Operating an equity Crowdfunding platform that connects early-stage Israeli startups and angel investors, iAngels is introducing a new feature to their platform today. Viewed by iAngels as a potential HR tool, the firm is enabling the ability for startups to use their platform to facilitate secondary sales of shares held by early employees.
Ofer Vilenski, CEO of Hola, whose firm partnered with iAngels to raise capital on their platform, remarked about the secondary sales offering: “We chose iAngels as a platform that Hola employees can use to sell some of their stock option equity to enjoy the growth of Hola's value we all work hard to build it into a multi-billion dollar business. We believe this will create the patience to build bigger businesses and to have more fun along the way as we build them.”
The addition of secondary sales occurs as a growing group of firms that had used iAngels to source early-stage capital are now moving onto larger rounds, which have boosted valuations for early employees. In the case of Hola, the video delivery firm closed a $17 million Series C round last month. As such, through the new feature, employee shareholders can take advantage of the higher valuations to sell a portion of their holding.
Explaining the benefits, Shelly Hod Moyal, Founding Partner at iAngels, stated: “Traditionally, employees with equity ownership had to wait until the pre-IPO or IPO stage to realize their capital gains.” She went on: “For startups struggling to attract and retain top talent, the ability to offer Liquidity to their employees while still scaling up will be a key competitive advantage.”
