PrivatEquity.biz web-based arena launches trading

PrivatEquity.biz is Israel's first secondary-market for securities held by employees, former employees, founders, and more.

The PrivatEquity.biz web-based arena has launched trading. Israel's first secondary-market trading arena connects companies, investors and holders of private companies' securities. The arena offers a wide variety of investors, including private investors, family offices, investment firms, venture capital funds and institutional investors in Israel and abroad, opportunities to purchase private companies' securities

The securities of a dozen companies which have concluded the registration process are offered in the arena. Other companies interested in raising capital via PrivatEquity.biz as well as other private holders of high-tech companies' securities are currently concluding the registration and will be presented in the web-based trading arena soon.

PrivatEquity.biz's private securities trading arena allows investing in private companies' securities and in securities held by employees, former employees, founders, and service providers who hold private securities.

In parallel to starting operations in Israel, PrivatEquity.biz also launched its activity abroad in order to address overseas private entrepreneurs, organizations and investors. Entrepreneurs and companies are introduced to a wide variety of investors and to those people in Israel and abroad who seek investments of great potential in private high-tech growth companies. The company launched its site both in English and in German, in addition to the Hebrew site, and also launched campaigns abroad. So far, 70% of the investors who registered on the site are foreign investors. Future plans for PrivatEquity.biz include entering other high-tech centers in the European and South Asian markets in order to increase both the body of investors and the number of private companies and stocks to be offered for trading via the arena.

Using PrivatEquity.biz's arena, private companies with a clear business model, which have concluded at least one round of capital-raising or have invested significant amounts of private capital in the company, can raise capital from private investors.

Companies supported by the state's technological incubators, which had already raised funding from the Chief Scientist and from investors, and whose worth had already been established may be included in the site's companies' database.

The model offered by PrivatEquity.biz allows capital-raising by issuing a relatively small number of securities to a limited number of investors: up to 35 per year. This may be done without losing control over the company and without becoming prematurely subjected to the regulation involved in making the company public.

PrivatEquity.biz's Chair, Adv. Oren Harel said, "By launching trading via the site, we offer private investors quality companies for investment and we provide the holders of securities an advanced technological platform to offer their securities to investors in Israel and abroad. We do not compromise with regard to the quality of the companies and we assure that only serious investors will remain part of the body of investors, in order to provide a quality introduction of those offering the financial commodity to the capital holder or the investor who seeks to invest in high-tech growth companies”.

He added, "We aim to provide the body of investors with a wide variety of companies and private securities for investment. We make a point of balancing the companies' need to maintain their privacy with the investors' wish to gain transparency. We pay great attention to the simplicity and convenience of the investment process, which is conducted free of charge. With three clicks of the mouse, the investor can receive directly to his or her e-mail inbox the company's designated portfolio. We are currently working on additional developments of our technological platform, which will make it even easier for investors to review information about the companies collectively and in various languages”.

Among employees who are offering their stocks for sale on the site is an employee of DoubleVerify, a company which specializes in examining internet ads suitability in order to assure that the online advertising budget is used in the most profitable way. Among its other benefits, DoubleVerify's solution protects against clicking frauds. Thus far, the company raised $46.5 million in three capital-raising rounds worth $200 million dollars and it is currently starting another round. Among the company's leading investors are the private equity fund JMI, Blumberg Capital, IVP, First Round Capital and the Genecast fund of the communication tycoon Comcast.

Other stocks offered for sale via the site are those of Endobetix, a bio-technology company which developed implants that serve as a nonsurgical solution for the treatment of type II diabetes and obesity. The company is now entering another capital-raising round, having recently concluded raising capital from the Trendlines technological incubator, which is one of the leading incubators in Israel, and is preparing for an issuing in the Canadian stock-market. PrivatEquity.biz's managers are currently contacting other technological incubators which have expressed their interest in raising capital for their portfolio companies via PrivatEquity.biz's platform.

As a result of the trading arena's international activity, the Californian-based company, Filey, is also offering its stocks for sale on the site. Filey is an iPhone and iPad application that gives the users access to all the files attached to the e-mail messages sent from all their electronic mailboxes. Filey recently concluded the first fund raising of $800,000 and is now starting an additional round. Among the company's investors and advisors is Yahoo's former Vice-President Steve Douty.

Another company offering stocks on the site is SureVisit, whose software solution allows content writers and small businesses owners to improve the content they are writing in order to rank higher in the search engines. The tools developed by the company assist in driving traffic and creating leads for small and medium size businesses. The company recently concluded the first financing round, raising $1.5 million and is now starting an additional capital-raising round.

Jasper Technologies, whose stocks are offered for sale on the site, developed a patent-protected exceptional solution by the name of BluLock, which enables locking and unlocking the house doors using a cellular phone. The company recently concluded the first round, raising $150,000 and is now starting an additional round.

The company's CEO is Benjamin Pareto and its President is Meir Arbel who was one of the founders of Mercury Interactive which was sold to HP for around $4.5 billion.

Retech, which is offering its stocks on the site, is leading the developing world trend of 'smart stores'. The company successfully concluded the first financing round recently, raising NIS 1 million, and is now starting an additional capital-raising round. One of the investors in the company is Gilad Altshuler of the Altshuler Shaham Investment House.

Other companies currently offering their securities for sale on the site include WannA, which is offering an application for community-based consumerism, PneuMediCare which provides a physical system which monitors respiratory problems in premature babies, Simple Business, which offers a solution for the establishment of virtual stores and malls on the net, Coolano, which offers a solution that scans and analyzes conversation on the net in order to optimize the marketing activity and Jobrain, which offers a job-searching application.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 7, 2014

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2014

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