Syndicate Room Ltd, trading as SyndicateRoom, is a UK venture capital fund, headquartered in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, founded by Gonçalo de Vasconcelos and Tom Britton in September 2013. The company is authorised and regulated by the

Financial Conduct Authority The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom. It operates independently of the UK Government and is financed by charging fees to members of the financial services industry. The FCA regulates financi ...

. SyndicateRoom initially launched as an

equity crowdfunding Equity crowdfunding is the online offering of private company securities to a group of people for investment and therefore it is a part of the capital markets. Because equity crowdfunding involves investment into a commercial enterprise, it ...

platform for high-net-worth individuals and angel investors. In October 2019, the company announced that it would adopt a

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

fund investment model, and would no longer offer individual

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...

investment opportunities.

History

SyndicateRoom was founded by Gonçalo de Vasconcelos and Tom Britton on 21 September 2013. The pair met while studying at the Cambridge Judge Business School at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. In April 2014, SyndicateRoom was named Startup of the Year by

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

Small Business Showcase. In June 2014, SyndicateRoom investors committed £700,000 to Radio Physics Solutions, a startup which builds technology to detect 3D printed guns. In May 2015, SyndicateRoom raised £1.2m in

seed funding Seed money, also known as seed funding or seed capital, is a form of securities offering in which an investor puts capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company. The term ''seed'' suggests ...

on its own

platform. In March 2016, SyndicateRoom was the first crowdfunding platform to offer public market investment opportunities after being accepted as a member company of the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

, although it has since closed down the public markets area of its platform. In May 2016, SyndicateRoom raised £3.1m funding in series A round led by Abcam founder Jonathan Milner. In June 2016, SyndicateRoom launched FundTwenty8, the first passive Enterprise Investment Scheme fund. In July 2019, Gonçalo de Vasconcelos stepped down as CEO and was replaced by Graham Schwikkard. In September 2019, SyndicateRoom launched Access EIS, the first data-driven Enterprise Investment Scheme fund. In October 2019, the company announced that it would adopt a new fund-first investment model, and would no longer offer individual

investment opportunities. In April 2020, SyndicateRoom invested in

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

-based laundry startup Oxwash, alongside

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

co-founder Biz Stone. In March 2022, SyndicateRoom invested in London-based startup Slip.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website
Venture capital firms of the United Kingdom Financial services companies established in 2013 2013 establishments in England