Case Study · FinTech Fundraising Platform Development

An invite-only fundraising platform connecting startups, investors and the experts between them

Ventora is a private investment platform where startups raise funding from a curated network of angel investors, family offices and angel groups. We built the whole deal lifecycle: invitations, screening, due diligence, pitch nights, syndicate and direct rounds, deployment and commissions, for seven roles in one application, connected to a KYC API, Odoo, Google Firebase and Mailgun.

Product: Ventora
Sector: Startup fundraising & angel investment
Our role: Architecture, full-stack development and integrations
Access: Private, by invitation only

7user roles, from founders and investors to scouts, experts and deal admins
8deal stages, from invitation to a deployed, closed round
70+modules, from deal tracking and data rooms to commissions and angel groups
4integrations: KYC API, Odoo, Google Firebase and Mailgun

See the real platform

Ventora is not the client’s real brand. To protect the client’s identity and their investors’ privacy, the platform is shown here under a name used only for this case study, with a re-themed interface and sample data. It is a closed system, so there is no public site to visit, but we can show you the real platform privately.

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The brief: a private market for startup deals

The client runs an investment network that sources early-stage startups, vets them and presents the strongest to its investors. The work had been running on spreadsheets, email threads and personal introductions. They needed one platform where every deal follows the same process, every person sees only what their role allows, and nobody gets in without an invitation.

The hard part was not any single screen. It was the hand-offs: a scout introduces a startup, an expert screens it, the founder fills a data room, a lead expert writes the memo, a deal admin runs the pitch night, investors commit, and finance confirms fees and deployment. Each step had to know what came before it, notify the next person and leave a record the deal admin could follow.

Who uses the platform

Startups

Apply for funding, complete onboarding and the data room, then follow their round, talk to their experts and manage who sees what.

Investors and angel groups

Complete KYC once, receive exclusive invitations, commit to rounds and track every investment through to deployment.

Scouts

Find promising startups, invite them onto the platform and earn a commission when the round closes.

Investor finders

Bring new investors into the network and earn a commission on what those investors put in.

Due diligence experts

Run the initial screening, the final due diligence and the investment memo, under deadlines the platform enforces.

Deal admins and super admins

Deal admins sit between startups and investors, scheduling pitch nights and running rounds. Super admins manage people, rules and fees.

How a deal moves through Ventora

Every startup follows the same eight stages. Each stage has an owner, a status the deal tracker can show, and emails or reminders that move it to the next person.

Invitation

A deal admin, scout or investor finder invites the startup through an encrypted, single-purpose link. Nobody joins without an introducer.

Application

The founder applies with company basics, a 30-second pitch, eligibility questions, a pitch deck and a teaser video, and accepts the platform's exclusivity terms.

Initial screening

A due diligence expert reviews the answers against the platform's criteria as red and green flags, then approves, rejects or asks for a second opinion.

Onboarding & internal pitch

Approved startups complete a detailed profile covering market, team, financials, legal setup and funding history, fill their data room and pitch internally.

Due diligence & memo

A lead expert and the due diligence team run the final review under deadlines, and write a structured investment memo that informs the decision.

Pitch night

The deal admin schedules the pitch, chooses matching investors and sends branded invitations. Attendance is tracked per investor.

Fundraising

The round opens with syndicate and direct allocations. Invited investors commit, request amount changes and follow the round as it fills.

Deployment & close

Committed capital is pooled, fees are confirmed with receipts, funds are deployed and the round is marked raised. Scouts and investor finders earn their commission.

A closed door with clear ways in

There is no public sign-up. Startups and investors arrive through invitation links that are encrypted, tied to one purpose and shortened with Google Firebase, or they pre-register and wait for approval. Every account keeps the name of the person who introduced it, which is how scouts and investor finders are credited later.

Sign in — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Sign in**One entry point for every role, with LinkedIn sign-in and separate routes to pre-register as an investor, register a startup or join as an associate.

Investor pre-registration — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Investor pre-registration**Prospective investors register interest and wait for approval; the record is synced to Odoo as a CRM lead.

Startup registration — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Startup registration**Founders open their account from an invitation and say who referred them, so every deal keeps its introducer.

Startups apply for funding

The application is short on purpose. It asks for what the screening team needs to decide whether to look closer, and every answer is stored as data the screening criteria can score, not as free text someone has to re-read.

Application overview — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Application overview**Founders see the four steps ahead and what the due diligence team will do with their answers.

Startup and founder basics — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Startup and founder basics**Company identity, industries, technology focus, founder details and a 30-second pitch.

Eligibility questionnaire — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Eligibility questionnaire**Short yes/no questions on valuation, round size, timing and commitments feed the screening criteria directly.

Pitch deck and teaser video — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Pitch deck and teaser video**Decks are converted for in-browser viewing, and teaser videos stream from the protected data room.

Exclusivity terms — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Exclusivity terms**The founder accepts a 30-day exclusive window after pitch night and agrees not to approach platform investors directly.

Screening and due diligence by assigned experts

New applications are assigned to a due diligence expert by default, or by the deal admin. The expert sees the startup’s fit against the platform’s criteria, the screening questions and answers, and the scout’s own view, then records a decision. Startups that later reach final due diligence get a lead expert and a team, with deadlines: reminders go out before a review is due, and a timeout alerts the deal admin when it is late.

Due diligence expert dashboard — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Due diligence expert dashboard**Each expert sees their queues for initial screening, startup onboarding, due diligence and memos, with the startups waiting in each.

Screening requests — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Screening requests**Assigned startups with their founder, request date and status, plus quick links to the startup profile and the scout's notes.

Criteria fit: red and green flags — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Criteria fit: red and green flags**The founder's answers are scored against the platform's criteria, so the expert starts from a clear fit percentage instead of a blank page.

Screening decision — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Screening decision**Approve, reject or ask for a second opinion. The decision moves the startup to the next stage and notifies everyone involved.

Investment memo — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Investment memo**Fourteen structured sections, from round details and conviction to risks and disclaimer, each tracked with its last editor and time.

Onboarding builds the investor-ready profile

Startups that pass screening complete a detailed onboarding. The same records later become the profile investors read, the round details deal admins manage and the data room experts review, so nothing is typed twice.

Onboarding for due diligence — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Onboarding for due diligence**A progress view of the profile, fundraising details, data room and terms the startup must complete.

Problem, solution and traction — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Problem, solution and traction**The narrative investors will read later is captured once, in structured fields.

Market and business model — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Market and business model**Market size, business model, comparable success stories and direct competitors.

Team — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Team**Founders, key team members and prior exits, shown later on the investor-facing profile.

Financial metrics — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Financial metrics**Burn rate, lifetime value, acquisition cost, runway and any further metrics the startup tracks.

Legal setup — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Legal setup**Operating companies and any holding company or SPV, which matter for how the round is structured.

Deal admins run the pipeline

Deal admins act as the intermediary between startups and investors. Their dashboard shows where every deal stands, what is waiting for approval and which reviews are overdue, and the deal tracker turns each startup’s history into a timeline.

Deal admin dashboard — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Deal admin dashboard**Deal flow, approvals waiting, the startup pipeline by stage and an action centre with every startup under review.

Deal tracker — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Deal tracker**Every startup on one timeline, from invitation to fundraising, with the date each stage was reached and the days it took.

All deals — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **All deals**Startups with their founder, scout, deal admin, screening and due diligence experts, current status and mailing list.

Adding a startup — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Adding a startup**Deal admins can add a startup directly, record how they know it and attach a recorded pitch before sending the invitation.

From pitch night to a funded round

Once due diligence is approved, the deal admin schedules the pitch night, picks the investors who match the startup and sends the invitations. When the round opens, they manage commitments, fees, receipts and deployment requests for each investor.

Startup profileThe deal admin's view of a startup: problem, solution, traction, team and highlights, with tools for pitch schedules and investors.

Round details — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Round details**Current round, valuation, discount, platform allocation, security type, funding history and financial metrics.

Matching investors — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Matching investors**Investors filtered by country, industry and technology focus, ready to invite or recommend. Angel group members are flagged.

Pitch schedules — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Pitch schedules**Pitch nights for each startup, with their meeting links, dates and status.

Pitch night invitation editor — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Pitch night invitation editor**A drag-and-drop email editor with placeholders for allocation, valuation and closing date, filled per startup when invitations go out.

Committed investors — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Committed investors**For each commitment the deal admin confirms the fee, sends the deployment request or withdraws the investment, and receipts are uploaded alongside.

Syndicate and direct allocations — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Syndicate and direct allocations**The overall round is split into syndicate and direct allocations, each with its own committed and remaining amounts.

Founders follow their round

During fundraising the founder sees the round fill in real time, prepares the campaign, chooses who can open each data room folder and talks with their experts in the platform’s chat room.

Founder fundraising dashboard — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Founder fundraising dashboard**Round progress, funds received, and how the round splits across syndicate, direct and pool allocations.

Preparing to raise — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Preparing to raise**A checklist for the campaign profile, investor selection, the founder's own investors, a lead investor and pitch terms.

Data room permissions — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Data room permissions**Founders decide, folder by folder, who can see their financials, cap table, incorporation and legal documents.

The founder's investors — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **The founder's investors**Deployed, committed, invited and withdrawn investors, including approved amount-change requests.

Chat room — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Chat room**Founders talk directly with their due diligence experts, with email alerts for new messages.

Investors invest with KYC done once

Investors complete onboarding once, including KYC and accreditation, before they receive any deal. After that, the platform brings deals to them: exclusive invitations with a clear yes or no, commitments that pool until the round can close, and a complete record of every investment.

Investor onboarding — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Investor onboarding**Personal information, KYC and accreditation, education and work, tax declaration and bank details, each tracked to completion.

Personal information — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Personal information**Identity, residency and contact details that feed KYC and the investor's Odoo contact record.

Investor dashboard — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Investor dashboard**Total committed, the investment journey from invitation to deployment, and the deals that need a decision.

Investment invitations — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Investment invitations**Exclusive deals with allocation, remaining amount and pitch deck, and a simple yes or no to invest.

Pooling of capital — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Pooling of capital**Commitments wait in a pool until the startup reaches its minimum aggregated allocation, then subscription opens.

Deployed investments — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Deployed investments**Each investment's full history: invitation, commitment, deployment request and confirmation, with fee receipts.

The network behind the deals

The platform also manages the people who find and support the deals: associates with one or more roles, investors and angel groups, and the internal team.

Associates: scouts, investor finders and experts

One associate account can hold several roles. Each associate onboards once, agrees to the platform's terms and earns a commission on the deals or investors they bring.

Associate onboarding — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Associate onboarding**Personal information, experience, bank details and terms, completed before the associate is approved.

Associate profileIdentity documents, residency and contact details for every scout, investor finder and expert.

Experience — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Experience**Background, investing history and how the associate screens deals.

Associate terms — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Associate terms**Commitments on introductions, screening, conflicts of interest and when fees are paid.

Associates — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Associates**Scouts, due diligence experts and partners with their roles and account status.

Roles and commission — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Roles and commission**Role switches for scout, deal manager, due diligence expert and investor finder, with commission per investment.

Commissions — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Commissions**Commission earned, paid and outstanding for each investor finder, by startup and investor.

Investors and angel groups

Administrators invite investors individually or in bulk, and angel groups let a group admin bring members who invest together.

Investors — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Investors**Who invited each investor, profile completion, account status and mailing lists, with invitations by link, email or WhatsApp.

Inviting an investor — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Inviting an investor**Investor details, type and the startups to recommend, saved or sent as an invitation in one step.

Angel groups — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Angel groups**Groups with their admin and members, each approved before they can invest as a group.

Platform administration

Super admins manage the team and the rules every round runs on, without a code change.

Administrators — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **Administrators**The internal team with access to the admin panel, each with an active or disabled account.

System settings — Ventora startup fundraising platform — **System settings**Branding, email, default deal admin and expert, ticket sizes and fees for syndicate and direct investment, deadlines and raise limits.

The screenshots show the platform under the Ventora name and theme used for this case study, with sample startups, investors and amounts. The structure, workflow and features are those of the real product.

Integrations

Four services connect Ventora to the rest of the client’s business. Each one is called from a specific event in the deal lifecycle, so the integrations stay predictable and easy to trace.

KYC API

Investor identity, address and source-of-funds documents are checked through a KYC API during onboarding. A nightly job flags documents that expire within a month and notifies the investor and their deal admin, and a commitment only moves to deployment once KYC is received, confirmed and approved.

Odoo

Members and their companies are synced to Odoo as contacts, and investor pre-registrations become CRM leads. Members open the Odoo portal through single sign-on links protected with AES-256-GCM encryption, so they never handle a second password.

Google Firebase

Invitation, pitch attendance and pitch deck links are long and encrypted. Firebase turns them into short links that work well in email and WhatsApp, and each one is stored so the same asset always reuses the same link.

Mailgun

Every invitation, reminder and status change is sent through Mailgun. Bulk sends go through a queue that a scheduled job works through at a steady pace, and delivery events are logged so the team can see what reached whom.

Engineering decisions worth explaining

One account, several roles

An associate can be a scout, investor finder, deal manager and due diligence expert at once. Permissions follow the roles switched on for the account rather than separate logins, and each role adds its own menu and queues.

A data room that checks every file

Data room files are never served from a public path. Each request checks the viewer’s access to that startup and folder first; videos stream with byte ranges, and pitch decks in PowerPoint or PDF are converted for viewing in the browser.

The status is the source of truth

Each startup carries one status, from “Invitation Sent” to “Raised” or “Investment Failed”. Dashboards, the deal tracker, permissions and emails all read from it, so every screen agrees on where a deal is.

Scheduled jobs keep deals moving

Cron jobs send sign-up, review and tax reminders, chase due diligence experts before and after deadlines, close rounds whose deadline has passed, work through the email queue and re-check KYC documents.

Rules live in settings, not code

Ticket sizes, fees for syndicate and direct investment, days to commit, raise limits, default assignees and currency rates are all editable by super admins, so a policy change does not need a release.

Commission tied to the introducer

Because every startup and investor records who brought them in, commissions for scouts and investor finders are calculated from closed investments rather than claimed by hand.

Built with

Application

PHP
CodeIgniter
MySQL
jQuery
Bootstrap
Select2
Dropzone

Integrations

KYC API
Odoo (contacts, CRM, portal SSO)
Google Firebase
Mailgun
LinkedIn sign-in
WhatsApp invitations
reCAPTCHA

Platform services

Role-based access
Protected data room
GrapesJS email editor
CKEditor
Document conversion
PDF and Excel exports
Scheduled jobs and queues

Building a fundraising platform: common questions

What features does a startup fundraising platform need?

At its core: controlled access for startups and investors, a structured application, screening and due diligence tools, a secure data room, a way to present deals to investors, and round management that tracks commitments, allocations, fees and deployment. Ventora adds pitch nights, angel groups, syndicate and direct allocations, scout and investor-finder commissions, and integrations for KYC, Odoo, Firebase and Mailgun.

How does an invite-only investment platform control who can join?

Every account starts from an invitation. In Ventora, startups and investors join through encrypted links sent by a deal admin, a scout or an investor finder, or they pre-register and wait for approval. Each person then completes onboarding for their role before they see deals, so the network stays curated and every member has a known introducer.

How does KYC work on an investment platform?

Investors complete a KYC and accreditation step during onboarding: identity and address documents, source of funds, proof of income and suitability questions. Ventora checks these through a KYC API, tracks expiry dates, and runs a scheduled check that flags documents expiring within a month and notifies both the investor and their deal admin. A commitment only moves to deployment once the documents are received, confirmed and approved.

Can a fundraising platform integrate with Odoo or another ERP?

Yes. Ventora keeps Odoo in step automatically: users and their companies are synced as Odoo contacts, investor pre-registrations become CRM leads, and members open the Odoo portal through encrypted single sign-on links. The same approach works for other ERPs and CRMs with an API.

How is due diligence managed on the platform?

A due diligence expert runs an initial screening, scoring the startup's answers against the platform's criteria as red and green flags, then approves, rejects or asks for a second opinion. Startups that pass complete a detailed onboarding and data room, and a lead expert writes a structured investment memo. Deadlines, reminders and timeouts keep reviews moving, and the deal admin sees every step on the deal tracker.

Can I see the real platform behind Ventora?

Yes. Ventora is the name we use for this case study to protect the client's identity, and the screenshots use sample data. Contact us and we will arrange a private demo of the real platform.

Planning an investment or fundraising platform?

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