Equity Finance » Angel Investors

Private Investors and Equity Finance

admin — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:46:17 +0000

Private investors bring money to a business that is needed to move the business forward. As well as bringing in the required funding to get a business off the ground, a private investor will also provide your business with the skills and contacts that are needed to help your business progress.

2008 has, so far, not been extremely rewarding for private investors, which is why it is so important that you explore investments which are well positioned for a longer term favourable theme rather than those dependent on a highly unpredictable economic cycle.

With private investors some investors will invest passively, which means that after providing a company with the finance needed they will play a limited role within the company. In cases such as these the investors are usually professionals in medicine, law, real estate etc. Other investors however will want to be increasingly involved and will use their network and experience to drive your business. They will also want some type of control with business decisions.

When it comes to getting the help of an investor it is important to know that private investors have more confidence investing with people that they know so the fewer degrees of separation equals a greater chance of a deal being done. Before any deal is made it is important that you decide on the amount of capital needed as investors won’t be interested in guess work; they will want specific numbers.

The most common type of private investors are angel investors, otherwise known as business angels. These angel investors hold extremely high risk and require a very high return on investment. Due to the fact that a large percentage of angel investments are lost completely when early stage companies fail, private investors seek investments that have the potential to return at least 10 or more times their original investment within 5 years, through a defined exit strategy, such as plans for an initial public offering or an acquisition.

There are many different ways to describe private investors; they have many names attached to them such as venture capitalists and business angels. These private investors are often retired entrepreneurs or executives. They can provide your business with valuable management advice and important contacts. Private investors are wealthy individuals who invest in high growth business.

Private investors are growing to be one of the most popular ways of gaining business finance. This is making equity finance overtake debt funding as the best way of funding your business. Private investors are really worth looking into if you are hoping to start your own business. You do however have to ensure that you have your business plan wrote to the highest standard if you want to attract the help of private investor as they will use your business plan to see if your business has a high chance of being successful.

Private Investors and Equity Finance

admin — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 11:32:11 +0000

Private investors provide equity finance for business opportunity. They invest money into new and up-and-coming businesses; they have no preference in the industry sector that they invest in as they have a wide range of interests.

Private investors bring money to a business that is needed to move the business forward. As well as bringing in the required funding to get a business off the ground, a private investor will also provide your business with the skills and contacts that are needed to help your business progress.

2008 has, so far, not been extremely rewarding for private investors, which is why it is so important that you explore investments which are well positioned for a longer term favourable theme rather than those dependent on a highly unpredictable economic cycle.

With private investors some investors will invest passively, which means that after providing a company with the finance needed they will play a limited role within the company. In cases such as these the investors are usually professionals in medicine, law, real estate etc. Other investors however will want to be increasingly involved and will use their network and experience to drive your business. They will also want some type of control with business decisions.

When it comes to getting the help of an investor it is important to know that private investors have more confidence investing with people that they know so the fewer degrees of separation equals a greater chance of a deal being done. Before any deal is made it is important that you decide on the amount of capital needed as investors won’t be interested in guess work; they will want specific numbers.

The most common type of private investors are angel investors, otherwise known as business angels. These angel investors hold extremely high risk and require a very high return on investment. Due to the fact that a large percentage of angel investments are lost completely when early stage companies fail, private investors seek investments that have the potential to return at least 10 or more times their original investment within 5 years, through a defined exit strategy, such as plans for an initial public offering or an acquisition.

There are many different ways to describe private investors; they have many names attached to them such as venture capitalists and business angels. These private investors are often retired entrepreneurs or executives. They can provide your business with valuable management advice and important contacts. Private investors are wealthy individuals who invest in high growth business.

Private investors are growing to be one of the most popular ways of gaining business finance. This is making equity finance overtake debt funding as the best way of funding your business. Private investors are really worth looking into if you are hoping to start your own business. You do however have to ensure that you have your business plan wrote to the highest standard if you want to attract the help of private investor as they will use your business plan to see if your business has a high chance of being successful.

By: Helen Cox

What You Need to Know About Venture Capital

admin — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:48:27 +0000

When a venture capitalist takes the decision of investing in a small company, he or she does so after carefully studying the business plan for a period of up to 3 years. Generally the offers that enter this process are those that are different and innovative with a high potential for success. Venture capital funds follow a different set of rules than those established by banks. For instance, a venture capitalist will give great importance to the documents presented, the experience and profile of the entrepreneur, the idea of the business and the product it will offer to the market, and of course its innovative qualities.

Venture capital is obtained after going through a complex process. Depending on the kind of venture capital we are talking about, the investor may choose to buy shares (ordinary or preferred), or agree to receive advances on their bank accounts.

Venture capital is not intended to remain indefinitely invested in the company. Its intervention should be ad hoc and limited in time. The output can be achieved by: reduction or amortization of capital, the repurchase of securities by original partners at an agreed price, the resale of securities to a financial or industrial group, and by the sale at a capital development.

The capital gains that the venture capitalists obtain come essentially from the sale value of the shares they bought. The risks they take are: never being able to sell the shares, or losing everything if the company disappears.

You may be wondering, who are these investors? Well, venture capital can be given by angel investors, venture capital companies, or venture capital funds that help small business that have innovative or different ideas.

We present you here a list of factors that venture capitalists will take into account when choosing a company:

For investors what the company does and how it does it is important. They will want to know whether the business produces, creates, develops or recovers.

Status of the capital investment: public, semi public or private. The criteria for entry to the capital of a company can vary depending on the nature of the company that owns the fund.

Minimum and maximum amount granted: there is no need to contact a speaker funds from 1million Euros while your need for investment is estimated at 200,000.

The areas of funding are particularly important to venture capitalists because some may look for specific areas: technology, innovation, etc. As well, as if coverage is requested for a small or large geographic area.

By: Wade Henderson

Does a Financial Or Strategic Investor Better Suit Your Purposes?

admin — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:32:34 +0000

If your business is one of the many businesses that needs additional equity capital, then you have a basic choice: do you seek the expertise and capital of a financial or strategic investor? The two have very different implications.

Financial investors, broadly defined, include venture capital funds (for start-ups or companies early into their life cycle), angel investors (for small companies) and private equity funds. As the name implies, “financial” investors typically bring equity finance and expertise primarily of a financial nature, although many financial investors also pride themselves on bringing value-added knowledge in other areas, such as corporate governance, restructuring or sometimes even expertise in specialized sectors, such as logistics or food and beverages. Each financial investor will have criteria for eligible investments that are clearly set, such as geographic scope, minimum and maximum investment size or sectors of preference.

Strategic investors have an industry specialization and would include multinational corporations or mittelstand companies seeking to go international. Locally, there are an increasing number of CEE companies developing a strategy to acquire and grow throughout the region, which seem to an account for an ever-increasing proportion of overall CEE investment activity.

Whether you target a financial or strategic investor depends on your objectives. For example, my company has a client who insisted on a strategic investor, because he wanted to exit his business as soon as possible and didn’t want to stay on for the several years, as a financial investor would generally require. A different client insisted on a strategic investor because he had a very successful concept locally and wanted the cross-selling synergies of services that a strategic investor would bring. Another insisted on a financial investor because he had intellectual property to which he did not want a potential competitor to have access. Many clients will solicit interest from both strategic and financial investors.

Offering your business to a financial investor will typically take a higher degree of preparation. You will need to have an extremely thorough business plan with cash flows that may be relatively accurately forecast over at least a five-year horizon, including revenues, expenses and capital expenditures (capex).

Despite difficult financial market conditions, it is possible to find both financial and strategic investors, provided your business is sufficiently attractive and valuation expectations are realistic.

By: Les Nemethy