Seedrs, part of the US-based Republic, is reportedly restructuring and slashing 15% of its employees operating in Europe.
Seedrs was acquired by Republic in 2021 in a deal valued at $100 million. The deal closed the following year. The combined operation is one of the largest investment crowdfunding platforms in the world.
The reduction of employees was first reported by Sifted (part of the FT), who said the platform was exiting both Sweden and Spain and would no longer provide online capital formation in these markets. Seedrs has been approved under the new ECSPR that enables a platform to raise money across the European Union market.
This past November, Seedrs announced a new office in Ireland to establish an EU presence to take advantage of ECSPR. When Seedrs announced ECSPR approval, it stated it would focus on the Nordic countries, the Netherlands and Spain. It appears that Seedrs has now done an about-face.
A Seedrs spokesperson told Sifted:
“The startup fundraising landscape has faced challenging market conditions over the past 18 months. In response to this, Republic has recently restructured parts of its global business, including making the extremely difficult decision to reduce the total number of employees across Republic on a role-by-role basis … These operating expense reductions are critical to ensuring that Republic (including Seedrs) is fit and ready to deliver on its long term ambitions, and we expect to see sustainable growth as a result of this course of action.”
Apparently, the relatively new executive Jonas Almeling, who was leading the Seedrs initiative in the Nordic region, is one of the employees who is being let go.
In recent months, Republic has been quietly cutting the number of employees at its operations. While no announcements have been made, CI has heard chatter from other platforms that some former employees have been looking for employment at competitors.
While Republic + Seedrs is one of the largest operations providing investment crowdfunding, few details are available as to whether or not the entity is profitable.
At the same time, venture markets have cratered over the past two years – the segment of capital markets in which Republic and Seedrs compete.
While markets have been difficult for all VC and private equity, some observers expect 2024 to be the year when markets rebound as interest rates start to head in the opposite direction and investors look to take on more risk, seeking improved returns.