Roundtable (HX21) raises 3 million to make community-investing the new standard for investments

Roundtable (eF#21) today announces it has raised €3 million with 100 business angels across Europe to empower communities to invest in start-ups. Founded in late 2021 within our eFounders studio by Evan Testa, Julien Fissette and Simon Ternoir, Roundtable is on a mission to making community-investing the new standard for startup investing.

The pioneers of community-investing

The idea to create a platform to democratise early stage investments across Europe was one we’ve had for a while and were itching to kickstart. We love what AngelList has built in the US and dreamed of a platform that would make it easy for startups to get funding from a variety business angels. We met with Evan, Julien and later with Simon, who also had the same itch as us. Not very long after, we decided to join forces and launch Roundtable together.

Roundtable was founded in late 2021 within eFounders with the aim of enabling community investing in startups. Over the past decades, we’ve witnessed, like many, the majority of wealth creation shifting from public to private markets. However, investing in private markets, particularly startups, has been limited to a select few due because it requires access to a network to access investment opportunities, expertise to evaluate them, and adequate capital to invest.

The answer? A platform that would enable community-investing. By allowing individuals to pool their networks, expertise, and capital, they can hear about startup investment opportunities, make better decisions as a group to evaluate them, and get enough capital to invest in them.

That’s why the Roundtable team has set out to build the first platform for community-investing. With Roundtable, individuals can create their own communities, invite members to join, share investment opportunities in a click, and collectively pool their capital to invest in startups. Roundtable has turned a complex process into a smooth experience, making startup investments accessible to the many 👏

100 Business Angels across Europe

The Roundtable team has convinced over 100 business angels across all of Europe to back their vision. Not only are they investing in Roundtable, but many of them are also active users of the platform, having create communities on it.

They include Roxanne Varza (Director of Station F) who has created a community of female business angels; Pieter-Jan Bouten (Fomer CEO and Chairman of Showpad) who has created a community of Belgian business angels; Christopher Zemina (Cofounder of Friday Finance ex Airbank) who has created a community of German & Austrian business angels; Olivier Pailhes (Cofounder of Aircall) based out of Spain who has created a community of business angels dedicated to funding climate tech companies as well as Paul Lê (Cofounder of La Belle Vie) who has created a community of angels who focus on funding entrepreneurs from under-represented backgrounds.

What’s next

We’re so excited for what lies ahead for the team! They’re already on a roll having facilitated over 100 deals representing 50 million Euros in AUA (asset under administration) and with the capital they will be able to go even further and continue their expansion throughout Europe.