Image credits: bunch
Berlin-based bunch, a tech platform that enables investors to syndicate deals across private markets, announced on Tuesday that it has secured €7.3M in a seed round of funding led by Cherry Ventures. The round also saw participation from embedded/capital.
Numerous angel investors, such as founders of European fintechs Adyen, Klarna, Juni, and Moonfare, private market investment, and fintech experts such as Cristina Stenbek, Pip Klöckner, and Jan Deepen’s Discovery Ventures, also participated in the round.
Fund utilisation
The German company says it will use the funds to expand across additional geographies and asset classes.
In addition, bunch will also use the proceeds to advance its software platform’s technical and product development to make it easier for all investors to participate in private markets.
What does bunch solve?
After working in public and private markets, co-founders Levent Altunel and Enrico Ohnemüller realised that the process of investing in private assets materially has not changed over the last three decades. So they founded bunch.
According to McKinsey, the private market investments have exploded over the last decade, with almost $10T in assets under management. However, the value creation was limited to a few while individual investors struggled to participate.
Here’s where bunch helps remove the barriers of investing collectively, diversifying risk, and democratising access to unique investment opportunities.
“Investors have been waiting for a solution like this that takes away all the admin work of investing and helps investors to become more professional at the same time” says Levent Altunel, who also highlights that first users have also joined as investors in this funding round.
bunch: What you need to know
The company’s initial offering is a digital platform where investors can create their investment syndicates and track all their investments in one place.
Called bunchOS, it is an asset and jurisdiction agnostic investment platform, enabling investors to set up and manage their investment entities.
Enrico Ohnemüller says, “We are giving our customers access to a toolset that previously was only available for the largest private investors, including pro-rata monetisation protecting dilution on your winners and risk diversification through collective investing. We are building on top of larger tech organisations for scalability, which allows us to focus on customer value and process flexibility from day one.”
The company claims that over the last three months, they have transacted close to €150M of assets under admin across startup investments and funds.
Filip Dames, Founding Partner at Cherry Ventures, says, “The bunch team, led by Levent and Enrico, is unlocking private markets for investing with, first, their one-stop-shop solution — the bunch OS. We know how cumbersome gaining access to these markets can be, so we were immediately impressed when we witnessed bunch’s streamlined, simple solution. We believe this tool is the first step on the journey to provide liquidity to private markets and become a true operating system for investors.”
Ramin Niroumand, managing partner at embedded/capital, says, “We know from our experience as founders, operators, and investors that private markets are far from digitised, with limited liquidity and fragmented access contributing to a generally painful process for all market participants. When we first started our conversations with Enrico and Levent last year, we collectively saw the potential of building on existing fintech infrastructure to launch a holistic suite of financial products across jurisdictions and assets – the bunch OS – to transform the way we interact with private markets. We are thrilled to be part of the bunch’s journey from the very beginning, as well as happy customers.”
Catch our interview with Paul Down, Head of Sales at Intigriti.
