Participated · Series A · May 2024

Fundcraft develops an end-to-end digital fund operations platform that centralises and automates fund administration for asset managers. Its platform simplifies regulatory requirements, reporting, portfolio management, and investor engagement while enhancing transparency, efficiency, and compliance. Since the initial Series A announcement in May 2024, fundcraft has increased the funds it manages by 60%, representing more than €8.1 billion in commitments. The company plans to use the additional capital to accelerate product development with a focus on automation, operational efficiency, and transparency. Fundcraft targets alternative investment asset managers — notably mid-market private equity funds — and also serves venture capital and fund-of-funds clients. The company intends to deepen support across Europe and expand its team. fundcraft offers an open platform that centralises and automates processes, data, and stakeholder interaction across the fund administration value chain to lower costs and improve outcomes. It consolidates fund accounting, transfer agency, compliance, corporate secretary, portfolio management, and reporting into a single system to deliver a single source of truth and automate workflows such as capital calls. The platform enables lawyers, bankers, auditors, accountants and depositaries to collaborate on one system rather than relying on emails, spreadsheets and PDFs. Founded in 2021, fundcraft serves more than 22 asset-management clients, including Moonfare, Stableton and Tenity, and manages over 135 funds representing more than EUR6bn in commitments. The company raised a €5M Series A to expand its product and market reach into Spain and Germany and to address additional asset classes beyond its current focus on venture capital, private equity and funds of funds. By digitising end-to-end fund administration, fundcraft aims to reduce costs, increase agility and lower operational risk compared with incumbent, people-driven processes.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2023

Obligate operates a blockchain-based platform that enables companies to issue on-chain bonds and commercial paper to a range of investors. The platform uses tokenisation, smart contracts and on-chain collateral to replace intermediaries such as paying and issuer agents. Obligate says this approach can cut bond issuance costs by about 80% and reduce issuance time from weeks to hours. The company rebranded from FQX to Obligate and has team members across Switzerland, Germany, Lithuania, the UK and Singapore. The platform is expected to launch in February on the public blockchain Polygon. Including the recent seed extension, Obligate has now netted close to $8.7 million to further develop and scale the product. FQX, founded in 2019 and based in Zurich, digitizes the centuries-old promissory note via its blockchain-based eNote infrastructure (Swiss Trust Chain). The eNote can be sold or transferred to third parties and seamlessly integrated into existing bank and fintech infrastructures to accelerate liquidity across borders and markets. The company positions its product as a first-mover aiming to set a de-facto global standard for electronic promissory notes. Earlybird highlighted that short-term financing markets are widely fragmented, citing $65 trillion+ in annual transaction volumes as the opportunity FQX targets. The recent $4.7 million seed funding is expected to help scale the company’s transaction volume. Regulatory and market work in jurisdictions such as Singapore, the UK and the UAE, along with positive commentary from the ICC, are cited as tailwinds for adoption.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2023

Relio is a Zurich-based fintech led by CEO Lav Odorovic that is developing a digital payment account for business customers. Its core product is built on an automated anti-money-laundering (AML) tech stack designed to perform compliance checks and reduce human error. The platform aims to speed up customer onboarding and avoid account freezes caused by manual due diligence. Relio positions itself to leverage Switzerland’s strict regulatory environment and reputation for financial efficiency to minimize money‑laundering risk. The company intends to use the recent funding to support the launch of its business payment account offering. Relio is led by Odorovic, who previously founded neobank Penta, which was later acquired by Qonto. Relio offers a compliance-first digital business account that aims to provide Swiss IBANs quickly and with fewer bureaucratic interactions for small and medium-sized enterprises, including complex corporate structures. The company positions compliance as its core competency with the promise of 'compliance without complications'. Founder and CEO Lav Odorovic, an HSG alumnus, previously led Penta, a German digital bank for freelancers and small businesses. Relio assembled an interdisciplinary team across banking, compliance and technology and participated in the F10 accelerator program of the Swiss exchange. The startup is pursuing an independent Fintech license from FINMA to realise its concept autonomously. Investor discussions for a forthcoming seed financing are already underway.

Participated · Series B · Nov 2022

Founded in 2017, Keyrock began as a specialised market-making operation and has expanded into a broader institutional financial services platform for digital assets. It now operates across more than 80 centralized and decentralized trading venues and offers market making, OTC execution, options, and digital-asset-focused asset management. The firm employs over 200 professionals and has established entities in Belgium, the UK, Switzerland, France, and the United States. Keyrock positions itself as a long-term infrastructure partner connecting traditional institutions with fragmented crypto and tokenized markets. The company has pursued acquisitions to build scale, including the $27.8 million purchase of Luxembourg-based Turing Capital. Following its Series C, Keyrock is valued at $1.1 billion and is using new capital to strengthen its balance sheet, expand services, and pursue further targeted acquisitions.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2022

vestr offers an easy-to-integrate, white-labeled SaaS platform that digitizes the life-cycle management of actively managed investment products for issuers and asset managers. Its tunable software engine handles portfolio rebalancing, investor reporting, and audit trails so clients can focus on core competencies and deliver bespoke user experiences. Founded in 2017 and based in Switzerland with offices across Europe and Singapore, vestr has become a trusted technology partner for international and regional banks and special-purpose vehicle providers in five years. Almost a thousand professional asset managers use the platform daily, and the company reports triple-digit annual growth. The firm positions itself as a market standard in active investment management and is recognized by organizations including Innosuisse, F10, Venturelab, the Singapore Fintech Association, and others. Management says the new financing provides firepower to continue rapid growth while keeping equity dilution manageable. Vestr offers an independent software engine that digitizes the value chain for Actively Managed Certificates (AMCs), allowing issuers to scale their AMC business. The platform is designed to let issuers focus on core competencies while providing a fast, flexible and cost-efficient alternative to traditional investment funds for discretionary managers. Vestr's platform is already used by hundreds of professional asset managers and has early adopters such as Bank Julius Baer. The company recently closed an oversubscribed Series A led by SIX Group, with Zürcher Kantonalbank, EquityPitcher and the European Angels Fund (a sub-fund of the EIF) among participants. Vestr plans to use the funding to augment the platform, onboard additional issuers, and to establish itself as the de-facto market standard for AMC issuers.