Meet Ulyana Shtybel, CEO of Quoroom: the end-to-end fundraising and cap table management software provider for private companies.
Founded in 2018 and headquartered in London, Quoroom made its Finovate debut in March at FinovateEurope. At the conference, Shtybel demoed Quoroom’s investor relations tools that help companies connect with the right investors, provide a clear visualization of the company’s financial metrics, and keep shareholders “in the loop” as the business grows.
In this Q&A, we talked about the current challenges private companies are facing when it comes to securing funding. We also discussed the enabling technologies and strategies that are available to help enhance and accelerate the process of raising capital.
What problem does Quoroom solve and who does it solve it for?
Ulyana Shtybel: Capital raising is broken. Private companies spend months and even years in the fundraising process, learning how to raise capital and repeating the same mistakes, approaching the wrong investors and often spamming them with irrelevant investment opportunities.
In today’s world, startups have to become professionals in raising capital, as they cannot get funded otherwise. However, hiring a professional adviser is not a common practice, as they are expensive and there is no appropriate culture to hire an investment banker until a business becomes pre-IPO.
While fundraising, companies become distracted from their core business activities and rely too much on raising capital. Investors often express their desire for startups to focus more on product development.
The reality is that there are a lot of nuances and techniques involved in the fundraising process. Without proper knowledge and execution of these techniques, startups and scaleups often fail to raise capital. According to a study by CB Insights, 47% of startup failures in 2022 were due to a lack of financing.
With over 10 years of experience in capital markets, finance, and venture capital, my team and I decided to address this issue and rethink how fundraising is done. We automated the fundraising workflow, data visualization, and sharing of updates with investors so companies can easily do what is necessary for successful capital raising: building relationships with investors prior to the funding round and creating an investor’s FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).
Quoroom also provides a data room and investor portal to close deals with investors and a capitalization table to manage shareholders and the administration of the company.
How does Quoroom solve this problem better than other companies?
Shtybel: Quoroom is the first data-centric capital raising and company administration software. Companies use Quoroom to build relationships with investors and raise capital up to four times faster while saving thousands of dollars in software and legal fees annually.
We have a deep understanding of the capital raising process and what actually drives investors to invest in startups. Unlike other investor relations software on the market, we help companies send investor updates and share data with potential investors, not just existing ones.
Quoroom combines all the necessary tools for raising capital and managing investors, which are currently fragmented, in one place. It covers private company administration from funding to secondary liquidity in one platform, saving companies tons of money and time in the long term.
Who are Quoroom’s primary customers? How do you reach them?
Shtybel: Our primary audience is private companies from the technology sector, including startups and scaleups. We reach out to them through our useful content, events, and our partners, such as lawyers, corporate finance advisers, and other fans of our product.
Can you tell us about a favourite implementation or deployment of your technology?
Shtybel: Quoroom is not only a SaaS platform for companies, but we also offer our technology as a white label for investment banks and boutiques to provide great value to their clients.
Our technology is easy to deploy, and through investment firms, even more companies and investors can experience a seamless capital raising process.
What in your background gave you the confidence to respond to this challenge?
Shtybel: As a former Executive Director of the Warsaw Stock Exchange Office in Ukraine, I had the opportunity to meet many technology companies that were not ready for an IPO, but wanted to raise capital to scale their businesses. This is how I started working with startups and scaleups on the one hand and VC investors on the other. Later, I co-founded my first tech business and went through the fundraising process, running into many of the same problems and mistakes, despite having a fantastic network of investors in my contacts.
My firsthand experience in successful and unsuccessful fundraising helped me identify patterns, and this is how Quoroom was born and launched in late 2020.
The private capital market is yet to grow and decisions will become more data-driven, I’m quite confident Quoroom is a solution to help traditional inventors and AI-driven VCs take better decisions.
What is the fintech industry like in your area? What is the relationship between emergent fintech startups and the country’s established financial services sector?
Shtybel: Quoroom is legaltech and fintech software that operates in the capital markets industry, which is predominantly represented by solutions for public capital markets, and some solutions that service private companies. However, these solutions are fragmented, and an average private company usually invites investors to five different platforms and uses eight platforms to manage the same investment, which can be a costly and inconvenient approach. One of the most established players in our industry is Carta, which is U.S.-based cap table management software. They don’t have the fundraising component, but they are actively acquiring companies in the sector. The U.S. venture capital and private equity market are much larger than the European market – 60% versus 21% of global VC deal value – but Carta acquired a European portion of the cap table management market via the acquisition of Capdesk. The year 2022-2023 is showing that the fintech market tends to consolidate.
You recently demoed your technology at FinovateEurope in London. What was that experience like?
Shtybel: FinovateEurope was truly one of the best events I have ever attended. The format was very different from any other conference, as the entire audience was there to listen to startup demos. This was absolutely fantastic and unique, as both corporate and investors came to listen to the demos. After our demo, we received much attention from investors and potential partners.
What are your goals for Quoroom? What can we expect from the company over the balance of 2023 and beyond?
Shtybel: We rectify the capital raising process to help more companies thrive. Our platform offers both capital and compliance solutions for companies, as well as data, high-quality deal flow, and exit infrastructure for investors. We look forward to working with companies and partners from different countries, so more people can explore the value of Quoroom.
