The British crowdfunding platform Seedrs, which offers investors equity rather than “perks”, has become the first of its kind to open shop across Europe.

Seedrs officially began its UK operations in July last year. The firm is unusual in that it holds the shares in the startups crowdfunded through its platform, on the investors’ behalf as a nominee. According to CEO Jeff Lynn (pictured), this makes life much easier for the startups when they want to raise venture funding in the future, as VCs aren’t crazy keen on companies that have hundreds of early-stage investors – try getting all those people to sign the necessary paperwork, for a start.

Now Seedrs is going Europe-wide, taking on a range of rivals across different countries such as Seedmatch in Germany. Of course, operating across the continent gives Seedrs something of an edge when it comes to scale.

“A platform like…