Álvaro Rezola, CEO of Wixdom;

Chronicle.lu recently had the opportunity to speak with Álvaro Rezola, CEO of Wixdom, about this Luxembourg-based startup analysis network, which keeps track of crowdfunding operations around the world in real time.

This article forms part of a series of interviews about "newcomers" (i.e. new startups) hosted at the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (LHoFT), where Wixdom has been present since September 2022.

Chronicle.lu: Please introduce your company and the products/services it offers.

Álvaro Rezola: Wixdom is an investment crowdfunding search engine that consolidates data from multiple platforms to provide transparent and independent information about more than 10,000 startups. Founded in 2019, our B2C [business-to-consumer] SaaS [software as a service] targets anyone involved in funding entrepreneurship such as startups, retail investors, VCs [venture capitalists], incubators and researchers. Search functions are free to use. At any time, you can analyse 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 categorisation based on trending topics like ESG [environmental, social and governance] or minority founders.

Chronicle.lu: What led to the creation of your company?

Álvaro Rezola: Our company was born from a research project we conducted during our PhDs in finance, leading the way in analysing investment crowdfunding on multiple platforms. We successfully transformed our research into a user-friendly live market product for [all types of] investors. Through this work, we recognised that we were at the forefront of a rapidly expanding global market and realised our potential to influence the evolution of this new alternative finance ecosystem.

Chronicle.lu: Why Luxembourg?

Álvaro Rezola: We chose Luxembourg as our research partner because it is becoming a European hub for tech and growth companies. Luxembourg has a thriving entrepreneurship industry, including the House of Entrepreneurship, the LHoFT and Luxinnovation. The incoming researchers at the SnT [Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust] and the University of Luxembourg are also excellent.
Our product, Wixdom, leverages open access to information to give an advantage to retail investors and startup founders with no previous finance background to understand the possibilities of a new market. We want to become the referral point of a new global phenomenon, and Luxembourg is the perfect place for that. It is already the second hub of assets under management [in the world] and is at the moment looking to do the same in private equity. In the near future, Luxembourg can also be a central hub for digital funding, for example equity crowdfunding and digital assets.

Chronicle.lu: What makes your company and its offer different/unique?

Álvaro Rezola: Wixdom has three edges of differentiation. First, we prioritise B2C, providing useful information for retail investors. Second, as a crowdfunding community-driven platform, we aim to become the primary channel for crowdsourced wisdom. Third, we are research-driven, offering greater coverage and depth than other data providers.

Chronicle.lu: What's next for your company?

Álvaro Rezola: We are launching the next version of our live product, expanding equity crowdfunding market coverage to top global platforms. We will also [launch] an intensive recruitment phase in Luxembourg, [looking] for computer and data scientists with an interest in entrepreneurial finance.