Investor Services
For investors looking to invest, we know what potential looks like – and where to find it
How could Scaling Partners investment services help you?
• Widen your net of potential investment opportunities
• Find investment potential you won’t find anywhere else
• Increase your chances of exclusivity
• Expert analysis of and due diligence on potential investment opportunities
VC deal flow sourcing as a service
We’ll source and scout the startup investment opportunities you won’t find anywhere else.
Investment with Scaling Partners
Every week, Scaling Partners’ experts work with a wide range of late-stage startups, many of which are seeking investment. They come from a broad cross section of industries, but often they are exploring investment for the first time, so you won’t find them in the press or on existing scouting databases. For investors looking to invest in a small business, not only does that open new and potentially lucrative opportunities; it also means you get your foot in the door first.
How do you get quality deal flow?
Every investor has their favoured sectors, criteria and network – that tried and tested personal recipe for deal flow with which you’ve found success in the past. But there is no actual recipe. If you’re looking for investment opportunities there’s real value in exploring a different approach – of casting your net wider, or at least differently.
Because we help businesses of every type and ambition grow, you’ll find lots of fresh opportunities to collaborate or grow your investment portfolio in new and exciting ways. And because our experts know the startup world inside out, we know what investment and partnership potential looks like.
How we find companies to invest in
How we find companies to
invest in
Through our tailored research service we create an exclusive report that matches the best late-stage startups to your investment criteria. Here’s how it works:
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Search Criteria
You may already have a defined and well-practised set of research criteria to find your next startup investment or acquisition match. But where you don’t, we can help define them.
Size of market. Value proposition. Team. Product. Valuation: some criteria are a given. Others, like competitive edge, growth, revenue target, business model and industry may be just as important to you in selecting the candidates with the greatest potential. We’ll agree the criteria with your search before beginning the scouting process.
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Research & Scouting
Of course we’ll find startups that match your investment criteria. But scouting can help you achieve much more. Our venture capital sourcing methods can reveal opportunities for proprietary access or the likelihood of exclusivity. They can help you diversify your investment pipeline, finding potential in areas you might not typically source from.
With an impressive network of scouts and an in-house pool of investment-worthy growth partners, Scaling Partners has more ways to source your next investment.
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Report Analysis
If you’re dealing with dozens or even hundreds of investment submissions each week, we’ll make sifting the best easier by reviewing the investor reports submitted to you.
We’ll look at the key financial information, mission and vision, MDA and growth plan to explore general investability. We’ll consider the credibility of the people behind the business and match the profiles of the top team to the ambitions of the business. And we’ll source the contact details of the people you’ll want to talk to if the investment has potential.
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Due Diligence
Assessing the investment potential of a startup isn’t easy when the metrics you’re currently working from bear no resemblance to the growth you aim to achieve (which is the whole point of the investment). So how do you carry out investment due diligence on a startup?
For us, it’s about traction. Of course the business hasn’t yet reached its full potential, but where has its momentum taken it so far? To assess that, we analyse the figures, but also the business plan, the partnerships the company has entered, the contracts it has in place and the investability of the founder(s). We’ll also check references, asking for feedback on the startup, its people and service, and the market in which it operates.
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Contact
Want to make contact but retain confidentiality? We’ll broker contact on your behalf and never disclose your details to any other party until you’re ready.
Who do you scout for?
Investors looking to invest in startups
Investors looking for new avenues of VC deal flow sourcing
Corporates interested in forming strategic partnerships with startups
Why Scaling Partners?
If you always do what you did, you’ll always get what you always got. That’s true for many areas of business – and it’s certainly the case for investors looking for investment opportunities. But finding fresh, unmined seams of startups isn’t easy.
Scaling Partners work with the very startups many investors are looking for. Late seed to Series A+ stage. Eager to grow. Often our startups are in search of investors for the very first time. And because we’re working with them, you already know their chances of scaling successfully are high.
How We Work
Light Touch
Helping you with ad hoc research such as scouting, due diligence, and startup customer interviews.
Project Focused
Working with you on deeper projects such as industry analysis, collaboration projects, or acquisitions.
Fully Integrated
Our most integrated model working as a full extension to your team on open-ended or midterm projects
FAQ
How to evaluate a startup company for investment?
There are lots of methods for valuing a startup company, but it’s a frustrating fact of life that a startup will never have the historical data that a long established company will. For people looking for investment opportunities that means it’s harder to extrapolate future performance so defining your search criteria, report analysis and due diligence assume renewed importance. We’ll manage those processes for you.
Can you make money investing in startups?
Yes! Inevitably, the startup market in general is higher risk, but corporate and private investors looking for startups can find high rewards too. The key, then, is mitigating the risk to maximise the reward and Scaling Partners do that in two key ways. First, we carry out the due diligence that’s essential for any investors looking to invest in small businesses. Second, we work with many of the startups for whom we source investment. Because they benefit from our expertise in growing and scaling, we minimise the risk for investors.
How do you increase VC deal flow?
Deal flow is a vital part of serious investment. Without a continual pipeline of new investment opportunities sources can quickly run dry. There’s no single route to success – brand building, increasing inbound enquiries and improving your use of existing data can all be beneficial. But the most effective way of increasing VC deal flow is though expanding your network and leveraging sources others aren’t. That’s what makes Scaling Partners’ pool of startups so attractive to investors.
Do you use existing scouting databases to find startups to invest in?
Yes, but they supplement our search rather than forming the basis of it. We’ll also use tools like LinkedIn as part of our research into company founders and senior team members. The issue with databases like Funderbeam, Dealroom, Angelist and Crunchbase is that, generally speaking, you’re looking at the same pool of startups as everyone else – not ideal for corporate and private investors looking to invest in something new. That’s why our experts use their contacts and experience to find the startups you haven’t come across. Yet.
What Our Customers Say
Laurent has a sharp commercial mind and was quick to start offering value to our startup. Scaling Partners have helped to sharpen our approach and refine our focus with every session, helping us on key topics such as go-to-market business models to fundraising strategies, providing many actionable tips, and really forcing us to think in a deep way. Laurent has a huge amount of experience and it’s very satisfying to see how much we’ve learned along the way.
Matthew Curley, Founder & CEO
Laurent and the team at Scaling Partners helped us to figure out several missing pieces of the puzzle to help our business take the next stepl, discussing how to find the right investment partner, how to find strategic partners e-commerce operations in Europe and how find a design partner for the fintech operation. Laurent helped us come up with new lines of thinking which was very useful.
Moshe Avrish, Founder & CEO
The experience, support and guidance given to us by Laurent and the team at Scaling Partners was invaluable. Right from the get go they have steered us to avoid the pitfalls the an enthusiastic Entrepreneur would surely fall into and pointed to us to achieve maximum output from the right organisations at the right time in order to take our idea to market.
We are not there yet but Laurent is on speed dial so will get there.
Paul Gilley, CEO
Focused, knowledgeable, and a pleasure to work with. As our business is very tech and Lifesciences focussed, having a commercial sounding board like Scaling Partners, helped us to figure out complex questions to do with pricing, business models, and scalability. Incredibly valuable advice, which has helped us to grow more consistently and even faster.
Chief Revenue Officer
The insights and experience provided by Laurent during a key phase in our business where we were considering both fundraising or exiting proved incredibly helpful. Laurent has deep sector knowledge when it comes to the different fundraising routes a startup can take and talking through different strategies and their implication help us make the best decision for our business.
Cofounder & CEO
Laurent helped our CEO and Leadership team to structure our go-to-market project as we were investigating approaching a new market segment, helping us backfill the gaps in knoeldeg and resources in the business. Laurent helped us create an easy to follow structure to allow the team to do a full competitive and product review as well as looking at pricing and customer ROI.
Chairman
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