Investment wanted: Smarkets
Betting exchange Smarkets.
To be successful, a start-up needs to have a clear idea of its vision.
When Hunter Morris and I founded Smarkets in 2008, we knew we were trying to do something innovative and different.
The
concept of a market is ancient and simple. However, exchanges today are
largely inaccessible to casual traders due to their immense complexity.
The internet should have opened up exchanges to the masses, but
attempts to move exchanges online have been marred by inefficiency,
accessibility issues and poor overall user experience.
Our aim
was to produce a new type of betting exchange, one that was simple
enough for the non-specialist to use, but with all the features that you
would expect from an exchange-platform.
This vision was
instrumental in securing our early-stage capital. We were fortunate to
attract the interest of a number of angel investors, including Stefan
Glaenzer, former chairman of Last.fm.
The experience and enthusiasm of early investors is extremely important, and has helped our business to develop.
Looking
ahead to the next stage of our business development, we want to
implement our market technology in new and innovative ways by building
on
the success of our betting-exchange, but in time also by bringing our technology to other types of exchange.
However,
doing this will require significant investment and legal expertise,
particularly in traversing the complex web of regulatory regimes and
pitfalls that govern exchanges.
This sort of investment and
expertise is the sort we think would be best achieved through
partnership with a corporate venture capital arm.
Corporate
venture capital arms are in a unique position to provide support to
small and successful firms as they enter the most crucial period of
their growth.
Partnership with larger bodies allows small
start-ups to retain their efficiency and innovative potential, while
being able to tap the knowledge and structures only a larger corporation
can offer.
It is this sort of synergy we are looking towards. As
a cutting edge, capital efficient and innovative tech-firm with
considerable in-house expertise and a successful product, we believe we
would fit well into the strategic goals of a CVC arm, and with its
investment, regulatory knowhow and global experience, we believe
Smarkets will be looking forward to a bright future.
Email: jason.trost@smarkets.com
