The equity crowdfunding portal Doorway becomes a benefit company

At the end of December 2020, the Italian equity crowdfunding platform Doorway became a benefit company. The transformation into a benefit company confirms Doorway’s mission, which has always been to contribute to the creation of value for investors and invested companies, channelling capital towards the development of innovative businesses.

The qualification of benefit company, recognized by the Finance Act 2016, is aimed at companies that voluntarily pursue, in the exercise of their activities, in addition to the purpose of profit also one or more purposes of common benefit. This is an innovative and unique regulatory provision at European level that legitimizes and gives value to a way of doing business not only focused on the economic dimension, but on the ability to converge profitability and sustainability, with a view to creating positive effects for stakeholders.

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Doorway encourages the investment of private capital in the real economy

Antonella Grassigli, CEO and co-founder of Doorway, explained: “Doorway was created to encourage, thanks to its business model, the investment of private capital in the real economy. From many authoritative sources, the necessity and the opportunity that part of the Italian savings should be channelled to innovative startups and SMEs has been highlighted, also as an engine of economic recovery. My partners and I are proud to have created the first purpose-driven fintech startup in Italy: the investment platform managed by Doorway is not a philanthropic organization interested in solving society’s problems, but a company that identifies and monitors the positive effects and risks generated by its activities in the context of financial investments in innovation and real economy.”

“This choice – continues Grassigli – responds to the conviction that in the medium and long term, the companies with the best ESG performance will be the most agile and profitable, to our advantage, that of our investors and of the stakeholder system in general. Already today, all the companies we have invested in or that are currently in fundraising with us, such as Garanteasy, Brots and Pep Therapy, fully meet these requirements.”

Doorway launched five campaigns in 2019

Doorway, based in Bologna, is a “club deal” on an equity crowdfunding platform authorized by Consob, dedicated to both retail and professional investors. Its peculiarity lies in the fact that the investment is always made through a vehicle company that invests in the target company or in a single solution or upon achievement of defined milestones. Moreover, the commission model intends to reward companies owned by women and those with a strong social impact. In fact, while the ordinary commission will be 8% on fundraising, for Impact initiatives and/or those that are made up of a female prevalence in the corporate structure or management, the commission is reduced to 6%.

In 2019 Doorway launched five  campaigns, for a total collection of over $2.43 million (€2 million). In July 2020, Doorway’s community of investors signed a $3.64 million (€3 million) round of the B2B digital marketplace for restaurants Deliveristo with a pool of other investors, including IAG (Italian Angels for Growth), Gellify Digital Investments, Seven Investments (headed by Angelo Mario Moratti), Metrica, Michele Novelli’s company. The round was joined in December 2020 by another $5.46 million (€4.5 million), subscribed by United Ventures.

In this regard, Antonella Grassigli, said: “We are extremely satisfied with this important operation that, on the one hand, allows Deliveristo to continue its growth path and, on the other, validates our process of selection of investment opportunities, the use of best practices of a venture capital fund and our positioning as an online equity investing platform absolutely distinctive compared to existing equity crowdfunding platforms on the market.”

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(Featured image by 089photoshootings via Pixabay)

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