Your Partner for Future Growth

We are unable to fund your project if…

• The required capital is meant to serve a different purpose other than growth and expansion of your company (e.g. M&A, partial acquisition of part of the business or acquisition of patent rights).
• The funds are solely dedicated to build and develop prototypes (lower phases of the project life cycle that require a seed or angel investor).
• Your company fails to meet size and/or turnover specifications set out in European Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC, which defines small and medium-sized enterprises. In practice, this means that your company, including its partner and affiliated enterprises, must not have more than 250 employees and its annual turnover must not exceed €50 million and/or its annual balance sheet must not exceed €43 million.
• Your company pursues activities in the field of production and trading in tobacco products and alcoholic beverages, manufacturing and trading in arms, gambling, genetic research and cloning, or IT services aimed at supporting these industries.

What we need to evaluate your project

• A pitch deck or executive summary containing the description of your product, the problem it solves, positioning and value proposition compared to the competition, your go-to-market strategy as well as an introduction of key team members you intend to achieve it with and the required capital.
• A demonstration of the product, its functions and viability, ideally on pilot projects with existing clients.
• A comprehensive business plan that should further elaborate on all the information described in the pitch deck, and a proper financial plan with an explanation of key inputs.
• A financial model and indicative valuation of your company; during our assessment, we normally apply the method of discounted cash flow in combination with alternative methods (e.g. EBITDA/Revenue multiples and similar).
• Existing customers and pipeline for projected years.
• If you have already entered into negotiations with a potential co-investor, a few words about them and, if possible, a draft of the proposed term sheet will be useful. 

The course of the investment process

• Our preliminary approval is subject to agreement by all parties of the term sheet (with you and co-investor as well) and of your business´s valuation.
• What follows next is the due diligence process. We usually conduct legal, accounting, financial, transactional audits, an audit of intellectual property and, if necessary, a production and technological audit.
• Should we not encounter any fundamental discrepancies and/or material risks during the due diligence process that would disqualify the transaction, and should the investment be approved by the VFF investment advisory committee, we proceed to contract negotiations and final signing.