A strategic investor brings more than just a check to the table. They are seasoned operators, investors, or board members who have particular skills, contacts, and abilities to help an investee company move the needle.
Strategic investors provide equity and debt solutions to businesses that correlate to their own company regarding industry, services, customers, and products.
Strategic capital partners seek to maximize the appreciation of an investment portfolio over the long term. Therefore, these investors invest not only funding but also advisory support and consultancy to help founders make intelligent decisions to achieve goals. For example, due to the vast assets and resources available, strategic investors can go beyond the basic investing/lending practices and provide insight and guidance in key growth areas such as product development, sales, partnerships, acquisitions, and more.
High-potential SaaS companies are attractive to strategic investors because they see the worth in having experienced partners who can add value along the growth path. Therefore, many SaaS founders seek this type of investment even though they sometimes have to give discounts on valuations or have caveats in place, such as asking for the first right of refusal if a company owner tries to sell the business.
With a potential win/win for a founder and a strategic capital partner, strategic investors invest in all types of companies, but significant investments mainly go to those gaining traction in the market and can scale to substantial market share.
To believe you can go from concept to strategic funding is unrealistic. You will need to have a proven business with solid revenue and high-profit potential with strong operational leadership to gain strategy capital investment.
6 Benefits of Strategic Investors:
1. Experience in your industry
2. Access to resources and insight to navigate scalability across all areas of the business, including finance, sales, marketing, operational, leveraging their unique experience and knowledge
3. The credibility of your company with the association of theirs
4. New introductions, networking, and business development opportunities shared from the partner to help foster growth
5. Positioning your brand as part of a larger corporate family can aid in negotiating power for preferred pricing and terms and conditions of services
6. Ability to see the business opportunity from the outside perspective while being industry experts
If you are looking to learn more on the best funding option for your growing business, talk to us!