In order to collaborate with other European angel clubs, Doorway signed a strategic partnership with Business Angels Europe as the fintech platform is looking to internationalize and to work together with its members. BAE believes the model of Doorway is a look into the future, where angel activities are complemented by digital fintech services.
The purpose of the partnership is to open this digital opportunity to other members of BAE as to collaborate with a similar model already established between Doorway and Italian Angels for Growth, which allows for co-investment activities and deal flow sharing.
Business Angels and Fintech: a successful partnership
After the main financial institutions, more and more companies related to the financial services industry are beginning to understand the strategic opportunity of cutting-edge fintech technologies. These can offer benefits in terms of better customer experience, accelerated launch of new digital services and cost reduction.
Business angels Europe is proud to be partnering with an innovative fintech enterprise as Doorway platform, the first online Fintech Equity Investing platform in Italy for professional (Private Banker, Family Office, Financial Advisor) and qualified (Business Angel) investors. With Doorway, investors can diversify their portfolio by accessing pre-vetted deals of startups, innovative SMEs and scaleups with high exit potential, selected favoring ethical and sustainability criteria (ESG).
Doorway's operating model is built on four principles: the rigorous selection of companies, the development of actions to reduce risk and protect investors, the transparency of communication before and after the investment and the provision of services to investors through the online platform.
Doorway strongly believes in creating an eco-system to support venture capital. Therefore, the fintech platform has signed partnership agreements or has already collaborated with the most important Italian business angels’ clubs, like Italian Angels for Growth (IAG).
In addition, Antonella Grassigli, CEO of Doorway, has been named Business Angel of the Year 2021 by the “Club degli Investitori di Torino”. This is proof that Business Angels clubs and new fintech technologies can partner together for the same goal: accelerate the venture capital market and support the most innovative enterprises.
The deals selected by IAG and Doorway are presented on the platform, giving access to a wider audience than that reachable only by business angels clubs. In fact, the co-investment has the advantage of being able to obtain increasingly larger investment rounds. This proves that Doorway platform and its model work seamlessly with the activities of a Business Angel Club.
Doorway boosts funding to support entrepreneurs in Europe
Furthermore, Doorway shows how to facilitate cross border investing, something which is a key strategic goal for BAE.
A great example of this is Winegrid, a Portuguese company that is revolutionizing the oenology sector thanks to an innovative solution that allows to monitor the critical parameters of the wine fermentation process, improving the efficiency of production and the quality of the final product. Currently this investment campaign is online on the Doorway platform in co-investment with Angels for Growth.
In 2018, Winegrid collected 650,000 euros at a pre-money valuation of 3,000,000 euros, subscribed for an amount of 350,000 euros by the shareholders of Italian Angels for Growth.
In July 2021, the company opened a new capital increase of 1,000,000 euros. The round is a follow-on with a pre-money valuation of 7,000,000 euros corresponding to an appreciation of the company's value of 130% in about three years. The operation coordinated by Italian Angels for Growth and Doorway will be closed by November.
There are already more than 37 investors who, between the Doorway community and the members of Italian Angels for Growth, have already invested in Winegrid, for a total of 300.000 euros, exceeding the minimum collection target. Some French Business Angels belonging to Business Angels Des Grandes Écoles also participated in the round. There is still room in the investment vehicle for other European business angels who want to take the advantage of this valuable opportunity.
With the Winegrid campaign, Doorway confirms the 100% success rate in closing the campaigns, in the vast majority in overfunding, and exceeds 12 million euros in capital raised, also thanks to the agreements with the main Italian Business Angels clubs.
Business Angels Europe is excited to work together with Doorway in pursuing our common strategic goals.
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