Odin, a platform that makes it easy for startups and fund managers to raise money from investors, has raised a seed round of $3 million.
220 angels were involved in the deal – almost all of them from Odin’s own community of investors. The startup plans to use the money to create a marketplace for people to raise money to find investors.
What is Odin doing?
Founded in 2021, Odin creates digital legal and deal structure documents that startups and fund managers send to the investors they raise funds from.
Investors can back startups with as little as $1,000 through the platform. While this may sound like it could turn into a nightmare for a table, Odin brings all investors into one — hence how it’s managed to have hundreds of investors in its circle.
“In terms of things like corporate governance, you’re not running around trying to get approval for things that require investor consent from 50 to 100 smaller check investors,” which makes angel pooling attractive to startups, says the co-founder of Odin Patrick Ryan in front of Sifted.
The platform launched publicly last month after 18 months of beta testing. While 70% of Odin’s business comes from the UK, anyone in Europe can currently use the platform to manage their tours.
Odin currently makes money by charging legal admin and deal structuring fees to people who raise money through its platform. Founders pay a flat fee of $2,500. Angel syndicates and VCs pay a flat fee of $2000 plus 1.95% of funds raised, capped at $10k.
The rise of investment platforms
Odin is one of many similar platforms that have emerged in Europe as angel investing has become more common. There’s Germany’s Bunch (which also raised its own angel money) and Britain’s Vauban, which was bought by US-based Carta last year. Not every angel investor can write $20,000+ checks — which the founders say is the minimum amount required of pre-seed and startup investors — so investing in groups allows people to pool smaller amounts so they can reach that threshold .
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“The two main businesses doing this in the US are AngelList and Carta – and we’re trying to launch something similar for Europe,” says Odin co-founder Patrick Ryan. “But we think the communication aspect is more important – especially in Europe because the market is so fragmented.”
Odin allows users to email potential investors from the platform to “track who invested and who didn’t, who signed legal documents, who committed to invest but didn’t send the money.”
Leveling the (very uneven) playing field
Odin believes that by making it easier for angels to invest even £1,000, they will see more variety.
“Lots of deals [at pre-seed and seed] they have a minimum ticket size of around £20,000 – and that goes up with Serie A,” says Ryan. “People who can write these sizes of checks are more likely to be men.”
Since launch, 32% of angel investors who have invested in Odin are women. This compares with a UK average of 14%.
The startup also found that women are three times more likely to invest in women than in men, and female-led founding teams that have raised through Odin have raised 7% of the capital invested in the platform since inception. Although not directly comparable, all-female teams in Europe raised just 1% of total capital in 2022.
What next
Over the next 12 months, Odin will be looking to launch a marketplace for people raising money to find investors.
This will ultimately be another source of income for the startup, as Odin will charge a share of the profits when investments exit through its marketplace. “Think of it as a decentralized venture capital firm,” Ryan says.
The startup has already taken stakes in 50 companies by bringing groups of investors into deals, but the process has so far been handled by Odin, who brings them in manually via email. The market launch will make these groups of investors discoverable on the platform.
The startup also plans to redouble its efforts to help fundraisers collaborate with their investors after the investment, for example by allowing them to send messages and updates.
Scaling up in Europe is also in the plans next year, with key markets being France and Germany. After Europe, Ryan tells Sifted Odin will likely expand into Asia, specifically Singapore.