Vauban, a platform for venture capital fund managers, has closed a £4.7 million fundraise.
Vauban provides VCs and angel investors with the tools necessary to raise funds, create angel syndicates and effectively manage fundraising and investment activities.
It enables users to set-up and deploy funds, 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.
Investors include co-leads Pentech and Outward, in addition to 7percent Ventures and MJ Hudson.
A roster of high-profile angel investors have also participated, including 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.
Vauban is onboarding at least one new client every day, while more than $1 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 said: “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.”
Why? The one-word question you need to ask yourself in business
In recent years, VC activities across Europe have evolved, with an increasing number of established VC firms now managing several funds. More funds are using special purpose vehicles 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 professionalising 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, said: “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.”