One of the leading investment crowdfunding platforms in the UK is in the midst of an executive transition.
Current SyndicateRoom CEO and co-founder Gonçalo de Vasconcelos has announced that he is exiting the executive role and becoming a non-executive Director of the crowdfunding platform.
In a Tweet, de Vasconcelos said it was an honor to be able to grow the Fintech platform and he is “retiring” from the position.
I’m leaving the #CEO role of @SyndicateRoom behind and #retiring (really!?!). After all these years, I’ve finally been promoted to non-executive at SR. It was such an honour to grow SR and bring it to this level of success. Looking forward #future https://t.co/Dt1H7ggWL1)
— Goncalo Vasconcelos (@GoncaloTV) July 23, 2019
In a statement on LinkedIn, de Vasconcelos explained his decision:
“There certainly were tears, sweat and long hours but also tons of fun and the pleasure of working with incredibly talented people building something amazing. As you may know, I’m an entrepreneurial CEO at heart, not an operational CEO. As such it felt the right time for me to hand over the reins to SR’s COO Graham Schwikkard Tom Britton Marcin Zaba Fran O’Brien Miruna-Ioana Girtu and the whole SR team for them to carry on making SR an even more amazing company.”
de Vasconcelos said he will continue to provide guidance for the firm in his new position as Chairman and member of the board of directors. de Vasconcelos is widely respected within the industry and has earned credit in helping establish a sustainable sector of online capital formation. The UK continues to host the most robust online capital formation sector in the world, due in part to platforms like SyndicateRoom.
“Personally, with SR in great stewardship, I’m looking forward to putting my entrepreneur hat back on once again, so do stay in touch,” said de Vasconcelos, tipping his hand to possible new ventures.
Upon the announcement, de Vasconcelos received an outpouring of positive statements.
SyndicateRoom has emerged as a high-quality investment platform. Securities offerings are highly vetted and each deal listed incorporates a professional, lead investor. The involvement of a professional investor provides solid messaging as to superior deal quality for retail investors. Smaller investors participate in the investment on the same terms as the lead investor.
Some industry observers believe this pairing of pros and ordinary investors is the best path for sector sustainability and growth.
Over the years, SyndicateRoom has iterated and experimented with the securities crowdfunding model. One of its more successful endeavors has been the Fund Twenty8 that provides a portfolio of promising early stage firms thus facilitating risk-mitigating diversification in a simplified process. A SyndicateRoom study published in 2018 helped to substantiate the value created in their Fund approach.