In this week's Newcomers article, we introduce Wixdom, an investment crowdfunding search engine that consolidates data from multiple platforms to provide transparent and independent information about more than 10 thousand startups. We had a conversation with Alvaro Rezola, CEO of Wixdom, who shared insights about the company's origins, unique features, and plans for the future.

1 - Please introduce your company and the products/services it offers.

Wixdom is an investment crowdfunding search engine that consolidates data from multiple platforms to provide transparent and independent information about more than 10 thousand startups. Founded in 2019, our B2C SaaS targets anyone involved in funding entrepreneurship such as startups, retail investors, VCs, incubators, and researchers.  Search functions are free to use. At any time, you can analyze and filter over 700 live campaigns and follow them in real-time. Our two main features are Feed and Markets. With our Feed, users can stay up-to-date with the market and have a curated listing of upcoming investment crowdfunding offers. You can follow companies attached to your profile and receive alerts on specific events. Our Markets tool has search filters to find your ideal startup for investment with more than 20 filters including ticket size, valuation, type of security, and categorization based on trending topics like ESG or minority founders.

2 - What led to the creation of your company?

Our company was created about 4 years ago in Spain as a spin-off from a research project during our PhDs. We pioneered the data analysis of equity crowdfunding campaigns across multiple platforms to understand their role as intermediaries. After monitoring the US market and publishing our research in international journals, we realized we were at the forefront of something bigger: the exponential growth of a new global market and asset class. Investment crowdfunding is changing capital raising for high-growth companies and there was no trustful independent data provider for a B2C user base. We partnered with leading universities in Entrepreneurship in Spain and Israel before locating our company in Luxembourg as a global headquarter to scale in 2022.

3 - What is the most difficult or unexpected thing you've had to overcome on your journey?

As the co-founder of a bootstrapped company, starting from scratch was a challenge. It was also our first professional experience, and we began this journey at the age of 25. The biggest obstacle we faced was comprehending the dedication required to develop a scalable process that could effectively communicate our vision and product objectives to the team. This challenge was particularly daunting, given the need to maintain innovation while growing rapidly and not compromising quality. We had to overcome the unexpected challenge of balancing managing the company's growth and maintaining the creative culture we had established from the beginning. As a research-driven company, this challenge was particularly crucial for us. We firmly believe that the crowdfunding space has yet to mature significantly and adopt better governance and investment practices to become a global solution in alternative finance. Therefore, it was crucial for us to establish scalable procedures to ensure that our team's efforts aligned with our long-term goals. Overcoming this challenge was an essential step in enabling us to advance toward our vision of transforming the crowdfunding landscape.

4 - How is your offering different from your competitors and other market players?

Wixdom has three key differentiators. Firstly, we prioritize B2C users by providing useful information and easy-to-use features for retail investors and startup founders. With many operations across platforms and limited time to analyze them, Wixdom gives you all available information even when past crowdfunding campaigns were unsuccessful, or investment terms changed substantially. Secondly, as a community-driven platform, we aim to become the primary channel for crowdsourced wisdom with social features to interact with other investors or startup founders, where gamification will play an important role in the new social dynamics of crowdfunding. Thirdly, we’re research-driven with greater coverage and depth than other data providers. Our goal is to cover the entire world of equity crowdfunding and influence the ecosystem by setting best practices and standards for corporate governance.

5 - What did you find at LHoFT / What did LHoFT bring you?

At the LHoFT, we found a commitment to fostering innovation and advancing Luxembourg’s ambitions in fintech. During our first year of incubation at the LHoFT, we established strong connections with significant stakeholders within the Luxembourg startup ecosystem. They also promoted our participation in prominent conferences such as ICT Spring and Arch Summit allowing us to showcase our innovative solutions and ideas. Additionally, our involvement in LHoFT’s educational initiatives like Fintech Recruits and Catapult programs highlights our desire to contribute to the growth of the Luxembourg startup community.

6 - What's next?

Wixdom has exciting plans for the future. We’re launching the next version of our live product and expanding our equity crowdfunding market coverage to top global platforms including EU, MENA, and LATAM. This new version will strengthen the community and social features of Wixdom’s profile. Signed-up users will be able to build and organize watchlists of startups and a newsletter with advanced data for premium users will be available. The premium information will include a classification of term sheets and investor rights as well as valuation benchmarks and success scorings. Additionally, we’ll commence an intensive recruitment phase in Luxembourg searching for computer and data scientists with an interest in entrepreneurial finance. We’re interested in profiles at the intersection of academia and industry including those interested in Crowdfunding and Decentralized Finance.