Highlighting the risk of investing in startups, goodz GmbH, a Berlin based company that did an equity crowdfunding round this past Spring, has filed for bankruptcy.
goodz was an “e-boutique”, launched in February 2014, that featured cutting edge products in a curated e-commerce platform that was determined to target only responsible and well made products. Crowdfund Insider covered the launch this past March. The company was founded by Jeffrey van Ede, the former VP of Sony Europe and CEO of Sony Germany. The crowdfunding campaign on Seedmatch raised €100,000 from 134 investors. The company had been seeking follow on funding but was unable raise additional capital and just recently decided to seek insolvency.
In a posting on the SeedMatch web site a question was posed to van Ede about alternatives and the goodz founder stated;
“We currently see no option the company to continue. We do not have sufficient financial resources and get those not provided by external parties. Therefore, our focus is on a transparent and respectful handling of the insolvency proceedings. Once this is complete, we will consider further steps.”
SeedMatch, one of the largest German equity crowdfunding platforms, has facilitated 66 financing rounds by 57 startups since August of 2011. Over half of these young companies have received follow on financing. There have been four other businesses that have failed prior to the goodz bankruptcy. SeedMatch has always been at the forefront of providing a transparent platform for both investor and companies seeking to raise capital. They have consistently noted that not all businesses will be successful and investing in equity for startups is very risky.
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