Estonian investing platform Funderbeam sold a majority stake to Irish firm VentureWave

Estonian equity funding and trading platform Funderbeam sold a majority stake to Irish-based venture private equity group VentureWave. Existing backers, such as Estonian founder and CEO of Funderbeam Kaidi Ruusalepp, Japanese VC Mistletoe, and US early-stage VC Draper Associates, also invested in Funderbeam. The total amount of the deal estimates at €36M. Other previous shareholders, for example, Estonian accelerator and venture fund Startup Wise Guys, did not exit the company. 

With this deal, VentureWave and Funderbeam would offer more funding opportunities for institutional and angel investors in venture deal execution and pre-IPO secondaries.

VentureWave has an evolved US market entry strategy through Vestiver, the institutional venture platform, which will start working in the US in 2024. Vestiver helps founders to manage their venture-stage fundraising process digitally and handle investor relations after securing funding. 

According to investor Draper Associates, the acquisition of Funderbeam by VentureWave will allow venture-backed startups to be liquid. And the new liquidity would help GPs and LPs to trade other illiquid positions more.

Funderbeam was founded in Tallinn in 2013 by Kaidi Ruusalepp and @urmaspeiker Urmas Peiker. Funderbeam helps investor networks, accelerators, and other venture investors manage their syndicated investments, and post-investment flows and handle secondary transactions across borders. Funderbeam holds investment firm licenses in the UK, Estonia (covering the European economic area), and Singapore.  

VentureWave was established by Alan Foy, Brian Martin, and Feargal Brady in 2018. The firm has two European funds and one US-based fund, which cooperate with a global network of LPs, including family offices, entrepreneurs, and institutional investors.