Oval Money and Seedrs have announced the launch of a partnership that opens up start-up investing to FinTech users across Europe.
The partnership begins today with Oval’s £1m crowdfunding round on Seedrs, which shortly follows a £4m injection of capital from asset manager Eurizon Capital.
In what is described as a first for the equity crowdfunding sector, the investment opportunity will be available to Oval users to register, become authorised and invest in the campaign all directly from the app.
The API will allow the funding round to run simultaneously in the Oval app and the Seedrs site.
Oval was founded in 2017 by young entrepreneurs Benedetta Arese Lucini, former CEO of Uber Italy, Claudio Bedino, Edoardo Benedetto and Simone Marzola.
Aimed at young people hoping to save, it currently has 350,000 customers.
The partnership with Seedrs is hoped to make early-stage private equity investment part of young people’s sacialongside the other funds and investment vehicles that Oval offer.
Seedrs’ CTO Ricardo Brizido said of the partnership: “Our vision for Seedrs is to be a part of the wider FinTech ecosystem, allowing investors to access this exciting asset class from anywhere, whether that’s their bank or their favourite fintech app.
“APIs like this one will play a crucial role in the integration of private marketplaces into more mainstream channels.”
Benedetta Arese Lucini, CEO and co-founder of Oval added: “We’re always looking for ways to expand our investment marketplace offering so our users have the best products on the market available to them.
“In addition, it’s exciting to be part of a sector first. Offering our users the opportunity to invest in private equity is exactly the type of innovation we are continually striving to do, and we’re looking forward to seeing how our partnership with Seedrs develops after our raise as we continue to innovate on accessible and inclusive opportunities for our users.”