ODIN – “A BETTER WAY TO INVEST TOGETHER” – LAUNCHES PUBLICLY AFTER SECURING $3M IN COMMUNITY FUNDING FROM OVER 200 INVESTORS

Odin, a new community-centric way to invest in startups and VC funds, is launching publicly after raising $3m in funding almost entirely from its own community of angel investors.

The founders have strong views about why increasing participation in venture capital is critical to creating a future that reflects society’s needs.

“I think we are missing a huge opportunity by leaving the power to decide what companies get built in the hands of so few people. It means you end up building stuff that just isn’t aligned with our needs.

Over the next 20 years or so, technology is going to revolutionise energy, healthcare, education, finance, food production…basically any industry you can think of. It’s a huge opportunity, and there’s a lot to be excited about! 

But if you’re anything like me, you wonder whether AI will save us, serve us or destroy us. And you probably think that a lot of the companies VC’s invest in – things like 10-minute grocery delivery – are a bit … lame. Is this really the best we can do?”

Stated Mary Lin, co-founder and CEO of Odin.  

To achieve their goal, Odin is creating the ultimate set of tools for people to connect, collaborate and invest together in startups and VC funds. Currently, angel syndicates, founders and VC’s can use Odin to raise money from their own networks – the platform takes care of legal, banking, payments KYC/AML and everything in between. Soon there will be a marketplace for angels to discover different syndicates and funds. 

Longer term, Odin aims to rethink capital allocation more broadly, redesigning how public markets investing and even government spending works. 

“Whether you’re talking about VC or some other form of capital allocation, by leveraging online communities and data in the right ways, you can really start to improve decision-making. So you can drive better financial outcomes and build a world that’s much better aligned with society’s needs,” said Mary.

During its private beta over the last 18 months, Odin’s growth has been explosive: 

• 5,000 people have invested via the platform in startups and VC funds across Europe, Asia & the US – often alongside top firms like Founders Fund, Andreessen-Horowitz, Index Ventures, Lightspeed, 20VC, Speedinvest, YCombinator, LocalGlobe and more.
• 300+ companies have received investment, mainly at pre-seed and seed. The startups span topics ranging from women’s health to AI computer chip manufacturing. 
• Over 200 angel syndicates, emerging fund managers and founders across Europe are already Odin customers, and the platform is expanding rapidly.

Almost 250 angels have backed Odin, including Sarah Drinkwater (Atomico Angel, ex head of Google Campus), Jelle Prins (first Designer and Product Manager @ Uber), Alex Macdonald (serial entrepreneur), Omid Ashtari (ex President of Citymapper), Björn Wagner (co-founder of Parity and Polkadot), Johan Lorenzen (serial entrepreneur), Dorothy Chou (Head of Public Affairs at Deepmind), Kiana Sharifi (ex head of Talent @ Balderton Capital), Matt Penneycard (co-founder of Ada Ventures), Warrick Shanly (venture partner at Eurazeo, Soma Capital), Reece Chowdhry (co-founder of Concept Ventures), Kirsten Connell (Octopus Ventures, ex-GM Seedcamp) and June Angelides, MBE (VC at Samos investments). VC fund Haatch, and the family offices O’Shaughnessy Ventures, Material V and IPQ Capital have also invested.

The company used their own product to roll up the smaller ticket investors into a single line on their cap table as part of the community round.

In a difficult fundraising environment, it is exciting to see a company emerge with so much potential to help the European venture ecosystem thrive.