Having a global vantage point and developed operations in this market for several years now, we’ve been paying attention to several developments. One of those, has been the evolution of crowd investing applications to more professional investor audiences and sophisticated systems.
Through Crowd Valley, we have been involved in applications ranging from equity and debt models, peer to peer, peer to business marketplaces and a variety of configurations. We’ve worked with actors in venture capital and private equity, but we have been in increasing conversations with actors in the institutional, fund and asset management sector.
What many are realizing, is that access, transparency and efficiency, some of the core values of our company and this market (we believe), have a broad reaching impact on sectors, far beyond the medias favorite of startup crowd funding alone. And where those values really start to pay off, is actually farther up the capital ladder, where the sizes of transactions, the severity of access and process requirements, is most critical.
Think of a larger institutional investor, that is being tasked with allocating capital into important, even life changing, investment opportunities (think infrastructure, water, renewable energy). The investment threshold for efficiently allocating capital might be a minimum of $200M, meaning anything below simply is not manageable (read investable) with current processes. But the pressure to find a solution to make it manageable can even be imposed by law, which makes the discussion topical and approachable for many larger institutional actors.
Institutional investors and funds face other challenges in the market, such as the transaction costs that their value chain often imposes with every step in the deployment of capital. There are clear indications in the market, that many actors who deploy significant capital through a complex chain and through many intermediaries, are questioning this chain and looking for more effective alternatives.
We also continue to see those who already have a process or activity, which could well be complemented by the right technology. For example an already existing community base and manual process, can be transformed into an online asset and not another liability for the business. Think for example about a private equity firm which focuses on the clean tech sector, with existing investments and portfolio, as well as co-investors and follow on investors that they have worked with. All of this can be leveraged to create a market pioneer in a segment that can benefit from added efficiency or access.
Recognizing that these applications will need to exist efficiently in a broader ecosystem, we have set out to create models that can be applied to different sectors and interfaces that can cooperate between one another. We believe that to truly achieve the core three values, access, efficiency and transparency, the market needs to develop hand in hand with an openness and interconnectedness between operators and new models that support sustainable business models.
For the market to sustain itself, those that operate and enforce the marketplaces, have to also develop efficient and sustainable business models, which call out for broader collaboration.
Image credit to: Christian: https://blit.ly/p/6BSsK6
What many are realizing, is that access, transparency and efficiency, some of the core values of our company and this market (we believe), have a broad reaching impact on sectors, far beyond the medias favorite of startup crowd funding alone. And where those values really start to pay off, is actually farther up the capital ladder, where the sizes of transactions, the severity of access and process requirements, is most critical.
Think of a larger institutional investor, that is being tasked with allocating capital into important, even life changing, investment opportunities (think infrastructure, water, renewable energy). The investment threshold for efficiently allocating capital might be a minimum of $200M, meaning anything below simply is not manageable (read investable) with current processes. But the pressure to find a solution to make it manageable can even be imposed by law, which makes the discussion topical and approachable for many larger institutional actors.
Institutional investors and funds face other challenges in the market, such as the transaction costs that their value chain often imposes with every step in the deployment of capital. There are clear indications in the market, that many actors who deploy significant capital through a complex chain and through many intermediaries, are questioning this chain and looking for more effective alternatives.
We also continue to see those who already have a process or activity, which could well be complemented by the right technology. For example an already existing community base and manual process, can be transformed into an online asset and not another liability for the business. Think for example about a private equity firm which focuses on the clean tech sector, with existing investments and portfolio, as well as co-investors and follow on investors that they have worked with. All of this can be leveraged to create a market pioneer in a segment that can benefit from added efficiency or access.
Recognizing that these applications will need to exist efficiently in a broader ecosystem, we have set out to create models that can be applied to different sectors and interfaces that can cooperate between one another. We believe that to truly achieve the core three values, access, efficiency and transparency, the market needs to develop hand in hand with an openness and interconnectedness between operators and new models that support sustainable business models.
For the market to sustain itself, those that operate and enforce the marketplaces, have to also develop efficient and sustainable business models, which call out for broader collaboration.
Image credit to: Christian: https://blit.ly/p/6BSsK6
About the author - Markus Lampinen
Internationally awarded entrepreneur, active in pioneering new securities models worldwide at the intersection of the Internet and the securities markets.
Markus serves as the CEO of Crowd Valley Inc, a US-based crowdfunding marketplace platform provider and a spinoff from the Grow VC Group. He is also a global investor and Senior Partner at the Grow VC Group. During his tenure as COO of Grow VC, he recruited over 120 individuals, built up a global team on six continents and expanded operations to over 150 countries. In his earlier businesses, he served in diverse roles, taking on the responsibilities of CFO and increasing sales growth of over 270% per year over several subsequent years. Markus holds an M.S. and a B.A. in Economics.
Markus has pioneered new funding models in the US and Europe, advised policy makers worldwide—including the SEC, the European Commission and Italian regulator CONSOB—for more effective markets, and worked with visionary organizations such as the World Bank and the Kauffman Foundation to improve frameworks for new funding models, including crowdfunding, cross-border investments and private placements. He serves as a frequent public speaker on related themes. He is married and constantly bringing presents from his travels to his two children.
Internationally awarded entrepreneur, active in pioneering new securities models worldwide at the intersection of the Internet and the securities markets.
Markus serves as the CEO of Crowd Valley Inc, a US-based crowdfunding marketplace platform provider and a spinoff from the Grow VC Group. He is also a global investor and Senior Partner at the Grow VC Group. During his tenure as COO of Grow VC, he recruited over 120 individuals, built up a global team on six continents and expanded operations to over 150 countries. In his earlier businesses, he served in diverse roles, taking on the responsibilities of CFO and increasing sales growth of over 270% per year over several subsequent years. Markus holds an M.S. and a B.A. in Economics.
Markus has pioneered new funding models in the US and Europe, advised policy makers worldwide—including the SEC, the European Commission and Italian regulator CONSOB—for more effective markets, and worked with visionary organizations such as the World Bank and the Kauffman Foundation to improve frameworks for new funding models, including crowdfunding, cross-border investments and private placements. He serves as a frequent public speaker on related themes. He is married and constantly bringing presents from his travels to his two children.
RSS Feed