tokenize.it, now beel: startup investments for GmbHs and UGs

tokenize.it started from the idea of putting company shares on a blockchain. Over time it became a platform for the paperwork around startup rounds: founders used it to collect money from business angels, to keep their cap table in order and to give employees a share of the company's success through virtual shares. Its customers were small German and Austrian limited companies, the GmbH and the UG.

The problem it worked on is a German one. Whoever buys or sells a share in a GmbH needs a notarized contract under section 15 of the GmbH Act. For a seed round with twenty angels, each with a small ticket, that means many notary appointments. Contracts that do not transfer real shares avoid the notary, and virtual shares are one such contract.

beel calls itself "the digital execution platform for private startup investments". Its offer is aimed at "(pre-)seed founders who want to close an angel round" and at "active angels and scouts who run a Syndicate". It lists startup financing without a notary, co-investing, cap-table management and beel virtual shares, which it describes as "equity profit-participation rights". beel states that more than 19 million euros have gone through the platform and that more than 100 startups use it.

beel also says what it is not: not a marketplace that brings founders investors, not a fundraising agency, not a VC fund, and "not a crypto or Web3 platform". With the new name came syndicates, which let experienced business angels share deals with co-investors and earn a carry, as VC Magazin reported (in German). brutkasten (in German) describes the move as a step away from the pure tokenization provider toward an execution platform for startup investments.

tokenize.it is one of the event and network partners of Finance Loop and is thanked by name in the review of Finance Loop's first year. The page tokenization in Germany lists it among the German companies that used tokens for company equity. Finance Loop events on tokenization, venture capital and digital assets are on the events page.

Virtual shares are a contract that pays the holder as if he owned shares, for example a part of the sale price when the company is sold, without making the holder a shareholder. The holder has no vote at the shareholders' meeting and is not entered in the list of shareholders. Because no GmbH share changes hands, no notary is needed. Startups use virtual shares for employee participation and, on platforms such as beel, for small angel tickets.

No longer. tokenize.it began with tokens for company shares, and the tokenization of assets is explained in the answer What is tokenization of assets? Under the name beel, the company says plainly that it is not a crypto or Web3 platform. The difference between tokens that are securities and tokens that are not is in security tokens vs utility tokens.

Christoph Jentzsch founded tokenize.it. He was an early core developer of Ethereum and later became a serial founder and business angel. His LinkedIn profile now reads "beel (formerly Tokenize.it)".