The Brazilian fintech Velvet announced $200M in funding for warehousing investments (discretionary capital).
Velvet previously raised a $3M (R$17M) seed funding round led by Yolo Ventures and various angel investors in 2021.
The Brazilian fintech Velvet is an investment platform that engages in the liquidity of assets. The company is a solution for late-stage tech companies who wish to provide liquidity to their employees and angel investors.
Velvet acts as a marketplace for high-income investors to sell their stakes in companies. Consequently, it connects a few large private banking and wealth management firms who buy and sell the company stakes on behalf of clients.
“Our idea is to provide liquidity for today’s operators who will be tomorrow’s founders,” said Eduardo de Montmort, co-founder of Velvet.
The model focuses on large companies that have already raised a significant capital of between $500M and $2B. This security brings Velvet a good return and has a lower risk than early-stage startups.
Velvet will use the new funding to buy equity from former employees of pre-IPO startups. The fintech company plans to invest in 40 companies this year, 20 of which will be in Latin America.
Velvet has not set a minimum amount for how much investors should buy, but said that it will be lower than traditional amounts needed to invest in pre-IPO companies.
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