Winklevoss Twins Invest $1m In New Professional Social Network

The Winklevoss twins, who lost to Mark Zuckerberg in a fight for Facebook, have invested $1 million in SumZero, a social network for professional investors, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

SumZero was created in 2008 and allows investors to share trading ideas and information on investments. It was founded by the twins’ Harvard classmates Divya Narendra and Aalap Mahadevia and boasts 7,500 members.

Narendra was a co-litigant with Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in their legal dispute with Mark Zuckerberg over the foundation of Facebook. He and the twins came up with the idea for a social network in 2002 that was eventually called ConnectU and hired Zuckerberg to help create it in late 2003.

Winklevoss Twins Investment

Zuckerberg then launched Facebook in early 2004, leading to allegations that he had stolen the idea from the trio, who took their case as high as the US Supreme Court. Eventually they were forced to settle for $20 million in cash and shares in Facebook which were then valued at around $45 million.  The company was then thought to be worth around $15 billion, so the shares’ value is still higher than when they were handed over, despite the poor performance of Facebook stock since sits flotation.

The twins created Winklevoss Capital to manage their wealth and have now invested in SumZero, which restricts membership to those on the “buy side”, such as professionals at hedge funds, mutual funds and private equity funds tather than those on the “sell side” like banks.

Narendra apparently personally reviews every application and rejects around 75 percent of them. The attraction is for members to read and share investment ideas and each person must share at least one idea every six months or lose access to the database.

Members are able to use the site for free, but outside investors can pay $129 a month for limited access to ideas chosen by Narendra after he has sought the author’s permission. The site may charge larger institutions for access in the future, but advertising is not on the agenda as it apparently cheapens the experience.

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