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Raising Finance

 

Raising finance for a start-up or early stage venture is likely to be one of the more painful things you’ll experience in life. Not only have you got to trawl around numerous investors / funds explaining over and over again what your concept is, but it can also be a serious distraction on the day-to-day running of your business.

Some entrepreneurs approach the task with a ‘direct mail’ approach - if you send out enough business plans and spreadsheets, hopefully one will come up trumps. It’s a terrible statistic but only 2% of business plans go on to successfully raise finance.

There is a smarter way to approach this, and much of it boils down to preparation and good advice. That’s where Envestors comes in. We have been working in this space since 2004. We know the market, we know a lot of investors and we know the pitfalls. Crucially we know what it takes to get a fund or investor interested.

Are we the only people that can help you? No, of course not – there are a few other players in the market that we rate, but there are an awful lot of “advisors” and “experts” out there that we don’t.

In our experience, there are certain characters to be wary of before signing up to their terms. They are:

  1. The unregulated advisor, with no offices, no support and no access to funding sources but wanting to charge you £5000 up front
  2. The database sellers - charging hundreds of pounds to access a 'vast' database of thousands of investors.

We firmly believe that when it comess to raising finance, its quality and not quantity that counts. Accordingly we charge our investors to be members of our network, so that we can be certain they are serious about investing.

We think our results speak for themselves. Over a little over two years, our companies have raised more than £15m and our investors have written cheques for more than £5m.

 

Investment Criteria

 

 

Sectors All sectors considered, with a focus on technology, software, product innovation and B2B services
Stage Generating revenue (on exceptional occasions, we may consider ventures close to generating 'meaningful' revenue
Location Located in London and the south (i.e. within 150miles of London or Bristol)
Management
A strong full-time management team with relevant experience in, and a thorough understanding of the market

 

We receive up to 100 business plans per month and select the companies that we feel have the best chance of raising finance. We invite these companies to attend a free Investment Clinic, which we hold every other Tues, during which we talk about various aspects of raising finance, and give some tips and guidance. Its also an opportunity for companies to find out more about us and the way we operate. We also believe meeting people face-to-face is the best way to find out if you can work together. Click on the link to find out more about our Investment Clinics