Non-Dilutive Funding

Non-dilutive usually refers to the type of financing for a business where they do not lose any equity in the company. Non-dilutive financing means that they receive money for the business without giving away any ownership of the company itself.

Types of Non-Dilutive Financing:

• Loans: Loans are perhaps the simplest form of non-dilutive financing. They may require a credit check, collateral, and guarantors. You'll then have to pay back the loan with interest.

• Grants: There are several different types of grants for small businesses and start-ups. Grants do not need to be repaid. They require a lengthy application process and are usually meant to support a specific project or business milestone. Many granting organizations will ask for periodic reports on how the money is being used and whether or not you are on the path to reaching your targets.

  • Research grants: Research grants range from small seed grants for risky research to large, multi-year grants that support multi-faceted programs. These grants offer money as well as an opportunity to build and test the products and team prior to incorporation.

  • Translational grants: These grants are designed to speed up and assist with academic research that has commercial potential. These grants are usually about a year and are submitted in combination with the academic institution's technology transfer office.

• Licensing: Deciding to license a project to an industry partner is a good way to get upfront payments as well as regular monthly or quarterly payments in order to fund the business.

• Royalty Financing: In royalty financing, a business gets money from an investor or group of investors. In exchange, the investor gets a percentage of the company's future revenues over a certain period of time and up to a certain amount.

We can support you on choosing the right strategy for your fundraising. On specific projects we also provide grant submissions for SMES. The cost includes an minimal entrance fee and success base.

VC Funding

Fundraising is an important part of most entrepreneurial journeys. If you are an entrepreneur, the standard process followed by many venture capital firms is well worth knowing.

We support you on your fundraising journey , making sure that your project is investable , has got a compelling story from a VC perspective and evaluate whether the project has the competitive edge . We provide you with a financial valuation, and advice you on right strategy for fundraising. A successful team with lots of experience in your specific industry will support you work out an attractive investment case. Telling the story of your startup in a way that it is highly compelling for investors can make a huge difference. You only have one chance to kick off your round, and you want to get it right.

Similarly, setting the terms empathically so that they are attractive for both existing and new shareholders is crucial.  The program is designed to get funded as quickly as possible, and attract the best possible investors.

What is the end result?

The end result of this program is a short fundraising strategy document with the following contents:

• Equity story: Recommendation of an optimal story line (in bullet points) that resonates with investors

• Structure of the financing round: Recommended size of the round, valuation, and key terms

• Further insights: Specific recommendations to increase chance of success and accelerate the fundraising process

Exit Strategies

While many entrepreneurs at the beginning stages of company formation only focus on company building, the investors are considering the exit potential and chasing after unicorns with outstanding multiples. Focusing on the journey is important but as an entrepreneur you need to understand the cost of capital and importance of ROIs not only for investors but also for yourself. We can provide you with advice on exit strategies. Building a start-up is not an easy task and one can not master in all the pieces that’s why it is important to work with the ones who can help you prepare for the entrepreneurship journey the best you can.

There are three main exit strategies including:

• Acquisition : The main exit strategy for startups is to sell the company to a bigger one for a profit. The same goes for investors. The buyer takes over the startup using cash or stock as a compensation, and key executives and employees from the startup often stay at the company for a period of time in order to be able to cash out and vest their stock. Exits provide capital to startup investors, which can then return the money to their limited partners (in the case of Venture Capitalists) or to the investors themselves (in the case of business angels).

  Startup acquisitions are much more frequent in the US than in Europe, but lately there’s been a significant surge in the number of European acquisitions.

  A different type of acquisition that is very common in Silicon Valley is acquihires (acquisition + hiring). In this case the buyer is not so much interested in the product as it is in the team, the talent, where it’s also important to have a development partner with scalable team.

• M&A: these transactions usually imply a merging with a similar and larger company. This type of exit is often chosen by big companies that are looking for complimentary skills in the market, and buying a smaller startup is a better way to develop a product than creating it in-house.

• IPO: IPO stands for ‘initial public offering’ and it basically means that a company starts floating on a stock market, selling a significant number of their shares in the process to institutional and non-institutional investors. These large companies are that VCs dream of, as they often provide large sums of capital to all parts involved (founders, early employees and investors).

  An interested trend in the startup world when it comes to going public is that more and more companies are taking longer to IPO. This is a consequence of the high amount of capital available in the startup market from Venture Capitalists, private equity firms and other investment institutions.