Berlin-based “OS for private market investors”, bunch has raised €7.3 million in a seed round that will see the startup expand both its geographic markets and asset classes.
As we’ve seen over the later part of the pandemic, investor appetite for alternative assets has exploded. Particularly in the area of private markets. Toss the juggernaut rise of fintech services, and you’ve got a perfect storm brewing. I stay storm because although the interest and activities have skyrocketed, the area(s) of just how investments into private assets are made and managed hasn’t exactly kept pace.
Und so … bunch.
Frustrated in their positions working with names including finleap, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup, bunch founders Enrico Ohnemüller and Levent Altunel set out to build a better mousetrap.
Already in beta in Germany and the Netherlands, bunch’s MVP consists of a platform where investors are able to create, or bunch together, their own investment syndicates as well as keep tabs on just how much these alternative assets are gaining or losing.
No biggie, right? Well, think again. In just three months, the team at bunch has amassed a not-too-shabby €150 million in assets under administration across startup investments and funds. Granted, track records at the aforementioned financial giants can’t hurt, but if the product ain’t workin’, well, you know how that goes.
As a further testament to the method of bunch’s madness, the startup reports that a number of their initial customers are now joining the seed round as angel investors. Talk about eating your own dog food.
“Investors have been waiting for a solution like this that takes away all the admin work of investing and helps investors to become more professional at the same time,” explained Levent.
Ohnemüller added, “We are giving our customers access to a toolset that previously was only available for the largest private investors, including pro-rata monetisation protecting dilution on your winners and risk diversification through collective investing. We are building on top of larger tech organizations for scalability which allows us to focus on customer value and process flexibility from day one.”
Cherry Ventures led bunch’s €7.3 million seed round with previously undisclosed pre-seed investor embedded/capital participating. On the angel investor front names include Adyen, Klarna, Juni, and Moonfare founders, as well as lead shareholder at Kinnevik, chairperson of the Zalando Supervisory Board and non-executive director of Spotify, and Long Island, NY native Cristina Stenbeck, Pip Klöckner, and Jan Deepen’s Discovery Ventures.
“We know how cumbersome gaining access to these markets can be, so we were immediately impressed when we witnessed bunch’s streamlined, simple solution,” commented Cherry Ventures’ Filip Dames. “We believe that this tool is the first step on the journey to provide liquidity to private markets and become a true operating system for investors. We’re thrilled that this round will further revolutionise how all private market stakeholders — be it founders and funders — invest, interact, and exchange.”
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