Russia’s crowdinvestment platform SmartMarket.net breaks off

Crowdinvestment platform SmartMarket.net (foreign analogous are SecondMarket, SharesPost, and AngelList working to foster the first two) stops working to review the results of the pilot launch, change the operation model and make a startup pivot.

Vladislav Solodkiy, the head of Layf.Sreda Fund that invested in the project, shared his conclusions made from the SmartMarket.net’s story on portal.

SmartMarket started working as a crowdinvestment platform in September 2012 raising money to launch creative projects such as a film by Ivan Ohlobystin and Vadim Demchog Operator of Reality. In autumn, the team decided to focus on crowdinvesting. The platform included about ten IT projects in April 2013. The average budget was about 2M RUR.

We, Layf.Sreda Venture Capital Fund, became a seed-stage investor of the project. We have complied with our obligations and not going to invest more in SmartMarket.net. The achievements of the project are formalized and can be used in a new project. Russian venture capital market is still emerging, so it needs all experience, not only the most successful. I will try to explain what was wrong with SmartMarket.net.

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