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Seedrs targeting Benelux startup community with first commercial European office

London-based crowdfunding platform Seedrs has launched its first European office in Amsterdam as it looks to gain a foothold in the Benelux startup community.

The move comes after the tech firm received its EU-wide Financial Services Passport last week, allowing it to bring its equity crowdfunding efforts to other European countries.

Helmed by European entrepreneur David Mozes, Seedrs will look to build relationships in the Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg market from its new Amsterdam office.

Commenting on his new role, Seedrs’s new Regional Manager for Benelux, said: “I am thrilled to be joining Seedrs, which has firmly established its place at the leading equity crowdfunding platform in Europe.

“Having both been an entrepreneur and worked in finance, I have a strong sense of what is needed to make an early-stage investment platform successful in the Benelux.

“Seedrs already has all the right components in place, and now it is my and my team’s job to spread the word and bring the platform to the Benelux ecosystem.”

Again, as with many London-based firms planning their next moves, Brexit looms large over the crowdfunding platform’s expansion into Europe, with the potential to use the Amsterdam base as a means to seek access to the single market if financial services passporting is lost as a result of any EU renegotiations.

However, Seedrs does not anticipate that Brexit will have any real material impact on its business nor on what Chief Executive Jeff Lynn terms its ‘pan-European vision’.

He said: “We have always had a pan-European vision for Seedrs, and the launch of our Amsterdam office brings that vision one step closer to reality.

“I have been very impressed by what I have seen of the early-stage ecosystem in the Benelux, and we made our first step into the region last year when we partnered there with ING. Now I am looking forward to Seedrs becoming a key player in financing startup and growth companies across the three countries.”