PrimaryBid, a UK-based digital investment platform, has announced that it has raised $190 million in a Series C funding round led by SoftBank. This round brings PrimaryBid’s total funding to $250 million, and the proceeds will be used to accelerate growth and expand the platform’s offerings.
This investment will enable PrimaryBid to tap into new markets and further enhance its technology, ensuring it remains at the forefront of digital investment.
PrimaryBid lands $190m in SoftBank-led Series C investment round
PrimaryBid is a London-based Fintech startup that enables retail investors to participate in private capital raises of public companies. Through the PrimaryBid platform, companies can simultaneously raise additional capital from new investors as their existing shareholders. The company’s technology platform and products have enabled hundreds of small investors to access private funding opportunities usually reserved for large, institutional investors.
PrimaryBid has already achieved considerable success, securing over $190 million in a Series C financing round led by SoftBank Group and Rembrandt Impact Investments earlier this year. This investment has allowed the company to expand into additional markets and continue innovating its products to give retail investors more access and control over their investments. In addition, PrimaryBid provides an alternative form of financing for public companies through its primary allocations platform, simplifying raising capital in highly regulated markets.
The company also provides insights into corporate fundraising activity through the PrimaryBid Pulse dashboard, which gives an up-to-date overview of all public companies’ funds on its platform, showing sectoral information on where companies are raising funds from new investors. By offering insight into corporate fund-raising activity across sectors, institutional investors can make informed decisions about where to deploy their capital more efficiently than ever before.
Overview of SoftBank
SoftBank Group (ソフトバンクグループ株式会社, Sofutobanku Gurūpu Kabushiki Gaisha) is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Tokyo. The Company owns the Japanese mobile operator SoftBank Corp., is an operator at Vision Fund, and is the parent company of Softbank Robotics and ARM architecture devices. Founded by Masayoshi Son on 3 September 1981, SoftBank Group has been an early investor in internet companies such as Yahoo!, Alibaba, Gilt Groupe, e-commerce firm Rakuten, social networking services Cyworld and Mixi.
SoftBank Group has also diversified into robotics with subsidiary Aldebaran Robotics and its holding company SB Human Intelligence Technology Corporation which develops humanoid robots such as Pepper robot. In addition, the Company competes with other technology conglomerates such as Google and Apple Inc., along with other technology firms like Sony Corporation, Hitachi Ltd., Canon Inc., Fujitsu Ltd., NEC Corp. and its subsidiary NTT Data among others. SoftBank is currently led by President Ken Miyauchi who reports directly to founder Masayoshi Son who serves as Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of the holding Company.
Series C Funding Round
PrimaryBid, a London-based fintech, announced a major funding win on Monday when it closed a $190 million Series C investment round led by SoftBank. The funding round included participation from other notable investors, such as Midven, Summit Partners and Balderton Capital.
This marks the company’s largest funding round and Series C ever raised by a European direct-to-consumer fintech.
Breakdown of the Series C funding
PrimaryBid recently announced that they have completed a Series C funding round and secured $190 million. The round was led by SoftBank, with participation from existing investors such as Dawn Capital, Hathaway Global Strategies LLC and Taavet Hinrikus.
The funds raised will be used to develop PrimaryBid’s retail investor platform and expand its services globally. This investment gives the company additional resources for product development into global share offerings and a higher liquidity level for profits made by retail investors.
Funds from the Series C financing were allocated accordingly:
- $140 million towards product development of the digital platform which will facilitate more international offerings;
- $25 million towards sales and marketing to build out a presence across various geographies;
- $20million towards continuing building the team, with professionals skilled across all areas;
- Remaining funds will be supporting their operations in countries where they are already active, including Germany, France, Netherlands, UK and Malaysia.
Other investors in the round
The Series C round was led by Japan-based technology conglomerate SoftBank, who runs various sector-agnostic venture funds. This success follows the Series B funding round of $115m that PrimaryBid secured in October 2020, which included the participation of Alaya Capital, Eight Roads Ventures and CPT Capital.
Also participating in the recent funding round were a range of institutional investors, family offices and sovereign wealth funds, including Spain’s INGKA Group (parent company to IKEA) and Mubadala Investment Company based in Abu Dhabi.
The total valuation of the business as a result of this investment stands at $1.1bn.
Impact of the Investment
PrimaryBid recently secured $190m in a Series C funding round led by SoftBank. This is a huge injection of capital that will not only provide PrimaryBid with the necessary resources to expand their operations, but it also shows investors’ confidence in the company.
In this article, we look at the anticipated impact of the investment on PrimaryBid.
Plans for the investment
This Series C funding round comes at an important moment for PrimaryBid as it works to expand its growth across global markets. The capital injection of $190 million will provide the company with financial stability and resources to explore new opportunities and strategic partnerships.
CEO and co-founder Anand ITsiona said of the investment: “PrimaryBid is on a mission to ensure ordinary investors are able to access and invest in high quality, direct investments from world leading companies at the same time as large institutional investors. This funding round endorses our platform’s ability to do that, and validates the strong relationships built between PrivateBid and leading global companies over the years.”
PrimaryBid will use the bulk of the funding to accelerate its expansion activities in international markets – including Japan, Germany, France and Canada – build out its product offering for retail investors, deepen its relationships with private companies seeking capital alongside traditional institutions through primary offerings, launch new services such as fractional trades in unlisted equities and propose a subscription service. Some funds will also be allocated towards technology innovation initiatives to improve features such as additional verification processes with biometrics control.
Future growth opportunities
The new funding will allow PrimaryBid to explore growth opportunities and expand products and services. The fresh equity will enable the firm to increase its presence in the markets it currently operates and investigate new areas like telecommunication, media, and technology (TMT) investments. Additionally, the capital injection is expected to enable the company to bolster its management team and develop further solutions.
PrimaryBid has already demonstrated impressive growth levels since inception – the company has grown over 90% since June 2019 while facilitating more than 10 million pounds of crowdfunding, helping everyday people access IPOs and other primary capital market stocks. This Series C funding round will likely accelerate such growth opportunities by offering strategic momentum for expanding existing products and exploring new areas of investment for retail investors. It also allows PrimaryBid to tap into SoftBank’s vast network and gain invaluable insights from a leading financial services expert. All in all, this funding round is expected to have an overall positive impact on PrimaryBid’s future offerings.
Summary
PrimaryBid recently announced a $190 million Series C funding round led by SoftBank, with participation from existing investors such as Aston Ventures. This takes the total funding raised by the equity crowdfunding platform to over $220 million.
This new financing round will support the company’s expansion and growth plans.
Summary of the Series C funding round
PrimaryBid, an investor platform that enables individual investors to participate in private equity fundraisings, announced it has secured $190m in a Series C funding round led by SoftBank. The round was completed with the participation of several other new and existing investors including Sequoia Capital, ABN AMRO Ventures, London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and NatWest.
The new investment will further accelerate PrimaryBid’s mission of democratizing access to private capital markets in the UK and worldwide. Since launching two and a half years ago, PrimaryBid has opened up the ability for hundreds of thousands of individual investors to invest in primary capital events—including major companies such as Deliveroo’s IPO last year—at the same time and on the same terms as large institutional investors.
With this latest funding round, PrimaryBid has now raised $250m since launch – cementing its position as Europe’s leading investor platform for retail access to placements and public offerings. This round brings substantial additional firepower that will enable PrimaryBid to continue its aggressive expansion trajectory and continue its mission to give all investors exclusive opportunities.
Closing remarks
PrimaryBid, a tech enabled platform for retail investors, has closed a $190m Series C funding round led by SoftBank. This marks the company’s largest single raise so far and will be used to further strengthen their fast growing position in Europe and the US markets.
The new funding came from notably existing investors, including Greycroft Partners, Dawn Capital and Draper Esprit.
The announcement reflects PrimaryBid’s success in creating something that has rapidly become essential to delivering business services across financial markets – an innovative digital platform for accessing primary capital market opportunities for retail investors who previously may not have had access.
With this new round of funding, Primary Bid looks poised to capture a significant portion of global equity capital markets while continuing its mission of democratizing early-stage investment worldwide.
