Where Money Meets Talent: Grow VC Group Connects Startups to Funding

Where Money Meets the Talent
Jouko Ahvenainen / June 19, 2013
Singapore
Grow VC Group ++
www.growvc.com ++
@growvc ++
Innovating Investing ++
Copyrights © Grow VC Group 2013

Jouko Ahvenainen ++
•  Serial-entrepreneur and startup
investments
•  For example, mobile, media,
advertising and data analytics
startups
•  Worked in Asia, Europe and the
US
•  Columnist at Telecom Asia
•  Grow VC Group Founder and
Chairman
•  uk.linkedin.com/in/joukoahvenainen/

Grow VC Group ++

•  2009 Grow VC Company was created
o  to build #1 global equity crowdfunding online platform under
www.growvc.com domain
•  2010 growvc.com service was launched
o  pioneer in equity crowdfunding
•  2011 Company expanded
o  team of 50+ people spread across the globe
o  develop the business globally within the equity crowdfunding
market segment.
o  online platform was developed extensively to meet global and
local startup ecosystem requirements and startup lifecycle
thinking
Group History ++

•  2012 Grow VC to Grow VC Group
o  Grow VC Networks model was launched as public BETA.
o  along with the JOBS Act passing in the US adding clarity to
emerging market, a bigger strategy switch was done to add
focus on all of the company activities
o  the company was restructured to Grow VC Group with several
different business units, companies and operational teams
•  2013 Acting as Grow VC Group with independent units
o  all units focus on executing their own business in their
specific business area
o  Grow VC Group reputation and synergies between units are
utilized where relevant
Group History ++

Finance and Services Infrastructure Investment Portfolio
Entities ++

Grow VC Group
Strategic partnerships and group
investment portfolio management
www.growvcgroup.com
Grow Advisors
Consulting and investment bank type
services for crowdfunding ecosystem
www.growadvisors.com
Mutual Seed Fund
Crowdfunding co-investment fund,
works with many crowdfunding
services www.mutualseedfund.com
Crowd Valley
Turn key solution to start
crowdfunding for any assets, equity or
lending www.crowdvalley.com
growvc.com
Startup ecosystem platform and
leading global marketplace to invest
money or work in early phase startups
www.growvc.com
ChangeLab23
Design & build digital product, where
customer experience is at the heart
www.changelab23.com
Core Businesses 2013 ++

Other Business Vertical Startup Ecosystem Other Business Vertical
Funding
Networks
Non Funding
Networks
Platform Businesses ++

Full solution: investment community, tools, payments,
backoffice and reporting – set up in a minute
3rd Parties can start crowd funding p2p investment
market place on our platform ++

Mobile Monday & Grow VC Co-operation ++

Portfolio samples: Lost in Translations Inc. ++
•  Easy to use tool to make and
maintain language versions
of web services and mobile
apps
•  Different services levels for
translations, including
crowd sourcing
•  Silicon Valley based
company, with strong
customer demand globally,
including Asia
•  Enable any company to
offer their services easily
in any language
•  www.lostintranslations.com

Portfolio sample: Skimmler ++
•  Easy for any publisher to
make its own Facebook or
mobile reading application
•  User can follow several
publications in one place
•  Much more is coming
in the beta launch: tools
to help reading, find
relevant content and
follow publications
around the world
•  www.skimmler.com

Startup funding ++

1.  Since 2008 it has been especially difficult to raise money to VC funds
2.  Traditional VC funds starts with approximately USD 2M investments
3.  Basically all countries look for new growth and see that traditional industry is not
enough
4.  When VC’s have had issues to raise more money, it also cause issues to fund
companies that are already in their portfolio
5.  Capital efficiency has increased, i.e. startups can start with smaller capital
6.  Many governments and local organizations invest to build better startup ecosystems
locally and also want to participate in funding or attract investors to operate
locally
7.  Crowd funding and ‘open market places’ are emerging
8.  There are also more local business angel networks, and e.g. governments have
created some tax schemas to attract more people to invest in startups
9.  There are several new models to get money, like crowd funding, angels, local
support, and incubator programs. But issue is also, how to get these to work
together
10. Many startups focus very much towards the US, when it has offered the best
funding and exit market. At the same time emerging markets could offer e.g.
easier routes to make revenue and organic growth.
10 Points about startup funding ++

New finance regulation ++

§  The team has invested three years into the crowdfunding industry
globally, and positioned itself in the ecosystem globally "
§  The team has been part of the US Delegation in Transatlantic Economic
Forum, had cooperation with Singapore Government Investment
Company, "
§  UK Trade and Investment, and is a founding member of Crowdfunding
Regulatory Intermediary Association (CFIRA), Crowdfunding
Professional Association (CFPA), National Crowdfunding Association
(NLCFA), European Crowdfunding Network, cooperation with Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Financial Industry Regulatory
Authority (FINRA) "
§  We have a jumpstart on any direct competition with 400+ existing
business customers, ranging from small communities to large networks
of communities like the World Bank "
We build this market ++

Peer-to-peer
Less fat middle-men

global
transparent
open
collaborative
efficient
scalable

Read & write, participatory, conversational:
markets are conversations, marketing is a
conversation, business is a social science!
A new language:

Co-creation + networked
economics + communities of
interest can be and are,
proven & powerful platforms
and processes to stimulate
innovation and commerce

•  It is to get different funding models to work together
o  Transparent models, fair agreements and opportunties
o  ‘Market value’
o  Continuity for the next funding rounds
•  Different Investors offer different kind of value added
o  Better to make difference between money investment and
competence each investor or other member brings
•  There can be several co-investment models, passive
or active
•  It is typically important to build co-operation with
business angels, VC’s and incubators
Different funding models and Ecosystem ++

Companies make sourcing and get investments all the time: the
question is how to get crowd involved to this and develop models to
make the sourcing and investing market more effective
Nothing new but totally new ++
Crowd
funding 1
Market
Place
P2P
Lending
Companies /
Assets
Market Places Investors / resources

Co-investment and co-lending ++
1. Funding
round or loan
application
•  A company opens a funding round or
apply a loan
2. Crowd
funding or
p2p lending
•  Crowd, i.e. ordinary people, can
offer an investment or loan, and
if enough money available, the
company gets money
3. Co-
investment or
co-lending
• A bank or investment
company can join to a deal,
i.e. make co-investment or
participate the loan

Group Level Synergies ++

1. Direct investments
o  An investor invest directly in a company, become a shareholder,
company can have hundreds of small shareholders
2. Investments through an instrument
o  An investor can select a company he/she invest in, but the actual
investment is done by an investment company that aggregate all
investments together, the investment company is the shareholder
3. Crowd funding of investment instruments
o  Crowd funding model is used to raise capital in a fund and the fund
makes investments
4. Co-investment models
o  Different models to make co-investments with crowdfunding
Investment models and crowd funding ++

•  Co-investors can be e.g. business angels, VC’s, or funds
1. Co-investment partners
a.  Partners follow p2p, typically no automated investments, but use
crowd to filter investment opportunities
b.  Leading investors offers cases to crowd, and crowd follow them
2. Syndicate models
o  Can have two models as above, but formalized co-investment
models with pre-defined models, shares and responsibilities
3. Built-in investment instruments
o  Investment instruments that are built to work with the p2p
investments, e.g. automated co-investment
o  The instruments can be like traditional funds or modified versions
Grow VC co-investment models ++

•  Grow VC is building a special co-investment
instruments
•  The instrument and concept is built especially for the p2p co-
invesments
•  The instruments are built to work with p2p models,
crowd can filter cases, or p2p bring leverage to fund
investments
•  Investors can join the instrument online, by defining
their investment criteria like total sum and the number
of companies (diversification)
•  The instrument is launched in six months
Mutual Seed Fund ++

•  It is important to think the whole startup and funding
ecosystem and all its components
•  Peer-to-peer is here to stay, equity crowd funding is
just starting to grow
•  P2P is not to replace all other models or solution for
needs
•  It is crucial to build an ecosystem where different
investment models work better together, including p2p
– new solutions are needed
•  P2P is not only for startup funding, it will have
influence on the whole finance sector to make it more
effective
Future ++

“You don’t have to be
Steve Jobs, to be
an entrepreneur”

”You don’t have to be
Bill Gates to be
an investor”

”Everyone must start
somewhere”

Jouko Ahvenainen
jouko@growvc.com
+44 7889 833 165 (UK)
+1 646 363 6664 (US)
+852 8120 7854 (HK)
Grow VC Group ++
www.growvc.com ++
@growvc ++
Slideshare: Grow VC
Innovating
Investing

Where Money Meets Talent: Grow VC Group Connects Startups to Funding

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