Scan Magazine | Special Theme | FinTech Spotlight
Karri Salmi, chairman of the board, and Kimmo Lönnmark, CEO
Bringing businesses together The rapidly growing investment service group Privanet is on a mission: to bring together small and medium-sized enterprises and investors looking for good alternative investment opportunities.
small and mid-sized construction companies get non-banking financing for their building objects.
By Malin Norman | Photos: Privanet Group
Recently, Privanet has also announced a collaboration with the Swedish pioneer of crowdfunding, FundedByMe, and acquired a third of its Finnish subsidiary. CEO of Privanet Securities, Kimmo Lönnmark, explains: “We are doing a lot of work to create a value chain for companies from seed all the way to stock exchange, and provide a stable partnership along the journey.”
Privanet is a regulated investment services group specialising in the arrangement of capital for SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and in the brokerage of unlisted securities. The successful business model is based on an excellent understanding of the unlisted investment space and a strong distribution network that combines 12 offices across Finland with a digital funding platform. Privanet already serves more than 15,000 customers and is growing fast, now also internationally. The group offers a number of channels of financing, ranging from crowdfunding to private placements as well as investments from its own balance sheet. Crowdfunding is done via AROUND, which has become one of the most attractive platforms in the Nordic region and raised well over 30 million euros during its first year in operation. For investors, Privanet offers distinctive investment opportunities that are not available elsewhere, including emissions 104 | Issue 104 | September 2017
of equity and debt finance in unlisted companies and start-up opportunities.
Increasing awareness With an ability to utilise its own balance sheets to underwrite issues, a well-known secondary marketplace to arrange liquidity, and an organisation that is capable of carrying out product sales worth 100 million euros annually, Privanet is growing strong. “Our goal is to increase the awareness, liquidity and selection of unlisted investment opportunities,” says chairman of the board of Privanet Securities, Karri Salmi. “We want to direct foreign investors’ capital to support the growth of Finnish companies with the vision of developing unlisted securities into an important asset class.” In addition to digitalising the Finnish financial industry through its own crowdfunding platform AROUND, Privanet will release a new digital platform this autumn for real estate crowdfunding: REALINVEST. It is designed to help
Web: www.privanet.fi, www.around.fi Facebook: www.facebook.com/ AROUNDPrivanet Twitter: @PrivanetFinland LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/ company/privanet-group-oyj