Signs a deal worth $10million with Open Financial Technologies in India

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.

In India, Velvet will be running its liquidity programs for the best startups in the country with valuations around $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 $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 $10 million.

Velvet’s warehouse facility of $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 $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$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”.