Simplifying Venture Investing With aVenture

Venture capital was invented to accelerate innovation by investing in the best-emerging technology companies, commonly referred to as startups. It was created as a subset of private equity to fill the void of funding companies at their earliest and usually riskiest stages. It became a recognized asset class sometime during the 1970s when some of today's most prominent venture capital firms were founded, including Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, and Menlo Ventures. In 1973, the National Venture Capital Association was formed, giving venture capital funds a voice in Washington that continued to advocate and push the entrepreneurship ecosystem forward.

Since 1942, estimated that about 42% of all startup companies that have gone public were venture-backed. This model became especially popular when household names emerged from this asset class, like Apple, FedEx, and Microsoft. Fast forward to the present decade, the venture capital ecosystem is stronger than ever, posting record numbers in 2021 with 681.5 billion dollars in exit value, 181 IPOs, and $995 AUM by venture capital firms. Even though 2022 experienced some slowdowns, many are optimistic for the future of venture capitalists as technology growth is still strong.

Venture Capital Investing: Challenges For The Everyday Investor

Despite the excitement garnered by startups, investment opportunities are continually gatekept from the general public. This is partly due to regulations requiring early-stage investors to be accredited - most commonly characterized by someone who makes over $200,000 annually or has amassed a net worth above $1 million, not including their primary residence. However, recent regulation changes (Reg CF & Reg A+) modified the rules for public offerings and opened up opportunities for the general public to invest in early-stage private companies.

Crowdfunding platforms, like Wefunder and Republic, have emerged and helped startups raise from public investors. While new policies and platforms have started to open doors, the best startup deals remain within Silicon Valley's elite private investors. There is still no way for everyday investors and angel investors even to diversify their portfolios and adequately mitigate risk, that's where venture capital funds come in.

Introducing aVenture

aVenture is building a platform that plans to serve both retail investors and venture capital fund managers, opening up new synergies between both parties. The aVenture app plans to provide accredited and non-accredited investors with everything they need to begin their journey in early-stage startup investing, including extensive research material, seamless transaction processes, and allocation measures so they can adequately diversify their portfolios.

Venture capital investments are typically illiquid, but aVenture plans to allow investors to benefit from periodic liquidity options. Access to venture capital deals is made possible through platform features that help fund managers streamline their fund launches and operations while assisting them in raising money to increase AUM.

The team is led by its Founder and CEO, William A. Callahan. He has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter and was a previous founder and CEO of a U.S. asset management firm, which TS Banking Group acquired in 2021. He is an active angel and venture capital investor, having invested in more than 100 startups to date.

aVenture has invested heavily in product development, focusing on delivering best-in-class investment opportunities, research metrics, and customer service. aVenture believes that it will revolutionize the venture capital industry by unlocking a latent supply of capital from public investors.

aVenture was just featured in Yahoo Finance and launched its waitlist. To sign-up, visit aventure.vc