capital funding - a review and comparison of angel investors, early and later stage seed funding...

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  Capital Funding A review and comparison of Angel Investors, Early and Later Stage Seed Funding Venture Capitalists, Public Private Partnership, Corporate Risk Capital Fund and Crowdfunding A review of the contemporary capital funding options and sources to support businesses, enterprises and entrepreneurs at different stages of life cycle with a comparative review of key indicators like size of venture fund, number of investments, types of industries, types and sizes of companies invested in, major factors for evaluating potential investments, valuation methodologies and application procedure and financing types and success rates. 2015 user 3/8/2015

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A review of the contemporary capital funding options and sources to support businesses, enterprises and entrepreneurs at different stages of life cycle with a comparative review of key indicators like size of venture fund, number of investments, types of industries, types and sizes of companies invested in, major factors for evaluating potential investments, valuation methodologies and application procedure and financing types and success rates. Hire Me to Write Your Academic Papers for the Best Quality!Are you looking for a paper writer? Are you worried about writing an essay for your college or university? Leave the tension, simply contact me. I am offering the best quality academic and research papers, thesis, essay writing, term paper and dissertation writing service, right in your budget! Have a look at my profile and see what hundreds of people like you have said about me.Connect here at https://www.freelancer.com/u/brohhma.htmlor email at [email protected]

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  • Capital Funding A review and comparison of Angel Investors, Early and Later Stage Seed Funding Venture Capitalists, Public Private Partnership, Corporate Risk Capital Fund and Crowdfunding A review of the contemporary capital funding options and sources to support businesses, enterprises and entrepreneurs at different stages of life cycle with a comparative review of key indicators like size of venture fund, number of investments, types of industries, types and sizes of companies invested in, major factors for evaluating potential investments, valuation methodologies and application procedure and financing types and success rates.

    2015

    user

    3/8/2015

  • A Report On Capital Funding for Businesses and Entrepreneurs

    2

    Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3

    Crowdfunding ........................................................................................................................................... 4

    Angel Investors.......................................................................................................................................... 5

    Public Private Partnership ......................................................................................................................... 6

    Corporate Risk Capital Fund...................................................................................................................... 7

    Early and Later Stage Seed Funding Venture Capitals .............................................................................. 8

    Contemporary Financing Entities .................................................................................................................. 9

    CircleUp ..................................................................................................................................................... 9

    SierraAngels .............................................................................................................................................. 9

    Finnvera .................................................................................................................................................... 9

    Petra Capital Partners ............................................................................................................................. 10

    Centripetal Capital Partners .................................................................................................................... 10

    Comparative Statement .............................................................................................................................. 11

    Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 16

    Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................ 17

  • A Report On Capital Funding for Businesses and Entrepreneurs

    3

    Introduction

    Young entrepreneurs find it very challenging to get funding from contemporary financing channels and

    institutions to finance their unique business ideas. Established financing institutions lack of interest in

    exploring entrepreneurial potentiality have taken such a conservative form that newer breeds of capital

    financing have emerged on the horizon over last few decades. Especially since the wide spread-out of

    social media and people contacts over internet has made the growth of KickStarter, GoFundMe,

    IndieGoGo etc as part of modern financing history. This paper describes such five capital financing

    options for innovative business minded people, entrepreneurs and young startups with their instances

    in detail.

    Before moving to describe each financing options available to modern enterprises and entrepreneur this

    would be essential to elaborate the development of such financing. Banks play traditional role of

    financing to commercial and customer sectors however, they are more regulated and have operating

    costs. Therefore they cannot always make quick investment decision or avoid their banking formalities.

    For new startups and business concepts it is not always possible to offer collateral or share the

    ownership. Again, there are individuals and business with myriad of idle money who are keen in making

    short run investment to get number of times higher return. Such prevalence of business interests and

    needs of capital financing and funding sector have contributed towards the development of newer types

    of financing arrangements that bypass the traditional lenders and borrower concepts in principles.

    Technology, market insight, business potentiality and other key elements have emerged up to be a

    equally strong foothold for investment that traditional capital funding sources could not ignore. Given

    the prospect of new forms of enterprises and financing needs newer range of capital funding and

    financing options emerged in response to the growing demand for it. Angel investors, venture capitalist,

    public private partnership, early and later stage seed funding financiers, incubators, microfinancers, etc

    established themselves to be alternative financing sources for business. They have proved the worth by

    venturing many global brands and have also witnessed incremental growth in their own business.

    For enterprises and businesses the alternative capital funding sources have opened wide avenue in

    funding to support them in taking risk, to grow and to exit safely. Businesses and enterprises are now

    better protected and cared.

  • A Report On Capital Funding for Businesses and Entrepreneurs

    4

    Crowdfunding

    Crowdfunding stands for networking individuals who pour their money to support any initiative on

    internet platform by any entity. It is an adapted form of crowdsourcing and differentiates itself by

    focusing on the intent of the concept that to be funded through individual contributions. CircleUp stands

    as one of the most popular crowdfunding service at the moment.

    The term Crowdfunding was first coined by Michael Sullivan in 2006 in his famous fundavlog and since

    then the concept of crownfunding kept evolving where by financing a project or venture by individual

    monetary contribution of large number of people became to be its essential characteristics. Irrespective

    of profit motive, the crowdfunding has been used to generate cash support and capital support for

    projects, products, services, causes and enterprises and development organizations. Generally it

    requires stake from three parties, the concept provider, the follower of the concept and a mediating

    agency. Nowadays internet websites that work as crowdfunding platform are functionally playing the

    role of mediator as an adaptation of the fund raising agents role. In 2013 the crowdfunding industry

    grew to nearly 6 billion US$ venturing fund size with millions of individual monetary contributors behind

    it.

    Contemporary crowdfunding initiatives are of five types. The charity based crowdfunding gather funding

    for a charity cause where investors ideally do not look for return from their investment and it works

    more on donation principle. Another type of crowdfunding is legal in its jurisdiction it is called the

    litigation crowdfunding where investors invest in legal battle for lawful rights claim. A legal recognition

    in the case will offer some benefits for the stake holder investors. The third type of crowdfunding are

    based on individuals borrowing requirements and terms. A person makes his borrowing appeal to group

    of people and seek to get lenders bypassing the contemporary financial lending institutions and

    channels. Once a group of investor accepts the borrower terms the funding occurs. Such crowdfundings

    popularity is on rise these days. The fourth type is based on equity sharing and much related with

    businesses, enterprises and entrepreneurs where a business seeks funding from others in exchange of

    equity sharing. The last type of crowdfunding occurs on the basis of rewards but this is much limited to

    creative fields and arts. A creative project gets initiated and looks for crowd funding from aspiring

    investors.

    Crowdfunding stands as the most popular form of venture capital funding source and arrangement and

    have contributed to millions of businesses in different scales at different levels.

  • A Report On Capital Funding for Businesses and Entrepreneurs

    5

    Angel Investors

    In general terms Angel Investors are those individual or group of individuals who invests in start ups in

    exchange of ownership stakes. Generally the angel investors belong to affluent class of people who can

    decide to individually invest in any venture or form a group with other investors as angel investors group

    to invest in relatively larger venture. In either cases, the angel investors get their right over the equity

    stock of the business and enjoys debts convertible rights. There are networks of angel investors group

    so if a group require funding or prefer to minimize risks on the venture it can seek more investment

    from the network. For angel investors the sources of their funds can be anything starting from their

    family heredity to proceeds from business.

    A good aspect of angel investors venture up is that most of their seed funding to start ups across the

    globe have proved successful and remained sustainable. Therefore whenever an angel investor is

    approached by an applicant entrepreneur he needs to convince them in their terms. Generally angel

    investors work as the alternative to contemporary capital funding sources and channels. It is rather seen

    as the takeover of an entrepreneurs closer circle of people like friends and family with even better

    financial proposition. Normally these funding ranges upto a few million while the same from the family

    and friends could have reached a few hundred thousands only. The advantage is that the entrepreneur

    gets better chance to manage his finance. The angel investors often run rounds of funding whereby it is

    again possible for the entrepreneur to seek more funding from the angels. However, unless a business is

    highly growing it is challenging to seek angel investors.

    Dealing with angel investors can be compared as dealing with individuals since each angels terms of

    funding is different and their interests and targets are also different. Some may decide to get ownership

    stake while many can withdraw the fund in number of times after certain period. Opportunities for

    entrepreneurs lie within the terms, negotiation and amount that they seek from the angel investors

    because the angel investors usually do not hold any preference for industry association as they are

    available in large numbers. What they count is how the money is being used and how much of money it

    is going to create in return for the angel investors. No indefinite period of funding occurs here but if

    required the angel investors can step up in supporting a venture with likely more funds. An ROI and IRR

    of 20 to 30 percent is natural to bag an angel investor deal for any business. Prominent angel investors

    who are already in venture financing would seek even higher returns like 10 to 20 times of their

    investments. So, entrepreneurs must understand that angel investors can be a good source and an

    expensive choice to deal with.

  • A Report On Capital Funding for Businesses and Entrepreneurs

    6

    In the US, the angel investors preferences are for high-tech industries whether in IT or health care or

    others and angel investors have flourished up sectors with billions of US$ while for UK, thousands of

    angel investors are in to angel funding worth millions of GBP. A general understanding of the angel

    investors for capital funding requirements in startups or as seed fund is to stay far from the much know

    angel and to approach an angel known to little and of common interest with the entrepreneurs

    business.

    Public Private Partnership

    The public private partnership stands as a shared initiative by a government and its private sectors

    whereby business ventures are funded and operated on shared basis. The World Bank is the strong

    advocate of public private partnership as for its research findings revealed that for untapped industries

    and sectors which are of immense importance to a economy can require more collaborative effort with

    the private entrepreneurs. In such cases, the government usually go for PPP with the private sector

    which not only minimizes the risks for individual or group of private sector investors but also help in

    injecting funds necessary to revolve the sector in sustainable manner. The Finnvera by the State of

    Finland and its private sector is one of the most successful PPP in capital funding.

    A contract is initiated in PPP, which is also known as P3, between the public and private sector where

    the private sector initiates the contract under the expressive interest of the public sector that is the

    government. In such projects the commercial interest of the private sector needs to be equally

    addressed with the socio-economic interests of the public sector. It means while the undertaking

    projects would be commercially viable for private sector at the same it also needs to meet the socio-

    economic targets of the economy. To whom PPP would be a great choice as a capital funding option

    depends solely on the individuality of the cases. For instances in underdeveloped economies the PPP is

    initiated in large value projects generally in construction and infrastructural development sector. in such

    economies there are would be very few entrepreneur who would be planning to go in PPP with the

    government in such projects. Contrary to the underdeveloped economies, in rich economies like in the

    Scandinevia, the PPP would be more targeted towards encouraging the individuals commercial interest

    and would take different forms of trade and business support. Therefore, PPP does not fit in all case

    equally.

    Another important aspect of PPP is that the partnership with the government which can result in

    creation of everlasting streams of benefits for anyone. Certainly in PPP the taxation is lesser in the

  • A Report On Capital Funding for Businesses and Entrepreneurs

    7

    context, there could be mutually agreed fund withdrawal or annual revenue sharing, and other major

    benefits which can in effect favor an entrepreneurs other businesses. Compared to the other capital

    funding described here the PPP is rather more developmental than being commerce driven.

    Corporate Risk Capital Fund

    Corporate risk capital funding refers to those investment decisions where the risks are extremely high

    with relation to high return on it. The basic difference of such firms with other capital funding firms is

    this, investment under the corporate risk capital funding can either be successful to grow in size in

    multiple times or it can fail to dwindle down into a fraction of the initially invested amount. Such

    companies do not grow any pattern or trend of investing into same industry repeatedly but they pose

    greatly valued industry insight prior investing to each case.

    Corporate Risk Capital Fund can be explained as the capital required to engage the losses that are

    unexpected that have occurred due to various events within a year of newly launched operation or

    running concern. Here the losses are categories under multiple consideration and defined separately.

    For instance the economic losses could be defined as losses that appear on the income statement and

    on financial statement that have adjustments on the value. These losses are not captured when there is

    no decline in the value as mentioned in the income statement. Contrary to the economic losses there is

    unexpected losses which indicate those losses that happen between the differences that take place

    between the serious losses and the average loss. Extremely severe is defined as the current loss that is

    measured at 99.97% confidence level that is based on the events and analysis of the scenario that is

    distributed. Economic losses are risks that are catagorised as credit risk, market risk and operational risk.

    Credit risk does include cross border risk and it results from a borrowers inability to cover his or her

    obligations that are due. Market risks includes liquidity and the losses that arise due to fluctuations in

    the value of the trading and non trading positions in the market which includes changes in the value that

    results from fluctuations in the rates. Operational risk includes the legal and regulatory category and it

    results due to insufficient processes, human factors, systems or due to any other external events. The

    above risks are measured and are grouped within the business to facilitate the proper understanding of

    our exposure to any extreme events. To have a proper understanding of developments in the market,

    the framework for risk capital is being reviewed and developed. In January 2009, certain developments

    were introduced for the treatment of operational risks and investments of the proprietor. There are

    other developments that are being done and enhanced that would be completed within a year that is

    mainly focused on the market risk. Now given the description of varying types of losses a new enterprise

  • A Report On Capital Funding for Businesses and Entrepreneurs

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    or an entrepreneur can think of any time to get a loss coverings and for this it can work like an short

    term financing arrangements with regard the loss or risk itself.

    Early and Later Stage Seed Funding Venture Capitals

    Seed funding irrespective of its funding stage can be referred as the secured offerings from the

    investors for a business and its entrepreneur. Since these are usually funded in the start up stage of a

    business these are called seed money. The impact of seed funding can grow exponentially where by a

    business will start to make its own money out from selling its products or services and will eventually

    grow into a position whereby it can invest into its future sustainability. Money from friends, families to

    start a business are also seed funding.

    Now seed funding can be done in different stages of an enterprise like as seed fund, start up, growth, on

    the basis of rounds, for expansion and exit. The one that are funded at the initial stage of a business

    operation prior its functional and accounting growth are called early stage seed funding. If the funding

    comes from an institution than an individual then it would be called the early stage seed funding

    venture capital. Contrary to early stage seed funding, when a business grows and it require more

    funding to support its growth and economic activities it require later stage seed funding. These stage

    based funding follows some criteria for distinction for instance, initial seed funding refers to equity,

    while start ups early stage seed funding is all about the fund meeting the costs associated from the

    marketing and product development and administrative purpose prior lunching the business activity.

    Equally the growth stage funding will stand to support the sales in the form of manufacturing support

    funding. The second round of later stage funding involves meet up of the working capital needs.

    Expansion stage funding indicates financing needs to get a new venture or to acquire the competition.

    The last part of the later stage seed funding is all about financing the costs for a business to go public

    through initial public offerings. So, it can happen in all six phases under the common title of early and

    later stage seed funding venture capital.

  • A Report On Capital Funding for Businesses and Entrepreneurs

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    Contemporary Financing Entities Under the contemporary financing entities section prominent capital financing entities like companies,

    platform, initiatives or programs are reviewed in brief. Each example represent the specific type of

    capital financing they practice. For instance CircleUp is a crowdfunding example, SierraAngels is an

    example of Angel Investors while Finnvera is an example of public private partnership. Seemingly Petra

    Capital Partners and Centripetal Capital Partners are example of Corporate Risk Capital Funding and

    Early and Late Stage Seed Funding Venture Capitalists respectively.

    CircleUp CircleUp is the crowdfunding platform that bridges nominated investors with innovative companies in

    retail sector and the consumer. It is based on equity crowdfunding and started its operation in 2011.

    Here the investors get equity right in exchange of their investments and therefore the materialization of

    fulfilling the funding is much higher on this platform. Its investors are all accredited therefore the service

    is highly popular among the fund seeker entrepreneurs.

    SierraAngels Established in 1997 in Nevada Sierra Angels are group of professionals and entrepreneurs who extends

    financing support to start ups. However in addition to provide financing support the Sierra Angels also

    provide mentoring and strategic guidance to companies. Entry to the group of investor in Sierra Angels is

    based on invitation only. It has strategic affiliation with the Angel Capital Association and the Angel

    Resource Institute therefore the invitation based membership here is of great value. Sierra Angels is

    more concern over the innovativeness of business concept and emerging business sectors for funding.

    Finnvera Finnvera is a Finnish capital financing service that funds enterprises at growth, start up and for

    internationalization. It has multiple arrangements like venture capital investment, export credit, loans

    and domestic guarantees. It is run and managed by the State of Finland. Finnvera was founded through

    merger of Kera PLC and the Finnish Guarantee Board back in 1999 and since then it operated in regional

    capacity get preference over Finnish business, trade and commerce at Europe wide exporting. The

    company grew exponentially in 2011 to have over 2 billion invested alone in exporting while the

    company also managed to keep a stake of its presence in the financial sector by issuing 200 million Euro

    worth bonds.

  • A Report On Capital Funding for Businesses and Entrepreneurs

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    Petra Capital Partners Petra Capital Partners was established in 1996 in Nashville, TN and is working as a corporate risk capital

    funding firm since then. According to Petra Capital Partners are engaged in growth capital investing and

    they are doing it for more than 20 years now. Throughout this period their investment summed up to

    more than five hundred million dollars and at any point of a business year they can invest upto 20

    million $ to any single company. The company does not have any specific financing structuring rather

    they are flexible in the arrangement and can invest to subordinate debt and to secure equities.

    Centripetal Capital Partners The term centripetal is derived from a Latin word which mean center seeking force. It is a multi stage

    venture capital funding company seeking opportunities to grow its capital through investment in

    companies as seed stage, early stage, growth stage and late stage. It houses a group of talented

    financiers, executives and private investors to help entrepreneurs and enterprises with limited number

    of partners and wide support across various industries. The company has its own team and affiliates

    besides the members to seek interesting investing opportunities at any stage of a business. The firm

    thrives to seek the right man, with the right business and on the right time for Centripetal Capital

    Partners to step up with its investment.

  • A Report On Capital Funding for Businesses and Entrepreneurs

    11

    Comparative Statement

    Comparative Statement

    Criteria Crowdfunding Angel Investors Public Private

    Partnership

    Corporate Risk

    Capital Fund

    Early and Later

    Stage Seed Fund

    VC

    Size of Venture

    fund

    Since its inception CircleUp has invested millions of US$ to different retail and consumer focused companies. The investors are allowed to invest as low as 1000 US$ and anyone with annual individual 200K US$ income and 1 million $ worth property can sign up to be CircleUp investor. According to Nevada Department of Business and Industrys Access to Capital Resource Directory 2014 investment of 1 to 10 million US$ are typical to capital seeking companies.

    Sierra Angels can invest 250K US$ to 2 million US$ per venture.

    As of December 31, 2014 Finnvera has over 2.8 billion Euros outstanding commitment in SME financing and 12.2 billion Euros in export financing. Currently there are 28800 customers.

    Petra Capital Partners can invest upto 20 million US$ in single venture from the companys own capital however where there is more growth opportunity the company can arrange for more funding. At the moment Petra Capital Partners are running its fourth round of funding worth 230 million US$.

    Centripetal Capital Partners funds in multiple stage therefore it has different investment size. For instance, in its each round of funding it invests from 1 to 3 million US$. For a company in its life time the funding round will account total 7 to 10 million US$ per company. And for acquisition it invests 5 to 10 million US$.

    Number of

    investments per

    year

    There is no fixed number of investment per year, rather it is more about the prospect each companies hold.

    There is no complete figure available on number of investments made by Sierra Angels per year however its presentation dinner is held at every six weeks interval where only two prospective entrepreneur get the chance to make their case for capital financing.

    Over 2208 enterprises were financed at growth level and 3247 start up enterprises in 2014 while the SME financing was 1003 million Euros and export credit was 5034 million Euros.

    There is no clear data of how many investments are made each year by Petra Capital Partners but its corporate record shows that since its inception the Petra Capital Partners have invested more 540 million US$ in 94 highly growing companies.

    It makes 3 to 5 investments per year.

    Types and sizes

    of companies

    invested in

    CircleUp invests in those companies who are slightly little to be approached by reputed capital financing companies

    Till date Sierra Angels have invest into more than 60 companies in Media, health technology,

    The Finnvera entrepreneur loans are targeted to any sector except farming, realty, forestry sectors.

    Petra Capital Partners investment is focused in business and healthcare

    No specific

    preference but

    interested in

    companies with

  • A Report On Capital Funding for Businesses and Entrepreneurs

    12

    and industry wise who are always a prime target for industry leaders to be acquired or merged in following sectors like food and beverage, beauty and personal care, apparel and accessories, household products, pet care, consumer electronics, and retail/restaurants. In terms of size they are mostly small scale enterprises.

    cleaning technology, IT and software industries.

    However, any other industry that is beyond the reach of contemporary financial institutions are also the one where Finnvera holds strong interest in investing. Generally, these loan amounts vary with upper limit set to 100000 Euros.

    services industries however in recent days they are also interested in business process outsourcing, information services, media and communication industries. It invests in post venture and pre-buyout phases only.

    multiple revenue

    streams.

    Factors in

    evaluating

    potential

    investments

    CircleUp is very picky in evaluating potential investments. According to it, only a small percentage of all applicant companies go under funding from it. CircleUp exclusively looks for innovative consumer and retail companies with potentially and revenue record for success. CircleUps factors in evaluating potential investments include:

    Selective dealflow preference

    Market sector

    Financial strength

    Brand strength

    Product diversification

    Management team

    Valuations and terms

    Exit prospects

    Sierra Angels preference are those investment potentials that are from the software, internet, wireless IT, social media, health technology, clean technology, technology innovation and alternative investments. Its funding scopes are geographically limited to companies in Nevada, California and surrounding locations. Sierra Angels consider potential investments technical superiority, sustainable competitive advantage, IPR, strategic partnership, market potential and realistic scalability options, management expertise, skills, coach-ability, exit strategy, customer

    Finnveras evaluation for potential investment involves ensuring the limited liability status of the company where the applicant must be having atleast 20 percent of all voting and shareholder rights. At the same time, it must also comply with the basic general guideline of preferences detailed by the EUs SME initiative. Applicants do not need any collateral to deposit as Finnveras financing decisions are solely based on the prospect of the business.

    Petra Capital Partners investment evaluations are based on growth explosiveness, presence of non-control investor, presence of no shareholder liquidity, absence of negative cashflows, positive EBITDA and buyout prospect and ownership control.

    5 to 10X return

    potentials

  • A Report On Capital Funding for Businesses and Entrepreneurs

    13

    acquisition cost, channel development strategy, financial project, margins in sales, use of proceeds, returns and valuation.

    Firm valuation

    methodologies

    Though such clear data on the firm valuation methodologies were not available, CircleUp extended the context broadly. According to it, a private equity investor assessment, industry consultant insight, third party data, deal flow, market relationship, revenue size, revenue growth pattern, gross margin, cash burn, balance sheet, branding leads, recurrence of repeat sales, management teams and its buyout potentiality are all considered.

    Sierra Angels firm valuation methodology looks for consistency in companys overall status like its risk to reward ratio, use of proceeds, return potentially in the matrix of 5 to 10 times over 3 to 5 years time span.

    Finnveras perspective of financing is slightly different that others as it believes entrepreneurs seeking funding must be having a complete financing plan for the business. As such applicants funding request from Finnvera is just only one part of the entire financing plan and that financing plan can should include complete targets, strategies, plans, market situation assessment and should clearly visualize how the financial plan is going to get returned with profitability and sustainability.

    Petras firm valuation depends on number of criteria like proven management team, revenue above 10 million US$, positive EBITDA, growth rate more than 20%, high gross margin, restrictive capital expenditure in recurring nature and highly recurring revenue.

    Return prospect,

    competitive

    advantages

    sustainability

    and multiple

    revenue stream.

    Requirements on

    proposal

    According to CircleUp, it concentrates on companies with brand potentiality for its products that are tangible and are available through a retail distribution system. An interested entrepreneur applicant seeking capital funding needs to list his company to CircleUp through its initial assessment system. Once the initial assessment results to be a good

    Sierra Angels has 5 steps for an entrepreneur to get funding which starts with filing an application through any collaborating partners of Sierra Angels. The application must contain company overview, financial data, business plan and other necessary documents. Upon submission of application it goes

    Finnvera has downloadable application form on its website which needs to be filled up with all required details and submitted to the site. Upon review of the application form Finnvera it will make contact with the applicant to describe the future procedures.

    There is no such details about entrepreneurs proposals length, structure and details requirement however interested parties need to contact Petra Capital Partners to make their cases.

    Need to submit

    initial pitch on

    the website,

    once okayed,

    followed up with

    other

    procedures.

  • A Report On Capital Funding for Businesses and Entrepreneurs

    14

    fit for CircleUp, the company investigates the data and information provided by the entrepreneur and completes documentary formalities. Upon completion of documentary formalities known as Engagement Letter, CirculeUp gives the entrepreneur access to the CircleUp whereby he needs to upload all relevant information about the company including financial data, company profile and others to submit for review by CircleUp. Then CircleUp review the profile and activates it for fund raising among the investors by the entrepreneur himself. It is important to understand for the applicants that a strong financial position of the applicant company is essential to attract investors. CircleUp guidance mentioned 500K US$ worth monthly transaction for previous year and 500K US$ in revenue as a base criteria in this context though management teams professional expertise in the sectors are equally weighted.

    for review by the screening committee who is tasked to explore and match the business idea with market potentiality. If the screening committee approves an application the entrepreneur receives an invitation to a presentation dinner followed with question and answer session and attended by interested angel investors. If the presentation dinner goes successfully then the due diligence procedure begins followed by the funding steps. Once an entrepreneur is funded he needs to report progress to the angel investors on quarterly basis.

    Types of

    financing

    CircleUp uses equity based financing model where minimum is invested through group of investors. No parties make payment of any fees to the service as long the 61 days

    The Sierra Angels financing works in multiple ways like in cash, in kind and through consultation and coaching. Besides single handedly financing it can

    Finnvera offers multilateral financing arrangements like seed loan, internationalization load, entrepreneur loan, Finnvera loan, financial

    Petra Capital Partners finances in two ways - the growth financing and value maximization in exit. Under growth financing it withdraws

    All stages

    funding.

  • A Report On Capital Funding for Businesses and Entrepreneurs

    15

    money raising round does not fulfill the required investment target. If the investment target is reached then the applicant company has to pay commission to the CircleUps parent organization Fundme Securities LLC. For investors the funded amount remain held in the escrow until the target is being reached and once reached according to their agreement they will enjoy proportionate ownership in the company.

    work as your financer lead to arrange more funds from other angel investors network and beyond. Sierra Angels termed its financing as ecosystem approach to support the start up entrepreneurship.

    bridging loan, grants and bond financing. Also there is a 3.25% interest fee and six months grade period and repayment can be extended upto 10 years. Applicants own share in the stock is assumed as a security and the whole process has a nominal fee.

    when long term revenue is sustainable and under exit value maximization it cuts the reliance on IPO and relies on other financial options.

    % of applicant

    financed

    There is no such data that what percentage of applicants were financed but according to CrowdFundInsider as of September 26, 2014 CircleUp has financed 40 companies with over 40 million dollars since its inception.

    We could not find such data that how many percentage of applicants get financed but Sierra Angels being an aged investing body and with record of financing more than 60 companies; it can be said that Sierra Angels are much comprehensive in making their financing decision.

    Finnvera stands as one of the most popular financier in the EU only due to its flexible terms and supportive nature. It has strong number of applicant who are already financed with billions of Euros while few billion Euros are still left with the organization to finance. At estimate 25% of all applicants are successful in getting funding however those who require less than 35000 Euros are even more highly successful in securing Finnvera financing.

    There is no such data on how many percentage of applicants get financed through Petra Capital Partners. Prior to its fourth round of funding, the company invested over 540 million US$ in 94 companies.

    No such data is

    available.

  • A Report On Capital Funding for Businesses and Entrepreneurs

    16

    Conclusion

    In this report we have discussed different capital funding methods with their instances to different

    questions. The intention was to familiarize the growing forms of capital funding and it included Peer to

    Peer Lending, Incubator, Public Private Partnership, Crowdfunding and Angel Investors. Each has its own

    way of working and purpose, while all of them are desperately looking to find that unique business

    where they can invest the money. It is their form of business if they cannot invest in time, they will not

    run profitably in the future. They will not be able to grow. And if an entrepreneur can present a

    sustainable, unique and competitive leverage based business plan; these capital financers will jump in to

    join the entrepreneur with their money. The fact is, there is money if one has a plan.

  • A Report On Capital Funding for Businesses and Entrepreneurs

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