As any entrepreneur will tell you, finding potential investors is not the problem. It can be difficult to get access to the right people, and certainly there are investors relevant to your market who are not located conveniently on your doorstep, but the issue is closing the deal, not opening the dialogue.
That’s where our involvement changes the game.
Venture capital, corporate and private investment is actually a relationship business, not a financial services activity. Our key skill derives from our assessment of motive, rather than a financial services advisory input, on both sides of the transaction.
Relationships driven by motive
Given an understanding of motive, Team Kapital can contribute usefully in the negotiation process. It is not our style to simply make an introduction and to leave the prospective parties to follow through. Instead we work closely with both sides, throughout the due diligence and negotiation process, and ensure that motives are satisfied, communication is effective, and deal-breaking misconceptions are swept aside. We also have the experience required to suggest solutions to the inevitable issues that crop up along the way.
In marketing speak, we provide an additional channel of communication between investor and company throughout the process. In practice this means detailed briefing and debriefing at each stage, engaging both sides. The result is an increased success rate of negotiations, ensuring that those potential investor discussions are converted in to money in the bank.
But is it fundable?
Our second key contribution is in assessment and, if necessary, adjustment of the business plan to a form that is fundable in China. What was fundable for a seed round is seldom appropriate for the Series A and growth rounds that follow. We only work with a small number of clients at any one time because we work very closely with our chosen few.
Proof of concept
We are currently working with Intelligent OMICS Limited, the commercialization vehicle for the van Geest Cancer Centre, developing a bio-informatics project. We engaged with the management team and Board and have led a very significant development of the business model, based on our knowledge of the China market. This new model has been adopted by the Board and Team Kapital has been retained to help execute the plan, as well as raising the necessary finance along the way. But that is not all: unfortunately the Intelligent OMICS founder CEO was forced by illness to step back from the business and we were asked by the investors to step in. Simon Haworth continues to provide CEO support to intelligent OMICS, engaging with Chinese investors as we embark on development of diagnostics and biological products in China. These are extraordinary times for Intelligent OMICS. We have raised approximately £4m of non-dilutive funding for the company to date and expect to complete a further round of investment before the end of 2020.
NEXT: Exit Strategy…