Republic Europe holds shares in companies on your behalf when you invest through our platform. While Republic Europe will be registered as legal shareholder and take care of all the administrative shareholder work, the full economic interest in the shares all flows back to you.
Campaigns may either be labelled Nominee or Custodian. The difference between the Republic Europe Nominee and Republic Europe Custodian is caused by differing levels of negotiating power we have with the company in question and, consequently, the investor rights we are able to secure.
Republic Europe Nominee
This applies generally on our primary fundraises where companies are receiving new investment and actively involved in the fundraising process.
Republic Europe is able to negotiate legal documentation with the company to agree certain protections for investors, such as pre-emption and information rights.
You can read more about the Republic Europe Nominee here.
Republic Europe Custodian
This applies generally on our secondary campaigns, particularly where there is no business involvement.
As the shares are purchased from existing shareholders and there is often little to no company involvement, there is no opportunity for Republic Europe to negotiate investor rights and the company is not required to engage with our platform.
As a result, for campaigns labeled Republic Europe Custodian:
Republic Europe will not be able to negotiate legal documents to put in place bespoke investor rights.
It is unlikely that Republic Europe will hold voting shares, and to the extent we do, given the limited information we have on the company, we will vote with management unless we have reason to believe that management is not acting in the best interest of shareholders.
There will be no pre-emption rounds
Republic Europe will not monitor the business on an ongoing basis
Information about the company on the post-investment page will be from publicly available sources such as Pitchbook