BT Ventures launches investor rating platform for start-ups

Dennis Teichmann is the co-founder of Jacando, which began as a marketplace. After raising over CHF 1 million in seed funding, the company pivoted to an HR cloud software-as-a Service (SaaS) subscription model by the end of 2015, marking the beginning of a new era for Jacando as an all-in-one solution for Human Resource Management and acquiring 70 clients in the HR software sector. In 2017, the company secured a Series A funding round, raising several million Swiss francs that facilitated a rework of the product from the end of 2018 until 2020. In August 2022, German-based recruiting company, Tenhil stepped in as a strategic investor, acquiring the majority stake in the company. Teichmann operationally left Jacando in June 2023.

Throughout his journey, Teichmann had the opportunity to interact with various types of investors, including, business angels, family offices, revenue-based financings, private equity, and strategic investors. He acknowledges that the commitment of some business angels was a positive experience for him; however, he also encountered challenges, such as the short-term thinking of some stakeholders. He particularly notes that failure is not well perceived in Switzerland and Germany, which made it difficult for Jacando after the pivot. Investors hesitated to fund “failed” founders, and high-risk scenarios were negatively connotated, with investors preferring conservative strategies. Furthermore, investor activities are very opaque, making it difficult for founders to learn more about the investors prior to involving them in their startup.

Aspiring for transparency through investor ratings
Startups in the fundraising phase maintain contact with multiple investors, aiming to convince some to invest, but a good relationship before investing does not necessarily indicate a good relationship after bringing the investor on board. According to Teichmann, selecting the right investors is crucial in a startup’s journey, and the first step to knowing about the investor is if there is ample, easily accessible information. Therefore, he is launching an Investor Rating platform to enhance transparency by enabling startups to share their experience with investors and give them a rating.

Kununu for investors
The idea to develop the rating concept of public ratings of investors in the startup landscape was born during a conversation with Dan Sirk, the former Managing Director of Kununu US. Comparable to the Kununu rating platform for companies, verified startups and CEOs will be able to anonymously rate investors, including venture capital firms, business angels or private investors known in the scene. Anyone can access the platform, search for investors, see their ratings and read the reviews. According to Teichmann, “This is the first-of-its-kind platform in any startup space worldwide”.

The recently launched platform aims to collect many reviews before going live. Startup founders and CEOs are invited to share their experiences and rate investors to accelerate the launch. As part of future developments, Teichmann plans to advance the platform’s features to provide an anonymous function for founders to ask questions to those who rated the investors and offer paid services to investors, such as a certification of positive reviews.

Positive resonance and growing interest from the startup space
“Several startup founders I have spoken to are eager to provide ratings and to share their experience with investors. Likewise, investors are positively welcoming the idea, with some already showing interest in using the platform to improve transparency within their portfolio companies”, he said. Based on this positive feedback, Teichmann sees this as an opportunity to foster community building and provide an open space for shared experiences between startups and investors.

BT Ventures, the company spearheading this investor rating platform, was co-founded by two individuals, namely, Teichmann and Ivana Batt. In addition to running the Investor Rating initiative, they collaborate with nearly a dozen freelancers and supporters to advise companies like Moodtalk and Pult.

(Ritah A Nyakato)