FundedByMe announces the acquisition of Laika Consulting

Fundedbyme, a Stockholm, Sweden-based company managing a platform for crowd funding investments, announced the acqusition of Swedish consulting company Laika Consulting.

The financial details of the transaction remain undisclosed, though it is estimated to be at around SEK 30M (), in a cash and shares combination. In connection with the deal, Laika's founder, Ingmar Rentzhog, resigns as CEO. Tobias Berglund, who has been in the Laika management team since the start of 2004 and today is the COO of Laika Consulting, is appointed as CEO of Laika Consulting and the COO of FundedByMe. Peter Sundberg is appointed COO of Laika Consulting.

The deal's rationale is for Fundedbyme to double its investment network to close to 250,000 members, making it the largest in the Nordic region. The acquisition is a strategic step to further strengthen FundedByMe's range of financial services.

Fundedbyme, founded in 2011 and led by CEO Daniel Daboczy, developed an online tool, where both professional investors and regular people can find, identify and analyze presentations from startups, growth companies to pre-IPO in need of funding.

The company is yet to be profitable, losing SEK 10M ($1.1M) at a 2016 sales figure of SEK 4M ($500k). In 2018 however it expects a turnover of SEK 40M.

Fundedbyme raised almost $4M in capital investment, $2.4M of which closed at the end of 2017, when it also announced its intentions to publicly trade its shares on the stock exchange in 2018