this already but there really isn’t. That’s why what Simon and his team are building is so important”.
Simon Glass, CEO, qodeo, says: “The global venture community needs change. It wastes considerable time and money identifying funders and portfolio companies. Entrepreneurs, investors and corporate advisors globally need an easy to use platform to get to market faster and connect with best-fit partners. The venture-entrepreneur relationship is like a marriage – you don’t want to marry the wrong partner. Our automated and personalised service, based on our original service, will address the challenges faced by the global venture ecosystem. We are delighted that such a vast number of well-respected angel investors, both new and existing, are committed to helping the VC, entrepreneur and advisor community to become more efficient, and for us to realise our global growth ambitions.”
The new freemium version will be rolled out in 2018, with the premium subscription service being available at GBP10 per month for entrepreneurs and corporate advisors. Qodeo is free for investors.
The Seedrs crowdfunding campaign will fund the service roll out, but current service benefits include the following. For Entrepreneurs; quicker funding, the right connections, saving time, energy and money, making sense of the venture market, and quick and easy company comparisons. For Investors; increasing the quality of in-bound deal-flow, analysing their own portfolio, improving visibility with the right people, looking after limited partners & exploring new markets with confidence. For Corporate Advisors (lawyers, bankers and accountants); Boosting related business development pipelines, supercharging the rolodex, increasing the conversion rate, and improving profile and visibility.
