We invest people first and want to quickly ascertain whether the founding team has the experience and expertise required to drive the business forward. We also want to know if they put in the work to make their idea successful.
Sweat Equity Investment
Our expertise comes from our experience. We add value because we are absolutely not a team of stuffy financial advisors who only know the world of corporate investment. We’re a group of passionate entrepreneurs, designers and technologists who live and breathe digital product development every single day.
We typically provide our investment services on a sweat-equity basis, often acting as a bridge between the first round of funding and more significant raises.
Our Investment Criteria
Founder Ability
We look for founders who are commercially driven, self-aware and adaptable. We’d much rather back a strong founder with a reasonable concept than vice-versa. Part of our value-add is that we work with founders to refine their ideas based on industry insights and customer feedback.
Commercial Potential
We look for products and services that have strong commercial foundations baked into the fundamental concept. If we can easily identify critical flaws in your revenue model or target market, it’s a sign that the idea is not ready for our programme.
Market Maturity and Growth
We invest in markets where there are both existing adoption rates and significant potential for future growth. Launching too soon into an underdeveloped market is just as problematic as launching too late.
Market Disruption and Opportunity
We want to know if the concept meaningfully challenges the status quo or meets the needs of consumers looking to try something new. We are especially interested in markets that are underserved by current technology solutions.
Market Saturation and Competition
The concept must be able to stand on its own and sufficiently differentiate itself from the competition. This is especially important in saturated markets with large incumbents such as Uber or Google.
Application process
Pitch
Submit your pitch deck and any supporting documents directly our Ventures programme using the link below. Please state you require an NDA before sending any commercially sensitive information.
Review
Your application will be reviewed by one of our analysts to check you meet our requirements. A decision to move forward with the next stage should take no longer than a week.
Discuss
If you pass the initial selection process you’ll be invited to speak to a member of our Senior Ventures Team to discuss your idea and plans in more detail. This call will last approximately an hour.
Develop
If we mutually decide a partnership is viable, our team will perform a round of due diligence before agreeing to heads of terms. You will then be introduced to your advisory team and relevant experts within the business to begin the process of developing your idea and platform.