Kolet, an innovative e-SIM provider offering affordable worldwide connectivity for travelers, successfully raised a €5 million pre-seed round. The company, founded by seasoned entrepreneurs including Eduardo Ronzano, aims to revolutionize how travelers stay connected abroad by providing affordable data packages that save users from excessive roaming charges.
The pre-seed round was co-led by 9900 Capital and Daphni, while also including a carefully selected group of approximately 40 angel investors - half French and half international. For Kolet's founders, who had previous entrepreneurial experience, maintaining a clean cap table while still engaging strategic angel investors was a top priority.
We spoke with Eduardo Ronzano to learn more about Kolet's fundraising journey, the challenges of managing a large group of international angel investors, and how Roundtable helped streamline the process.
Key takeaways:
- Kolet used Roundtable to manage a diverse group of about 40 strategic angel investors across multiple countries, creating both French and Luxembourg SPVs to ensure tax neutrality.
- The founders' previous experience with over-complicated cap tables informed their decision to use SPVs from the start, eliminating future administrative headaches.
- Roundtable's platform allowed the team to efficiently manage allocations in a heavily oversubscribed round, giving them control and flexibility.
- The seamless integration between Roundtable and Kolet's legal team resulted in a smooth process that allowed founders to focus on strategic discussions with lead investors.
Roundtable: Could you introduce Kolet? What problem does your company solve?
Eduardo Ronzano: Kolet provides e-SIMs worldwide for travelers, allowing them to quickly get affordable connectivity without facing excessive roaming charges. Our users can get 1GB of data in seconds for around €4 when traveling abroad, instead of potentially spending hundreds or thousands of euros on traditional roaming fees.
We've assembled a strong team of experienced entrepreneurs. This combination of expertise has helped us gain early traction.
Roundtable: Tell us about your fundraising round and why you decided to use Roundtable.
Eduardo Ronzano: We raised a €5 million pre-seed round co-led by 9900 Capital and Daphni. Before even launching our product, we wanted to bring in strategic angel investors who could provide expertise and connections beyond just capital.
The round was heavily oversubscribed, especially for the angel allocation, which made it critical to have an efficient way to manage commitments. We ended up bringing in around 40 angel investors, split evenly between French and international investors.
Most of our founding team had previous entrepreneurial experience, and we'd learned the hard way how challenging it can be to manage a crowded cap table with too many small shareholders. When you're trying to close later rounds or potential exits, having numerous small shareholders can create bottlenecks in the process. Even though smaller investors don't have much voting power, they still need to sign documents, which can become a critical path issue when you're trying to close important deals.
We explored several options for managing our angel investors, including working with our lawyers or using other platforms. However, our lawyers weren't enthusiastic about handling so many angel investors because of the administrative work involved. That's when we discovered Roundtable, which provided the perfect solution.
Roundtable: How did Roundtable help you manage your international investors?
Eduardo Ronzano: Given that half of our angel investors were international, we needed a solution that could handle different jurisdictions efficiently. Roundtable allowed us to create two SPVs: a French one for French investors and a Luxembourg one for international investors. This structure ensured tax neutrality for all our investors, which was crucial for attracting capital from different countries.
The platform made it incredibly easy to manage this dual-SPV structure, as it was completely seamless for us as founders. We simply had two lines on our cap table instead of 40, while investors were automatically allocated to the appropriate SPV based on their nationality.
Roundtable: What specific operational benefits did you experience with Roundtable?
Eduardo Ronzano: There were several key benefits:
First, the platform allowed us to efficiently manage the allocation process. Since our round was oversubscribed, we needed to carefully control who got which allocation. Roundtable made it easy to track commitments and adjust allocations in real-time when we needed to make last-minute changes.
Second, Roundtable handled all the administrative work. They worked directly with our lawyers, quickly prepared all necessary documentation, and managed the signature process. The dashboard showed us which investors had signed and which hadn't, allowing us to focus our follow-ups on just a few individuals rather than chasing dozens of people.
Third, Roundtable's team was proactive with investor communications. They sent regular reminders to investors who hadn't yet completed their paperwork, saving us significant time and effort.
Finally, the entire closing process was streamlined. Funds were collected efficiently, and the experience was smooth for both our team and our investors.
Roundtable: How did investors respond to using Roundtable?
Eduardo Ronzano: Many of our investors had already used Roundtable for other deals, so they were already familiar with the platform. For those who were new to it, the experience was straightforward and professional, creating a good impression from the start.
What's particularly valuable is that Roundtable gives investors more options for liquidity. They have three options: full exits when the startup has an exit event, secondary sales between investors within the SPV, or sales to outside investors with founder approval. This flexibility makes the investment more attractive to angels.
The platform also ensures that investors don't feel like they're in a "black box" - they have transparent access to information and opportunities just as if they were direct shareholders.
Roundtable: How did you discover Roundtable?
Eduardo Ronzano: We discovered Roundtable through other entrepreneurs who had used the platform. Some of our team members had also participated in investment communities on Roundtable as angels themselves, so they had experienced its simplicity firsthand. When we started our own company, it was natural to become Roundtable customers ourselves.
Roundtable: Do you consider your fundraising a success, and would you use Roundtable again?
Eduardo Ronzano: Absolutely. The fundraising exceeded our expectations, and Roundtable played a key role in making the process smooth and efficient. We're growing rapidly, and we anticipate raising additional rounds in the coming months. We'll definitely be using Roundtable again as things will only get more complex with future rounds involving even more stakeholders.
Roundtable: Any advice for other founders considering using Roundtable?
Eduardo Ronzano: I'd recommend Roundtable to any founder who wants to bring strategic angel investors into their round while keeping their cap table clean. The platform isn't just about administrative convenience – it gives you the freedom to think strategically about who you want to bring in, regardless of check size.
Instead of limiting yourself based on administrative concerns, you can focus on bringing in the most valuable angels for your business. This might mean a dozen strategic investors or even thirty – with Roundtable, you have that flexibility without creating future headaches.
Ready to start raising funds? Sign up for Roundtable and create a founder SPV in minutes.
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