“What if Bloomberg, Nasdaq and AngelList had a baby? (They didn’t). It’d look a lot like what we’re building”. Funderbeam plans to use colored coins to build a worldwide blockchain-based syndication and trading platform for startup investments.
The Estonian-based company currently offers lists of different start-ups and investors compiled to help potential investors navigate in the start-up space. However, Funderbeam aspires to do much more. According to the site:
Every year, businessmen invest money in a great number of start-ups. However, once the investments are there, they are locked for years before the investors are capable of pulling them out. Funderbeam believes it can solve the problem with the help of ‘colored coins’, special tokens attached to the blockchain.
Everything will start with the forming of investment syndicates. Anyone can create a syndicate or join one. Syndicate member investments can vary in size (the required minimum is expected to be about €1,000, much less than other systems’ requirements). Syndicate members stakes will be represented by ‘colored coins’ (digital tokens) on the blockchain. It will allow investors to sell their stakes on the Funderbeam marketplace at any given moment, so long as there is somebody wishing to acquire them.
According to Funderbeam, it will revolutionise the start-up space. It will create a trading platform free from bureaucracy and middlemen haunting existing stock exchanges “while delivering speed, transparency, and liquidity to early-stage investing”.
Among its backers, Funderbeam counts Jaan Tallinn, a co-founder of Skype. He says:
