Anduin Transactions: Streamlining Private Market Transactions
Anduin is building a more transparent and efficient financial platform for private markets
Private market transactions can be messy. Technology has not kept pace with the growing complexity of fund operations. As such, error-prone processes, documentation, and disjointed tools such as email and spreadsheets slow transactions down, costing time and money.
Alumni Ventures portfolio company Anduin Transactions is building an end-to-end financial platform that brings more transparency and efficiency to the private markets. The company provides cloud services to track and expedite financial transactions such as diligence, milestone reporting, auditing, and deal negotiation. The platform offers centralized online workflows so private market transactions can occur as efficiently as public ones.
The private market is huge, with an estimated $7.4 trillion total AUM. Anduin is addressing this massive market by building a system of common standards and trust. Their goal is to move rapidly up market and service large, multi-billion-dollar AUM firms on the East Coast environment. Towards that end, they will devote a part of the funding from this raise to expand their sales and marketing team.
What We Liked About Anduin
Experienced C-Suite: CEO Eliot Hodges was recruited to lead Anduin by Co-Founder Joe Lonsdale. Hodges previously held leadership roles at several startups, including Anchorage, Blend, Handshake, Palantir, and Topsicle. CTO and Co-Founder Alin Bui served as CEO prior to Hodges joining the company. Before launching Anduin, Bui held technology positions at IBM, NASA, and Walmart.
Close Involvement from Seasoned Lead Investor: 8VC has several notable exits (Asana, Oculus, Palantir, Wish) and has been closely advising Anduin’s team. Lonsdale, Founding Partner of 8VC, incubated Anduin in the 8VC Labs program and sits on Anduin’s board. He previously co-founded Palantir, which launched its IPO in September 2020 with a $16.5 billion market cap. He was the youngest VC on the Forbes Midas List in 2016 and has since jumped up to #18 on this year’s list.
Large Market with No Incumbent: Current processes are typically email, spreadsheets, document sharing, and disjointed manual interactions — an inefficient and time-consuming process on both sides. Anduin is replacing these unpopular legacy practices with a streamlined solution.
Strong Traction and Self-Marketing Opportunity: Anduin has more than doubled sales since pivoting from a basis point pricing structure to a subscription model in late 2020. The company is also in a unique position to create sales momentum through its user base, as existing customers have increasingly recommended its platform to Limited Partners at other funds.
How We Are Involved
Anduin Transactions raised an $8 million Series A-1 led by 8VC, alongside co-investors Flight Ventures, Standish Management, and Linse Capital. Nancy Fechnay, Senior Principal at Towerview Ventures (for the Duke community), was previously a Partner at Flight Ventures and secured an allocation for Alumni Ventures through her relationship with 8VC. Blue Ivy Ventures (for the Yale community) and Waterman Ventures (for the Brown community) also participated in the round.
Want to learn more?
View all our available funds and secure data rooms, or schedule an intro call.
New to AV?
Sign up and access exclusive venture content.
Contact [email protected] for additional information. To see additional risk factors and investment considerations, visit av-funds.com/disclosures.