The blockchain-powered secondary market for startup shares is about to expand significantly. Hatcher+, a Singapore-headquartered venture investment firm, has partnered with Funderbeam to enable tradin
The blockchain-powered secondary market for startup shares is about to expand significantly. Hatcher+, a Singapore-headquartered venture investment firm, has partnered with Funderbeam to enable trading of its portfolio company stakes. These offerings will begin hitting Funderbeam's digital marketplace during the latter half of 2018, according to a company statement.
The collaboration opens new possibilities for early-stage investors seeking exit opportunities. "This partnership with Funderbeam empowers our investors with meaningful liquidity channels via a dependable, cutting-edge system underpinned by forward-thinking technology and clear regulatory frameworks," explained John Sharp, who co-founded Hatcher.
Funderbeam represents an intriguing case study in marrying traditional finance with blockchain innovation. The platform emerged from Tallinn in 2013, developed by Kaidi Ruusalepp—who previously helmed NASDAQ Estonia—alongside Urmas Peiker. Their vision centered on streamlining early-stage capital deployment globally, combining data analytics, syndication infrastructure, and marketplace mechanics into a single ecosystem. The firm's trading layer, Funderbeam Markets, debuted three years later as a groundbreaking dual-marketplace leveraging blockchains. Rather than conventional share certificates, the system employs Colored Coins to tokenize investor rights within startup investment agreements. This architecture enables trades to settle and verify transparently across the blockchain network.
Both firms recently secured backing from Mistletoe, an institution founded by Taizo Son to nurture venture ecosystems internationally. The investment totaled $3.5 million toward Hatcher+ and €2 million toward Funderbeam.
"We designed Funderbeam precisely to facilitate the borderless transaction infrastructure that platforms like Hatcher+ require," Ruusalepp noted. "Our background navigating regulatory environments and our time within NASDAQ equips us well for this emerging sector. We're excited to collaborate with Hatcher+, Mistletoe, and additional investment platforms as we expand across new jurisdictions."
The Tallinn firm has been methodically entering international territories through strategic partnerships, beginning with the Zagreb Stock Exchange in October 2016. Mistletoe's 2017 funding will accelerate expansion throughout Japan and the broader Asia-Pacific region.
Hatcher+ itself launched in 2016 as a technology-driven platform employing algorithmic intelligence to surface promising ventures. The company recently established H2, a $125 million fund earmarked to deploy across more than 1,000 emerging companies throughout the next two years.
