If you think now is a bad time to be a startup and that the investment market is dry, Wholesale Investor magazine has some hard number ready to prove you otherwise. At its first networking meeting, publisher Reuben Buchanan presented the magazine’s reader poll which turned up some important and encouraging numbers showing that not only are Australians looking to invest, they think it’s one of the best time to do it.
Out of all of the readers surveyed, Wholesale Investor found only 1% felt it was not a good time to invest, and 26.5% thought now was the very best time. More than half of the magazine’s audience is made up of high net worth individuals and angels, and accordingly the survey also showed that these investors are looking for investments they can actively been involved with.
But looking past these glowing statistics, which continue to support the idea Australia has fared well during the GFC, there were some important numbers for startups to remember as they build their team and prepare to seek funding. When it comes to the struggles investors face, the survey found that simply finding good deals was tough and that often the valuations they were seeing, in spite of the economy were still too high. And when it comes to what aspects these investors look at when making their decision, surprisingly the top criteria wasn’t the infamous pitch, but the management team. 77% said the education and experience of the people leading the startup was their, and the quality of the pitch came in only at 12%. Other high ranking criteria included proof of concept and a clear path to exit. You can read the full results online here.
The evening also brought five pitches ripped straight from the pages of the magazine. The companies vying for investor attention were no small projects, and were seeking investments exceeding the $1 million mark. Bio fuel and clean energy businesses ruled the night with ZEEP presenting a zero-emissions energy process, Biotech Australia showing off a faster and more efficient way to extract diesel fuel from algae and Agrifuels offering an efficient way of extracting bio fuels from plants.
Wholesale Investor plans to hold these events every month or so going forward, alternating between Melbourne and Sydney.
Wholesale Investor Magazine looks like a great opportunity. Pity it does not live up to the hype. I know 3 companies who paid fees and were given assurances funds would be raised only to have NO funds raised at all. Beware of Investor
[...] team of people behind it. We talked about this fact in a previous blog when it was revealed in the Wholesale Investor magazine survey that the team behind a company was one of the top factors investors looked at when [...]