CoFoundersLab merges with New York firm to form Onevest

Entrepreneur-investor matchmaking service CoFoundersLab is merging with a New York crowdfunding platform.
The Rockville firm’s new venture with RockThePost is called Onevest. The combined company will have offices in Rockville, New York and San Francisco. Financial terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed.
“Onevest is a one-stop-shop startup investing platform connecting early stage startups with accredited investors and giving investors a first look at the best, most qualified startups,” Michael Hughes, Onevest’s VP of community development said in an email. “Moreover, Onevest will also be the new home for CoFoundersLab’s online co-founder matchmaking platform helping entrepreneurs build stronger core founding teams faster.”
There is a crush of efforts vying to be matchmaking services for investors and a growing tech business class, such as crowdfunding platforms and networks like Angelist. Much of the energy is coming from a move toward changing rules in equity investment.
In a blog post on the CoFoundersLab website, cofounder Shahab Kaviani wrote that the merger would increase startups’ access to capital.
“We recognized that in order to truly accelerate innovation we must help democratize access to capital and bring it within reach of talented founders everywhere, not only in startup hubs like San Francisco and NYC,” he wrote. “For founders, Onevest means you can now join a single community to build your core founding team and access capital.”
Until the two companies’ platforms are integrated, however, Kaviani wrote that founders can still use CoFoundersLab to find cofounders, advisers and interns, and can use RockThePost’s website to raise capital or invest in startups.