Today fintech Yooro launched which aims to transform private markets, specifically in complex unlisted investments, by eliminating barriers and streamlining investment processes.
It’s the brainchild of founder Milo Guastamacchia. With an academic background in industrial production engineering, Guastamacchia began his career at JPMorgan before founding mcube, a travel boutique and EcoIniciativa, a sustainability-driven startup. He is a Newton Venture Program fellow with expertise in emerging financial technologies like blockchain and smart contracts.
I spoke to Milo Guastamacchia to learn more.
Simplifying access to private markets
Unlike financial instruments traded on global regulated exchanges, such as stocks or derivatives, investing in private markets is notoriously complex, costly, and time-consuming. Unlisted assets, while offering diversification and high returns, are difficult to access, illiquid, and lack transparent pricing, leaving many investors locked out of valuable opportunities.
According to Guastamacchia;
"The issue we are tackling is a very real one for professional investors and financial intermediaries.
Unlike public markets where you can log in to a trading platform and buy shares in a company like Tesla with a click, private market investments are far more complex, illiquid, and often opaque.”
Investors must deal with legal agreements, tax advisors, compliance hurdles, and long transaction times.
“We are building the regulatory and technological infrastructure to simplify access to these investment opportunities, making private markets more transparent and efficient., turning them into transparent, accessible, and scalable opportunities.”
It offers a borderless solution for investors to bypass the complexities of the ‘old school’ investment processes and unlock new opportunities in private markets.
According to Milo Guastamacchia, CEO and founder, Yooro was born out of frustration with the limitations of private market investments.
“Our team comes from wildly different worlds - traditional finance, private equity, venture capital, and tech startups.
Despite our differences, we all kept encountering the same roadblocks: connecting investors with opportunities across private markets was unnecessarily complex. We knew there had to be a better way.”
The team particularly saw a need for a more streamlined approach to investing in private markets:
According to Guastamacchia:
"A typical private market deal can take months to finalise, involving multiple intermediaries and significant costs. We saw firsthand that investors were struggling with lengthy legal processes, high fees, and limited access to exclusive investment opportunities.
Yoolo wants to replicate the seamless experience of platforms like Interactive Brokers or eToro but for private markets.
By digitising processes, automating compliance, and integrating blockchain technology, we are making investments in venture capital, real estate, and other private assets much more accessible."
At the core of its offering is its Securitisation-as-a-Service solution, which simplifies securitisation for investors by eliminating traditional legal, financial, and administrative barriers. Its fully managed infrastructure, powered by cutting-edge technology, ensures transparency, traceability, and regulatory compliance, allowing investors and intermediaries to verify transaction integrity easily.
Tech-driven traceability
Leveraging blockchain technology, with smart contracts and security token offering, Yooro automates and simplifies every stage of the investment lifecycle, from asset selection to investment execution.
Guastamacchia detailed:
“We are leveraging blockchain, but not in the way most people think about cryptocurrency. We use smart contracts on Ethereum’s virtual machine to create digital representations of investment instruments.
The benefits of blockchain — immutability, transparency, and security — make it an ideal technology for ensuring trust in these transactions."
The company has adopted the ERC-3643 token standard, specifically designed for security tokens, allowing it to embed compliance rules directly into digital assets.
“That means only eligible, pre-vetted investors can access certain opportunities, ensuring regulatory compliance while improving efficiency."
Yooro ensures flexibility, liquidity, and transparency across private market investments.
The company is focused on expanding its footprint across Europe, the UK and the UAE. In the coming years, the company plans to extend its reach to the US and East Asia, further cementing its position as a borderless solution for global private market investments.
Lead image: Carmine Reho (Head of Legal), Milo Guastamacchia (CEO), and Luca Padovan (Head of Business Development) at Yooro.
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