The crowdfunding round took less than three weeks and
raised three times what the company expected, president and co-founder Thierry
Merquiol told FrenchWeb. Approximately
200 individuals participated in the raise, and the platform offered a 20
percent stake in return for the investment, Merquiol explained to
Crowdsourcing.org via email.
WiSeed launched in 2009 and has since attracted a
community of over 15,000 registered investors. The platform has raised €4.5
million ($5.8 million) in total, and its portfolio contains 23 French startups (not
including WiSeed itself).
WiSeed is one of several equity crowdfunding platforms
that have orchestrated a profitable return for their investors. At the end of
last year, an angel investor bought out WiSeed’s stake in the drug discovery
firm Antabio, resulting in a 44% return on investment for the crowd (Crowdsourcing.org covered this story
in-depth here).
According to Merquiol, WiSeed will use the money to
“accelerate its growth at the national level and take on an international
dimension before the end of 2014.” WiSeed is looking at expanding to other
European countries, as well as Brazil and the U.S.
“In Europe, we are in discussion with Belgium,
Luxembourg, U.K., and Italy,” Merquiol elaborated. “For U.S., it is an
opportunity with a company in a specific market (confidential). [As for]
Brazil, we think that this country [has] an important potential for
crowdfunding, [and] we have people ready to work with us.”
WiSeed
WiSeed
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