This webinar will show you how to prepare to unlock investment.

Overview

Any investment ready business should be able to clearly demonstrate a strong team, a deep understanding of their market and competition, a detailed understanding of their business model, how the business makes money and what traction and key milestones have been achieved. More importantly, the business must know what the plans are once funds are raised, how the funds will be used to scale the business and what the key value creating milestones are that will ultimately lead to a successful exit.

Innovate UK EDGE support has helped South East SMEs secure over £10M investment in the past few years. This webinar will provide an overview of how to prepare, understand issues and the documents needed to be successful.

Key topics covered

Six points to being prepared:

• Value Proposition
• The Market
• IP/Barriers to Competition
• Management
• Financials
• Growth and Global Markets

Key issues when raising funding:

• Valuations: Can often be a deal breaker but a good investor who can help a company achieve their goals is more valuable than an extra %.
• NDAs: Most investors won’t sign them but should be used for all other commercial relationships.
• Director/Founder salary? Investors know funders have to live, find a balance and additional salary can come from gross margin.
• Key Man Insurance? Some investors insist; quotes vary but costs on rise.
• Financial Controls: Outsource at start if founders not qualified, make sure bookkeeping is resourced and processes are in place.
• Shareholder Agreements (SA): Each SA is designed to get you to the next stage or funding round. It’s not forever so don’t get too hung up about it. Most investors will have their standard ‘like it or leave it’ template.

A set of documents that are instrumental in unlocking investment:

• Opportunity Note – an executive summary of the business, raise and offering
• Investor Presentation – a deck for face-to-face presentations and demos
• Investment Memorandum – a full investment document on the business, product, markets, problem, solution, financials and plans
• Financial Forecast - a well-documented and logical set of financials

Delegate learning from the webinar

• Making sure an investor is the right choice for injecting capital into your business
• The difference between different investors such as Angel or Venture Capital and which is right for you
• How to prepare and approach investors and what they expect you to have in place
• Expectations from your first conversation with an investor
• The common pitfalls that businesses fall into when looking for investment

Who is this webinar for

This webinar is exclusively for small to medium sized businesses up to 500 employees registered in the following UK counties: Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex and Kent. It is tailored to innovative businesses experiencing high growth or with strong growth potential and who are bringing new ideas to market.

Additional support from Innovate UK EDGE

We provide specialist-led funded support, tailored to help innovative SMEs achieve their growth ambitions. In addition to supporting grant funding applications, we can help in areas such as:

• sourcing investment
• revenue growth
• IP protection or
• a fresh perspective on your strategy.

Read more on how we can help you grow.

Your presenters

Eileen Modral helps companies understand their options for financing growth strategies under Innovate UK EDGE, with her years of experience in helping early-stage companies raise equity investment. She has strong links across the early-stage equity landscape and believes collaboration is vital to ensure innovation thrives; so connect early stage investors is a big part of her ethos.

Daniel Cooney is an Innovation & Growth Specialist at Innovate UK Edge, who joined after owning and operating three different businesses in the finance, export and facilities management space in Australasia, UK and Africa. Prior to this, Daniel spent 10 years as a private and corporate banker specialising in debt funding through both asset and cashflow financing and has brokered equity and mezzanine debt deals within the property development space.

Jakub Rakoczy is the Pitchfest Champion for South East of England. Jakub is a Team Leader and Senior Innovation & Growth Specialist at Innovate UK EDGE, helping companies become investment ready, secure R&D funding and provide guidance on protecting intellectual property rights.

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