Private Equity & Impact Investing
In order to convince investors, you need more than exchangeable technologies and precisely calculated business models, as decisions are not based on rational facts alone. The key to increased growth and profit lies in strategic narratives. WAALD develops purpose strategies that win over investors with their relevance and meaningfulness.
Boom and struggle
Investments are booming – but at the same time they are increasingly spread over more risk-financed companies. Venture capital funds amassed almost eight billion US dollars for tech startups in Germany in 2017 alone. Competition is stiffening, however. In the same year, the German Startup Monitor noted 1,837 startups, a 50 per cent year-on-year increase in the number of competitors for capital. Venture capital as a source of finance has therefore declined dramatically for individual founders. Even though the market is booming, investors have greater choice and have been looking at more than just numbers for a long time now.
Without a sense of purpose, no company, either public or private, can achieve its full potential.
Meaning and purpose
Investors want growth. In a world in which high economic growth rates are confronted with rising social concerns, an increasing number of sponsors are looking for commitments that achieve a higher goal. Never was the public perception of companies bigger and more extensive than now. A startup not only has to promise rapid returns to stand out among the many new business ideas – it also has to respond in the long term to people’s everyday realities and dreams in order to be able to tell a growth story for many years to come.
This is why today, already in the first round of discussions, startups are hearing questions such as: what role does your company play in society? What relevance do you have for the technological and systemic themes of the future? Any company looking for capital needs sound purpose strategies in order to offer appraisers a ‘why’. After all, a company without deeper meaning will never reach its full potential.
WAALD develops convincing strategic narratives that take both the market as well as social developments into account. In the past, we have helped exciting startups in various ways in their search for investors – from strategic consultation remunerated
