PrimaryBid announces $190m Series C investment round, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2

• $190m Series C investment follows a period of rapid growth in 2021, with proceeds earmarked for international expansion, product innovation and team growth
• The round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with a shared aim to explore opportunities with partners and portfolio companies globally

London, 21 February 2022 – PrimaryBid, the fintech platform that provides retail investors with fair access to public markets, today announced that it has closed a $190m Series C investment round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with participation from existing investors.

The investment follows a period of accelerating growth in 2021, with sustained adoption of the PrimaryBid platform by high profile public companies, IPO candidates, and the UK capital markets ecosystem. In the past 18 months over 150 follow-on and IPO transactions have listed on the platform in the UK. PrimaryBid also expanded its geographical and product footprint by expanding its API services into Europe, conducting its inaugural transaction in France, and launching a new retail bond product.

Proceeds of the round will be used to expand PrimaryBid’s offering across continental Europe, leveraging key strategic partnerships with ABN AMRO and Euronext, as well as launch in new geographies including the United States. Key executive hires, including General Managers for North America and the EU, will be announced in the coming months.

PrimaryBid’s platform enables individual investors to share in a company’s success by giving issuers a safe and frictionless way to include their stakeholders and loyal communities at IPO and subsequent capital markets transactions, alongside institutional investors. This digital aggregation of demand, alongside the ability to target and track investors by segment and at scale, puts retail investors in a favourable allocation class among issuers. PrimaryBid’s unique approach and data driven solution is bolstered by institutional level quality controls and line-by-line transparency around deal participation. The platform was used for the UK IPOs of Deliveroo, PensionBee and the US IPO of MCG Group (Soho House) in 2021, which used PrimaryBid to provide access to its UK members. 

“Our ambition is to democratize public market offerings through a combination of technology, data and advocacy. Our platform deepens the relationships public companies have with their stakeholders and helps them make their equity and debt offerings more inclusive”, said Anand Sambasivan, CEO and co-founder of PrimaryBid. 

“We are proud to welcome SoftBank to our ownership and thank our existing investors for their continued support. This fundraising will enable us to deliver PrimaryBid’s infrastructure to companies internationally, expand our product portfolio, and attract best-in-class technology and capital markets talent”, he added.

Anthony Doeh, Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, said,

“PrimaryBid is powering inclusivity in the capital markets by making it simple and easy for anyone to access stock issuances previously reserved for institutional or professional investors. We believe the team has created a platform that combines technology, data and an ‘ecosystem friendly’ approach to the challenge of widening participation, including developing a unique Community IPO platform for corporate issuers. We’re excited to partner with them and believe we can add significant value to the business through our global network and expertise”.

This investment follows PrimaryBid’s $50m Series B funding round in October 2020, which included investment from LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group), Molten Ventures (formerly Draper Esprit), OMERS Ventures, Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, ABN AMRO Ventures, Outward VC, Pentech and Hambro Perks.

Since the Series B funding, PrimaryBid has become fully regulated in the European Union, launched alongside Euronext in France in June 2021, and helped hundreds of thousands of individual investors participate alongside institutional investors in capital markets transactions. Sir Donald Brydon was announced as PrimaryBid’s first Chair in September 2021, bringing significant FTSE 100 company board experience and proven governance credentials at the highest levels of UK plc.