WeAreStarting www.wearestarting.it (also accessible at www.wearestarting.com)
Sector: Equity crowdfunding for innovative companies
Location: Italy
1.Can you introduce your investment platform?
Italy is a country where you can find amazing people with excellent entrepreneurial projects. Nevertheless, the financial sector is facing significant difficulties and it is not willing (maybe not even able) to fund innovative companies. Professional investment structures are almost absent.
On the other side, the average wealth of Italian people is very high, although concentrated in the hands of the eldest segments of the population.
Moreover, the recent regulatory updates introduce a favourable environment for innovative companies and investors.
WeAreStarting wants to bring Italian innovative companies to the attention of professional and non-professional investors, who could commit a small part of their savings to the most innovative part of the Italian economy. Hopefully, a new Leonardo Da Vinci will upload his company on the portal and many people will support it.
2.How did you come up with the idea to start an online investment platform? Was there an “ah-ha” moment?
I met a company that was developing an incredible product, one of those which can really improve the health of people. They had many good results from their tests, but they were about to give up: they were struggling to meet investors and some of them just turned out to be a waste of time. At the same time, they had many people willing to support them with a small amount of money, especially if they were offered some shares of the company in return.
It became clear to me that there are many opportunities to match the crowd of potential investors with brilliant ideas, in a world where new technologies and improved business models can provide the highest yields.
3.What’s different about your platform than others in the space?
Firstly, we are the only Italian equity crowdfunding platform developed with the support of an internationally recognised technology provider (Katipult) and we believe that the platform is really user-friendly.
Secondly, we developed a multi-stage procedure to select high-potential companies, with the involvement of professional investors before the launch online. So far, the companies we selected are doing really well and they have already attracted the interest of international groups.
Finally, we support our campaigns through communication and marketing strategies. In fact, , we obtained significant coverage nationally.
4.Do you have any milestones you would like to share with us? Or any other interesting news about your platform?
We launched the portal in October 2015 and we saw a significant increase in the number of registered users even with a single campaign online.
The succes of the campaign for Media Vox Pop marked an important milestone for us: it showed we are triggering the right mechanisms and users feel comfortable and confident.
We have recently closed some high-level partnerships (and more are coming) and we believe the new partners will enhance our future results.
5.How do you see the industry evolving within the next 24 months?
We believe we will see a sharp increase in the frequency and size of deals, with new sectors being engaged, such as energy and real estate.
In addition, we really hope that equity crowdfunding will become a common tool for Italian users and we want to facilitate their active engagement in our community.
6. Tell us a little about the founders?
Carlo is the one who had the idea and the determination to start WeAreStarting. He holds a M.Eng. in the field of energy engineering and his initial working experience was in a multinational technical advisory firm in the renewable energy sector. Despite his young age (29), he works with a lot of passion and he sees WeAreStarting as his mission.
The other founder is Simonetta Mangili, who holds a M.Sc. in Business. She has been partner at a large accountancy and advisory firm for more than 30 years assisting SMEs in Northern Italy. She recently gained relevant skills related to the regulatory and accountancy aspects associated with innovative start-ups and SMEs in Italy.
