For those who have been involved in the startup ecosystem and capital increases of young innovative companies for some time, we can state that: when a startup closes or collects a round, the news exists if, and only if, it is accompanied by a press release. The note is issued by a press office which has the honor and duty of disseminating its content to the relevant Stakeholders. The content (with a consolidated format) describes the details of the operation, specifies who the lead investors are, often accompanied by shares or declarations of the protagonists, CEO, founder, VC. Obviously the newspapers themselves then deepen with interviews with those directly concerned.
Having said this, we will tell you what happened recently regarding the closure of a round of a startup.
A few days ago, several international newspapers specialized in investments shared and resumed a press release concerning an Estonian startup named Carbonomy to close a $16 million Series A round. Lead investor of the operation a hedge fund headquartered in Paris, Hedonova.
The story, however ordinary everyday life in the ecosystem of innovation, has turned out to be completely falsea real online investment scam. It was Mauro Battellini, co-founder of Black Unicorn who denounced it in the media, who after receiving a phone call from a customer of one of his companies who called attention to the veracity of the news, and after a dozen googles, cross-checks in network and a few phone calls, ha discovered not only that Carbonomy does not exist (the website used to be a clone of another startup, now removed and no longer appears on Crunchbase), but what the $16 million funding round never happened.
The crazy story of a fake round
It all began on March 13, 2023, when a press release was released in which it says, among other things: “Carbonomy is a startup that helps farms become sustainable and to increase their income by earning carbon credits.” News of the round was published on Cision PR Newswire (now no longer online) and subsequently picked up by various outlets, including Yahoo Finance and Investors Observer. And as if that wasn’t enough (traces of this remain) not only did the experts of the startup ecosystem celebrate the news on LinkedIn as usual, but many market analysts and tech enthusiasts spread and shared the news of the capital increase.
It actually turned out that the Carbonomy site was completely stolen from another startup, the eAgronom Global, using its page, terms and conditions.
Who is behind Hedonova?
According to its website, Hedonova begins in 2019. It claims to have offices all over the world, including Tallinn, Paris, Zurich, Latvia, London and California. At the time of writing, it is listed on Crunchbase with a valuation of $38.5 million. The company has a profile in Pitchbook and Wikipedia, and Trust Pilot. The society invites aspiring VCs to invest in startups for as little as $5,000 citing investments in top companies such as Opensea, SpaceX, Swiggy, Flexport and Robinhood. He claims to have invested $18.4 million in Chemie-Tech DMCC, whose website has been down since 2016. Plus most of his followers on Twitter ha zero follower.
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The many doubts
There would be many doubts about the Hedonova fund, which as TechEu reports, in its in-depth analysis of what it defines as the “Ponzi case 2.0”, leaves many suspicious about its reliability and raises the red flag. For example, in the Carbonomy story, the investor presents himself as a Paris-based hedge fund. In other cases, Hedonova bills itself as a California-based global fund. Not only that but the CEO, Alexander Cavendish would have different identities on the web. Furthermore, neither Hedonova’s website nor his social networks have ever mentioned the Carbonomy round. And as if that weren’t enough, no one has ever seen the CEO in the face, not even in a video call (always camera obscured).
Hedonova, on her side, hastened to issue a press release in which she declares herself extraneous to the round, warns the startup Carbonomy and claims to have taken immediate legal action against this initiative from which to distance herself.
When asked for an interview, the background is silent. Would startups be targeted by online investment scams?