Connectd, a London-based growth network that helps startups, investors and advisors make and manage meaningful connections, announced that it has secured $1.6M in a seed funding round.
The financing was provided by Rob Wilmot (TEDx Speaker and founding executive of Freeserve), Jonas Anker (CEO of Anker Capital), Gareth Hawkins (Business Angel), serial entrepreneur brothers Aleks and Dejan Subosic (Deep North), Steve Scruton (former Head of Equity Research at HSBC). The round brings the total funding raised by the company to $3M to date.
How will the investment be used?
The investment will be used to fuel expansion into Europe, with a hub in Stockholm now in place. They are also launching two new tools aimed to help their audience, as founders often end up having to pay hefty legal fees initially to produce documentation, which is why Connectd has created a series of legal documentation templates to aid founders get off the ground.
Founded by serial entrepreneur Roei Samuel, Connectd has expanded its operation into Europe with a new office opening in Stockholm, Sweden. Since its launch in February 2020, the UK firm has brought together more than 1,000 startups, and over 1,000 investors and business advisors fostering more than 20,000 connections in over ten countries.
Sharing his business journey, Samuel tells TFN, “In the last 12 months, we got into a situation where we have started listening to our community and implementing interesting technology to serve them better. For example, we are launching ConnectdPortfolio, which enables investors to manage all their angel investments in one place and it is not limited to only investments made through our platform. We have aggressive plans to expand to the product suite over the next 12 months.”
What is ConnectdLegal?
Samuel revealed in Q2, the company is launching ‘ConnectdLegal’, which will provide members with a hub to access documents easily, including SEIS/EIS registration, advisory agreements for NEDs and board advisors, NDAs, and employment contracts.
“Our new legal tool is designed to benefit founders and investors by helping them establish their essential legal documentation without incurring expensive fees,” he says.
The legal platform will allow investors to manage all their angel investments in one place, and it will not be limited to investments made only through the Connectd platform.
The company is also launching the ConnectdPortfolio tool that acts the same way as a consumable dashboard for a crypto-wallet or public shares but is tailored to the early-stage investment ecosystem.
“Since we made the switch from being a marketplace, we found out in the last 12-months that at any given moment around 20% to 30% of startups use our platform for fundraising while the rest of the businesses use the platform for other tools, which aligns to our brand vision of becoming a holistic eco-system for startups.”
Currently, the company employs around 40 personnel working across the UK, India, Sweden, and Poland. Further, it aims to increase the headcount to 60 by the end of this year.
Helping Ukrainians with grants
Talking about how Connectd is helping Ukrainians with the majority of their team is in Poland, Samuel notes, “Earlier this year, we started an initiative called ‘Connectd Startup Grant’ where every quarter we give £5K to different startups. We also distributed awards to startups that either got staff or founders in Ukraine, to help them try and bring over.”
Connectd helps organisations and individuals find each other through a data-driven approach and cutting out the intermediaries in the investment cycle. Next year, the company is also planning to test operations in the US after a Series A.
Talking about their investment in Connectd, Dejan Subosic, serial entrepreneur and angel investor says, “We see a huge global application for Connectd’s technology, and having built, exited, and invested into companies across Europe and beyond, we’re excited to help launch Connectd in Stockholm in Q2 and build a broader European footprint from there.”
“Connectd has proven to deliver consistent month-on-month growth, and the trajectory for the business is looking very strong. I feel I can add value beyond my investment to Roei and his team, which is why I’m pleased to go on this journey with them,” adds Paul Redbourn, former head of Equity at UBS and current investor in Connectd.
