Republic Europe Managing Director Kieron O'Brien joins the Steering Committee of the Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance
Kieron O'Brien, Managing Director of Republic Europe and Central Bank of Ireland approved person, has joined the GECA Steering Committee as Strategic Advisor for Ireland, bringing two decades of leadership across regulated fintech and capital markets.
One of European private investing's leading operators brings two decades of capital markets and regulated fintech experience to GECA's global leadership.
European private investing has matured faster than its reputation. What has been missing is a genuinely global conversation connecting all of it. GECA is building it, and I am delighted to help.”
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, August 11, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance (GECA), the trusted convener for the worldwide regulated crowdfunding community, today announced the appointment of Kieron O'Brien to its Steering Committee as Strategic Advisor for Ireland.— Kieron O'Brien, Managing Director, Republic Europe
O'Brien is Managing Director of Republic Europe, formerly Seedrs, the leading European private investment platform and part of the global Republic ecosystem, where he oversees revenue, marketing and business development for issuers and investors across the continent. His role carries PCF-1 and PCF-8 designations under the Central Bank of Ireland's Fitness and Probity regime, meaning he was individually vetted and approved by the regulator before taking the position.
He brings more than two decades of commercial leadership across regulated fintech and capital markets. His career spans SME lending at Linked Finance, revenue-based financing at Clearco and Outfund, regulatory compliance technology at Know Your Customer, and institutional capital markets at Rosenblatt Securities, which acquired majority ownership of the brokerage business he founded, Intellitrade, in 2005. Through OTE Advisors he has worked directly with founders and scale-ups on go-to-market strategy and growth.
O'Brien is also a recognised voice on the future of European private markets. In a recent three-part series for EU-Startups he argued that founders should treat fundraising as a capital strategy rather than a transaction, that private investment platforms have evolved into regulated infrastructure rather than marketplaces, and that artificial intelligence is best understood as "Assisted Intelligence" that supports human judgement rather than replacing it. He appeared at the EU-Startups Summit in Malta in May 2026 on the future of equity crowdfunding, investor syndicates and venture deals.
His appointment comes as GECA passes 100 member organisations, The First 100, and launches the Future of Crowdfunding Initiative 2026-2027: a global roundtable series, the industry's largest supporter survey, and a flagship Future of Crowdfunding Report publishing in early 2027.
"Kieron thinks about this industry the way it needs to be thought about: not as a fundraising channel, but as regulated infrastructure that founders build their futures on," said Andy Field, GECA Steering Committee Lead. "He has worked across every part of the capital stack, he is regulator-approved to run one of Europe's leading platforms, and he arrives with a clear public view of where this is all going."
"European private investing has matured faster than its reputation," said O'Brien. "Regulation has raised the standard, platforms have become infrastructure, and founders now treat this as a serious part of their capital strategy. What has been missing is a genuinely global conversation connecting all of that. GECA is building it, and I am delighted to help."
O'Brien joins a Steering Committee drawing together respected leaders from across the global regulated crowdfunding ecosystem, guiding an alliance whose membership spans crowdfunding platforms, regulators, technology providers, associations, researchers and academics on every continent.
About Kieron O'Brien
Kieron O'Brien brings over two decades of commercial leadership dedicated to championing founder access to capital across regulated fintech and capital markets. He is currently Managing Director of Republic Europe (formerly Seedrs), the leading European private investment platform, overseeing revenue, marketing, and business development for issuers and investors across the continent. His career has spanned SME lending at Linked Finance, revenue-based financing at Clearco and Outfund, and regulatory compliance technology at Know Your Customer, alongside earlier years building European operations in institutional capital markets at Rosenblatt Securities. Through OTE Advisors, he has also worked directly with founders and scale-ups on go-to-market strategy and growth. Kieron's global, cross-sector experience and consistent focus on founder representation and regulatory navigation position him to support GECA's mission of growing a transparent, borderless equity crowdfunding sector
About GECA
The Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance is the trusted convener for the worldwide regulated crowdfunding community, where platforms, regulators, technology providers, associations, and academia exchange ideas, share best practice, and advance the industry together through year-round collaboration and coordinated action. Learn more at https://thegeca.org.
Media contact: Andy Field · andrew@thegeca.org · https://thegeca.org
Andrew Field
Global Equity Crowdfunding Alliance
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