Velvet, a leading provider of Liquidity as a Benefit solutions to startups across the world announced its entry into Indian markets today. Velvet offers recurring liquidity solutions for emerging markets with built in onboarding, strike price financing and a focus on constantly bringing new investment opportunities for shareholders. Founded in Brazil in 2021, Velvet brings solutions for late-stage tech companies to provide liquidity to their employees on a recurring basis as a unique HR benefit. Velvet is a platform that buys stakes in promising, privately-owned startups, allowing their partners and employees to monetize part of their vested equity before the company goes public. The company’s India office is located in Bengaluru’s Central Business District.
Carlos Naupari and Edouard de Montmort, Co-founders of Velvet
In India, Velvet will be running its liquidity programs for the best startups in the country with valuations around USD 300 million. The company enables access for high-income investors to sell their stakes through a platform that is connected with some of the largest private banking and wealth management firms across the globe, which will sell and buy the stakes on behalf of their clients.
Velvet is planning to invest in Indian startups in various sectors and has raised a warehouse facility of discretionary capital of USD 200 Million for investing in startups in Latin America, India, Southeast Asia, and African markets. Velvet has already struck recurring secondary offering agreements with five startups including Brazilian neobank Neon, Indonesia’s Lummo, India’s fintech Open, and Mexican fintech Credijusto. With Open, the company has already signed a deal worth USD 10 million.
Velvet’s warehouse facility of USD 200 million was led by Yolo Investments, in February 2022, featuring participation of family offices from Switzerland and the United States. Earlier, the company raised a USD 3 million seed round, led by Global Founders Capital. Velvet has operations in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, India, and the US.
Carlos Naupari, Co-founder & Co-CEO said, “We believe that there is a massive opportunity for Velvet in the Indian market. We can leverage our core competencies and offer value to the promoters and employees of Indian startups. In India we will be targeting startups that have more than USD 300 million valuations. Our customer pipeline will be highly selective and curated – the best of the best of the startups that are in the “soonicorn” category.” Vivek Boray, Founder of Velvet’s India Office added, “We are going to focus on educating the ecosystem on our offering and how it enables scaling companies to retain talent. Our recurring liquidity programs enable early partners of startups to tap into otherwise unavailable liquidity consistently. We intend to be the definitive global creator company and our expansion into global markets, including India, is in line with this vision.”
The Velvet 360 Program
Founders require initial capital to bootstrap their startup and begin testing assumptions. The Velvet 360 Program provides necessary liquidity to enable risk taking. The Velvet 360 Program enables startups to offer their talent pools tangible monetization of their stock options to attend to changing life needs. The company’s bespoke programs are designed with careful consideration of all stakeholders to maximize the value and experience of working in dynamic companies. The Velvet 360 Program is an invitation only HR initiative for select high growth companies that understand that the best talent needs to have alternative paths to liquidity. The 360 program helps companies in attracting and retaining talent through the true money of stock options. The benefit adds value to the company and makes it come out ahead when it comes to retaining and attracting talent.
About Velvet
Founded in Brazil by Carlos Naupari and Edouard de Montmort, Velvet is focused on enabling access to illiquid assets in emerging markets. The company offers recurring liquidity solution for emerging markets with built in onboarding, a private exchange, and a focus on constantly bringing new opportunities for shareholders. Started in September 2021 the company buys stakes in promising, privately owned startups, allowing their partners and employees to monetize their equity before the company has gone public. Velvet provides recurring end-to-end liquidity solutions for the teams of select private companies by unlocking the value of equity in startups Velvet helps to attract & retain exceptional talent. The company has operations in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, India, and the US.
More information on Velvet can be found at their website: www.velvet.io.
