Bunch raises €7 million for its investment syndicate platform

Bunch, a technology platform that allows investors to syndicate deals across private markets, has raised €7.3 million in seed funding led by European early stage fund Cherry Ventures along with Embedded/capital.

Bunch’s first offering is a digital platform, called ‘bunch OS’, where investors can create their own investment syndicates and track all their investments in one place. Over the past three months, the fintech startup has turned over close to €150 million of assets across seed investments and funds.

The beta version of the platform is already live in Germany and the Netherlands, and the Berlin-based company promises to use the latest funds to expand into new countries and offer different asset classes. It will also continue to develop the technical and product development side of its platform, making it easier for investors to participate in private markets.

Access to tools that were previously reserved for the big investors

Bunch Co founder Levent Altunel says: “Investors have been waiting for a solution like this that takes all the administrative work out of investing and helps investors become more professional at the same time.”

And co-founder Enrico Ohnemüller adds: “We give our clients access to a toolset previously only available to the largest private investors, including pro-rata monetization that protects dilution of your winners and risk diversification through collective investment. We build on top of larger technology organizations for scalability that allows us to focus on customer value and process flexibility from day one.”

Filip Dames, founder of Cherry Ventures, who led this round, continues: “The group team, led by Levent and Enrico, is unlocking private markets to invest with, firstly, their one-stop-shop solution – bunch OS. We know how cumbersome it can be to access these markets, so we were immediately impressed when we witnessed the group’s streamlined, simple solution. We believe that this tool is the first step in the journey to provide liquidity to private markets and become a true operating system for investors. We are thrilled that this round will further revolutionize how all stakeholders in the private market – be it founders and financiers – invest, interact and exchange.”

Alongside Cherry Ventures and Embedded/kapital, the latest round also sees investment from various angel investors, including the founders of Adyen, Klarna, Juni and Moonfare.

Solve liquidity and access problems in private markets

Bunch was founded by Ohnemüller and Altunel at the end of 2021. Enrico’s previous experiences at finleap, the fintech company builder, as well as Goldman Sachs made him keenly aware of the significant barriers involved in accessing private markets. Levent previously worked for Citigroup and Roland Berger before becoming an early stage investor for a Berlin-based VC fund, where he experienced the difficulty of establishing investment entities on his own. He is also a founding member of 2Hearts, a non-profit association promoting diversity in the European technology landscape.

While private market investment has exploded in the last decade, with almost USD 10tn in assets under management according to McKinsey, value creation has been limited to those with access to opportunities and large amounts of capital.

Ramin Niroumand, Managing Partner at Embedded/capital, sums up: “We know from our experience as founders, operators and investors that private markets are far from digitized, with limited liquidity and fragmented access contributing to a generally painful process for all market players. When we started our conversations with Enrico and Levent last year, together we saw the potential of building on existing fintech infrastructure to launch a holistic suite of financial products across jurisdictions and assets – the big operating system – to transform the way we interact with private markets in. We are thrilled to be part of the gang’s journey from the very beginning, as well as satisfied customers.”