Today, the first buy and sell orders of a crowdfunded security were placed on the Euronext Expert Market (Public Auction), an electronic trading platform for non-listed securities. These orders will lead to the first secondary transaction in a crowdfunding instrument on a transparent and secure trading platform in Europe, which will take place on Tuesday 1 March 2016 at 11.30am CET, as a result of matching the outstanding orders. The traded instruments are participatory notes in the Belgian company Domobios, issued by the crowdfunding platform MyMicroInvest. This first trade opens new perspectives for crowdfunding investors looking to transfer their participation to a third party in a secure and transparent environment.
MyMicroInvest has been the leader on the Belgian crowdfunding market since 2012, and has since then successfully financed 41 companies, raising €14 million in the process. Domobios, one of MyMicroInvest’s successful crowdfunding campaigns, is a healthcare company that developed an innovative dustmite trap system that has the potential to help millions of people with their allergies. After having reached profitability on the Belgian market, the startup is aspiring to expand internationally.
Until now, an investor wanting to sell his participation in a crowdfunded company had to find a buyer himself, with whom he mutually had to agree on a sales price. Once a buyer was found, the investor had to ask MyMicroInvest to update the Registry of Notes to reflect this change of ownership. Now, investors in crowdfunded securities issued by MyMicroInvest can contact their broker (a member of Expert Market) and follow clear instructions. The selling process can be followed on the Expert Market website.
Euronext Expert Market is an electronic trading platform for non-listed securities that was launched on 9 December 2014. Based on Euronext’s Universal Trading Platform (UTP), Expert Market offers a transparent and secure platform for the sale of non-listed securities by public auction. Based in Belgium, this Multilateral Trading Facility is the first market of its kind in Europe to be set up by an exchange. Auctions take place every Tuesday for securities, bonds and other fixed income instruments.
“This represents the ultimate opportunity to make the crowdfunding market more transparent, more liquid and therefore more appealing to a larger audience”, said José Zurstrassen, Executive Chairman of MyMicroInvest, “We are very proud to introduce the world of crowdfunding into the Euronext Expert Market, which will be the first such operation in Europe.”
“This first transaction proves that stock exchange and crowdfunding can benefit from each other’s strengths,” explained Vincent Van Dessel, CEO of Euronext Brussels. “Crowdfunding needs a secure and transparent secondary market. Euronext Expert Market offers new options for crowdfunding investors looking to assess better the timeframe of their investment – including the exit strategy – and smoothly transfer their shares.”
To celebrate this first transaction, Willy Borsus, Minister for SMEs, responsible at the federal level for the regulations concerning the financing of companies and crowdfunding, and Philippe De Backer, Member of the European Parliament and Rapporteur for the Prospectus Regulation in the European Parliament, will ring the bell on Tuesday 1 March, at the fixing at 11.30am CET, in presence of Vincent Van Dessel and José Zurstrassen.
