Crowdcube, Europe’s largest private market investment platform, has acquired Semper, a leading secondary liquidity platform for founders and employees of Europe’s high-growth companies.
Under the terms of the acquisition, Semper founders, Mathias Pastor and Balthazar de Lavergne will continue to lead the secondary business in close collaboration with Crowdcube’s co-CEOs, Bill Simmons and Matt Cooper and the wider executive team.
With limited new listings continuing to be a feature of the public markets and a contraction in venture markets, businesses are increasingly exploring alternative solutions for providing liquidity to employees and early shareholders.
At the same time, founders are challenged to retain and motivate top talent, individuals who have been integral to their growth journey and may wish to release some equity. These two trends are creating more opportunities than ever before for both buyers and sellers of secondary shares.
By acquiring Semper, Crowdcube is creating for the first time the opportunity for founders to reward high-performing staff and early angel investors, while simultaneously building a community of shareholders within their customer base.
This acquisition opens the door for retail investors to participate alongside sophisticated institutional investors in secondary transactions with some of Europe’s most promising startups for the first time. It provides unique access for retail investors to invest in startups outside of traditional primary fundraising windows, offering the opportunity to share in their future success. Until recently, secondary transactions were primarily the domain of professional and institutional investors, but now companies can involve both institutions and their community of customers in a secondary liquidity event.
Balthazar de Lavergne, co-founder of Semper, commented: “We started Semper to help iconic companies attract and retain top talent by making equity more tangible. We’ve built the infrastructure and networks across Europe for companies to offer liquidity to their team members and early investors; we’re now excited to expand on those foundations by partnering with Crowdcube. Together, we can provide a wider range of liquidity solutions for European startups throughout their growth journeys, with participation from both institutional and retail investors.”
Since launching in 2021, Semper has supported more than €10 million of secondary sales for European start-ups, and partners with companies including Kry (Swedish online healthcare benefits company), Mano Mano (French DIY marketplace) and Voodoo (French mobile games developer). They have deep connections in the European founder and investor ecosystem – many of whom are investors in Semper and now shareholders in Crowdcube. Semper’s senior team will join the Crowdcube team, structuring and managing secondary liquidity events in partnership with UK and European startups. The terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.
Bill Simmons, Co-CEO of Crowdcube, added: “The potential to create the largest private market investment platform in Europe is vast, and we are just getting started. Our acquisition of Semper positions us favourably to capitalise on all of the interest and momentum in and around the private markets at the moment. Semper excels in delivering secondary liquidity transactions. As the deal closes with Semper, we are proud to offer Europe’s top secondary liquidity solution for companies, employees, and investors, complementing our existing primary liquidity solution for companies and investors.”
For Crowdcube, this partnership re-enforces its position as Europe’s largest private market investment platform, connecting companies with investors throughout their journey from private to public. Since receiving pan-European regulatory approval in 2022, Crowdcube has helped 66 companies from 10 European countries raise over €70 million, having raised a total of over £1 billion.
The volume of secondary share sales has increased sharply on Crowdcube over the past 18 months, with £20 million of secondary share sales on behalf of companies, including Freetrade, Sun God and Marine Power Systems.
