Tag Archives: funding
Venture Capital 101 (Page 1 of 6)
I. WHAT IS VENTURE CAPITAL?
Venture capital is money provided by an outside investor to finance a new, growing, or troubled business. The venture capitalist provides the funding knowing that theres a significant risk associated with the companys future profits and cash flow. Capital is invested in exchange for an equity stake in the business rather than given as a loan, and the investor hopes the investment will yield a better-than-average return.
Venture capital is an important source of funding for start-up and other companies that have a limited operating history and dont have access to capital markets. A venture capital firm (VC) typically looks for new and small businesses with a perceived long-term growth potential that will result in a large payout for investors.
A venture capitalist is not necessarily just one wealthy financier. Most VCs are limited partnerships that have a fund of pooled investment capital with which to invest in a number of companies. They vary in size from firms that manage just a few million dollars worth of investments to much larger VCs that may have billions of dollars invested in companies all over the world. VCs may be a small group of investors or an affiliate or subsidiary of a large commercial bank, investment bank, or insurance company that makes investments on behalf clients of the parent company or outside investors. In any case, the VC aims to use its business knowledge, experience and expertise to fund and nurture companies that will yield a substantial return on the VCs investment, generally within three to seven years.
Not all VC investments pay off. The failure rate can be quite high, and in fact, anywhere from 20 percent to 90 percent of portfolio companies may fail to return on the VCs investment. On the other hand, if a VC does well, a fund can offer returns of 300 to 1,000 percent.
In additional to a portion of the equity, a VC expects to have a say in how its portfolio company operates. Ideally, the VC fosters growth at the company through its involvement in managerial, strategic, and planning decisions. To do this, the VC relies on the expertise of its general partners who may be former CEOs, bankers, or experts in a particular industry. In most cases, one or more general partners of the VC take Board of Director positions at a portfolio company. They may also help recruit key executives to the portfolio company.
Its important to do your homework before approaching a VC for funding, to make sure youre targeting the right potential partner for your business needs. Not all VCs invest in start-ups. While some may invest small amounts of seed capital for very early ventures, many focus on early or expansion funding (see section III. Types of Funding), while still others may invest at the end of the business cycle, specializing in buyouts, turnarounds, or recapitalizations.
VCs may be generalists that invest in a variety of industries and locations. More typically, they specialize in a particular industry. Make sure your company falls within the VCs target industry before you make your pitch a VC thats focused on biotechnology start-ups will not consider your request for later-stage funding for expansion of your semiconductor firm. You can often gain insight into a VCs investment preferences by reviewing its website.
Energy Project Financing
Even with the energy sector being the Golden Child of Wall Street, energy project financing has been elusive. There are presently over a trillion dollars in energy project financing requests laying dormant all throughout the United States. Its estimated though, that the number of energy projects needing funding presently in the U.S. alone borders on the quadrillion mark. So why does energy project financing get such little attention? Simply stated, it is because funding each energy project means a lot of risky zeros for the funder.
Think about it. If you funded commercial loans and you had a choice between a $2 million loan on a mall with lots of equity, or a $500 million energy project that has habitually exhausted its equity for years, which loan would you make in a questionable market? Exactly; the energy project financing request will be treated as a redheaded step childunless you deal with financial experts who specialize in the energy project funding arena. The energy sector has long behaved as if it would never run out of credit, funds, or customers. As such, in todays pinch market, energy project financing has taken a back seat to “safe bets.”
The difference between a big banker at “Big Banks Are Us” and an energy project specialist is the specialist isnt concerned about the risk of approving an energy project funding. A knowledgeable project financing specialist mitigates such risks with their expertise. The specialist knows specifically where to look in an energy project for gaffs, gaps, and misappropriation of funding requests. They know in fact, MORE energy projects must progress in order to keep up with the market demands. They know a winning proposal when they see one, and they also know when a project is being underfunded. Even a highly trained bank executive simply cannot be a specialist in all aspects of their funding requests. While the word billion has begun to lose its shock value in the world of energy project financing, its critical to conduct your business with a specialist who hasnt lost their edge in the energy project sector.
Because of expansions of natural gas, nuclear power, shale, solar power, electricity, crude oil, steam-power, and coal, the need for energy project financing has grown into one of the most demanded, yet underfunded industries worldwide. In many parts of the world, medical research receives three times as much funding as energy financing request even though the world of modern medicine is largely at the mercy of energy.
Our modern society consumes massive amounts of fuel and energy. Even third world countries would be debilitated without the sporadic energy resources they access at present. Developed countries around the world have essentially built their infrastructures around the use of energy. And how could they possibly avoid it? Unfortunately, going to traditional sources for energy project funding has proven to be a daunting task. Even though the Obama administration and a Democrat-controlled Congress have passed stimulus bills with massive amounts of funding for new, alternative energy sources, very little of this money is being thrown at the development and continuation of existing energy resources which we are already dependent upon. The answer to this dilemma is alternative energy project financing options which take into consideration future profits of a tangible energy asset which produces income rather than a debt. Sounds enticing, right? A true energy project financing specialist will know exactly how to accomplish this task. So do yourself a favor. Engage an energy project funding specialist for your successful financing.