Interview with COMETUM

Inside Access: How COMETUM Brings Investors Closer to Giants Like Stripe, SpaceX and Anthropic

Most private investors assume that companies like Stripe, SpaceX and Anthropic are simply out of reach before they go public. We sat down with COMETUM, the specialist manager behind Invesdor’s pre-IPO campaigns, to find out how access to these companies is actually earned, and what it means for the investors joining our second campaign together: Stripe.

Companies are staying private for longer than ever. A decade ago, most of a great company’s value creation happened after its stock market debut. Today, it increasingly happens before, while the company is still private, and still closed off to almost everyone except large funds, founders’ networks and a handful of specialist intermediaries. It’s part of why growth companies have become such a closely watched segment for investors.

That is the gap COMETUM was built to close. As Europe’s leading digital investment manager for private markets, COMETUM securitizes pre-IPO stakes in some of the world’s most valuable private companies, from SpaceX to Anthropic, and now Stripe, turning positions that once sat exclusively on institutional balance sheets into something a private investor can actually hold.

“As CEO, I set the strategic direction and personally drive what matters most in this business: access to the deals, clean structures, and the right partners,” says Sascha Miller, CEO of COMETUM. That sentence is really the whole thesis of this article: in private markets, access, structure and trust are the product, not the pitch deck.

This is the first in a series of conversations with COMETUM. It was written to stand on its own, not just for investors evaluating the current Stripe campaign, but as a lasting reference for anyone considering a future COMETUM opportunity on Invesdor.

Why access is the real currency in private markets

Shares in companies like Stripe don’t trade on an exchange, and they don’t get listed with an asking price. They move quietly, between counterparties who already know and trust each other. So we asked COMETUM the question every investor asks first: how do you actually get in?

In other words: access isn’t purchased on demand, it’s compounded over years of clean execution. Every deal COMETUM closes well becomes the reference that opens the next door.

How COMETUM actually gets into the room

Behind every allocation is a counterparty willing to sell, and a reason they chose to sell through COMETUM rather than anyone else. Typically, Miller explains, these are early investors and funds seeking liquidity, early employees, and occasionally family offices rebalancing their exposure. Relationships usually start through referrals from a previous transaction: once you’ve closed cleanly with one counterparty, you become the first call for the next one.

What makes a large shareholder trust COMETUM specifically comes down to three things, according to Miller: certainty of execution, discretion, and a compliant structure. A large shareholder does not want their stake shopped around the market, since that can damage their relationship with the company itself. They want one professional counterparty who respects the company’s transfer rules, closes on the agreed terms, and puts the shares into a solid, regulated structure.

Miller points to COMETUM’s Anthropic allocation as the clearest example of how this plays out in practice. The opportunity came through a fund COMETUM already had a long-standing relationship with, having invested in SpaceX together previously. When an Anthropic allocation opened up, demand was extreme, far more investors wanted in than there were shares available.

“Allocations don’t go to whoever pays the most. They go to counterparties the fund trusts to execute fast, discreetly, and without complications.”

Sascha Miller, CEO, COMETUM

That same dynamic, years of proven, clean execution, underpins how COMETUM sources allocations like the current Stripe opportunity.

Where private deals actually die

Sourcing an allocation is only the first half of the job. Getting it cleanly into an investor’s hands is the part most people never see, and where deals most often unravel. “The transfer mechanics: rights of first refusal, company approvals, unclear multi-layered holding structures, forward contracts. This is where deals die,” Miller says. “Private markets are still manual and relationship-driven. Disciplined execution and legal precision are the real moat, not the idea.”

That discipline shows up as a strict checklist of dealbreakers. COMETUM walks away when it sees: unclear title to the underlying shares, SPV chains where the economics can’t be traced down to the actual share, sellers who won’t disclose their cost basis or structure, pricing detached from recent secondary transactions, or any pressure to skip diligence for the sake of speed. As Miller puts it: “No name is attractive enough to compromise on structure.”

Important

Pre-IPO investments are high-risk and illiquid. Even a manager as disciplined as COMETUM cannot change the fundamental nature of this asset class: capital can be tied up for several years and may be lost entirely. These opportunities should only be considered as part of a well-diversified portfolio, and never with money you may need in the short term.

Risk, transparency, and who this is (and isn’t) for

Access to a company like Stripe is exciting, but COMETUM is direct about what investors are actually signing up for. Miller names the risks without softening them: illiquidity, valuation uncertainty, dilution, lock-up downside, concentration, and, as with any single-company investment, the risk of total loss. “We say this openly in every document and every conversation: this is a satellite allocation, not a core holding. Diversify across several companies and only commit capital you will not need for years,” he says.

It’s a useful frame for any investor evaluating a pre-IPO opportunity: this asset class rewards patience and diversification, not concentration in a single name, however well known that name might be.

Why COMETUM chose Invesdor, and what it means for you

Sourcing the deal is only valuable if the right investors can actually reach it. That’s the other half of what COMETUM says it needed from a platform partner. “Access is only half of our mission. The other half is distribution to the investors who were locked out. Invesdor brings exactly that: a regulated, established European platform with an investor base that understands alternative investments and has been asking for this asset class. We bring sourcing, safe and transparent structures, and a fully compliant product,” Miller says.

Miller is direct about what makes the collaboration stand out: through Invesdor, investors can participate from as little as €250, a threshold he calls unique in this asset class. Just as importantly, investors get direct exposure to a single company of their choice, not a blind-pool position spread across dozens of holdings inside a fund structure. You can browse all current investment opportunities on Invesdor, or read more about how investing in companies works on the platform.

“Together we make pre-IPO investing straightforward and accessible. That is a genuinely new standard in Europe,” Miller says. It’s also, in practical terms, exactly what’s now open to Invesdor investors through the current Stripe campaign, and the template for what future COMETUM opportunities on Invesdor will look like.

Notes and risks

This article reflects the views and experience shared by COMETUM and is intended as general information about access to pre-IPO shares. It is not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Invesdor does not provide investment brokerage services. You can review Invesdor’s own platform statistics and past success stories at any time.

Investment decisions should be based solely on the published offering documents. Investments in private company shares carry significant risks, including illiquidity, valuation uncertainty, dilution and the potential total loss of invested capital.