Economy
How to Avoid Rookie Mistakes When Looking for Investment
By Philani Mzila
In the startup universe, one of the most valuable (if not the most valuable) finite resources you have at your disposal as a founder is equity. This is because startups generally don’t have the capital to scale in the market or products developed significantly enough to leverage to fund ongoing enterprise growth.
This makes your startup’s capitalisation table (cap table) an integral representation of how your venture is funded from an equity perspective (including convertible notes, warrants, and equity ownership grants). The cap table represents how much of a claim each party has on the value created by the business and what they paid for their ownership stake. Managing the cap table well is, therefore, a strategic imperative for any startup founder. As a startup scales, the evolution of its cap table has serious implications on how easily the venture can attract and raise new investments.
Cap tables and investor risk tolerance
At the beginning of a startup’s journey, the founding team owns 100% of the company. Depending on the resources they have available, founders tend to self-fund the venture as much as possible (called bootstrapping) up to and including the pre-seed stage in order to protect their equity value. At some point, however, the resources they have can only take them so far, and they need to raise external capital.
At the pre-seed stage, a startup hasn’t necessarily found product-market fit, and its revenue is often not the best measure of its potential because founders are honing their minimum viable product. At best, the venture has signals of product market fit, i.e. user growth, engagement and active usage and retention. The lack of product-market fit and bankable recurring revenue is typically a deterrent for investment by later-stage investors due to their inherently lower risk tolerance.
This is where angel investors and early-stage venture capital (VC) firms step in. Angel investors are high-net-worth individuals who are highly risk-tolerant and have the financial means to invest in startups and their potential future returns at the right price. That “right price” is usually an ownership stake in the business, ranging anywhere between 5 and 15%, with that percentage being a symbol of the risk angel investors accept in return for their capital and operational expertise. Early-stage VC firms, on their end, typically provide additional institutional capital, operational and governance support as well as credibility to ventures.
Angels and other types of early-stage investors, like Founders Factory Africa, play a vital role in the VC ecosystem. Without the high-risk tolerance these investors bring to the table, most early-stage startups would not break out of the pre-seed stage due to a lack of funding.
The role of a term sheet at the point of investment
Given the importance of a startup’s cap table in its future trajectory, it’s worth highlighting the vital role a VC term sheet performs at the point of investment. A VC term sheet is a document that outlines the terms and conditions of a VC investment. It includes details on the amount of money to be invested, the equity being granted to investors, the timing of investor liquidity, and investors’ rights in the venture.
Some of the key terms founders and investors must be familiar with when reviewing this document include:
Valuation – The value of the company which is being used as the basis for the investment.
Pre- and post-money valuation – The pre-money valuation is the value of the company prior to the investment, with post-money valuation is the value of the company after the investment.
Voting rights – A representation of how much say investors have in the future strategic direction of the business.
Liquidation preference – This is a clause that determines the order in which investors and founders are paid back in case of liquidation or bankruptcy. Be aware: liquidation preference typically relates to any liquidity event, not just a liquidation.
Anti-dilution-provisions – These clauses can help protect investors from dilution because of a future financing round of financing. They can have the effect of decreasing a founder’s shareholder value.
An alignment of interest with the future in mind
As both an investor and a venture builder that helps startups improve their product and find product-market fit, at Founders Factory Africa, we often advise founders to be extremely careful when exchanging equity for capital. When an investor decides to invest in a startup, they are looking for an alignment of interests where the founders can make a meaningful return for starting and scaling the venture, thereby providing a higher chance of a successful exit for the investor.
Some of the errors we typically see include founders raising their initial funding at too high a valuation. This creates unrealistic expectations for future funding rounds. At times, founders ask for too much capital without deep thought into what metrics and milestones they would like to achieve with the capital, leading them to give up too much equity very early on without considering the need for future funding rounds. These scenarios, in turn, stunt the venture’s ability to raise funding and scale due to the lack of alignment of financial interests with investors.
As a startup matures and goes through its different funding rounds, the equity allocated to founders is diluted as larger sums of investment are raised at Series A, B, or C. If the cap table is not thoughtfully constructed, the startup may find it increasingly difficult to raise capital as questions around incentives for later-stage investors increase.
The startup ecosystem is binary. Either a business grows and succeeds, or it fails. There is no in-between. The value that a startup places on its equity, and the partners they choose on its journey and collectively creates is the golden thread that runs through every startup’s success or failure. A thoughtful cap ensures that a startup can become successful. A badly designed cap table can do the exact opposite.
Philani Mzila is an Investment Manager at Founders Factory Africa
By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange rallied by 1.70 per cent on Thursday, June 25, after three price gainers overpowered the two price losers recorded at the close of business.
Consequently, the market capitalisation of the trading platform increased by N43.79 billion to N2.618 trillion from N2.574 trillion, and the NASD Security Index (NSI) improved by 72.96 points to close at 4,362.32 points, in contrast to Wednesday’s 4,289.36 points.
Yesterday, the price advancers were led by Nipco Plc, which chalked up N31.79 to close at N349.76 per unit versus the preceding day’s N317.97 per unit. Okitipupa Plc gained N18.00 to end at N298.00 per share versus the previous session’s N280.00 per share, and Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc went up by N7.11 to N86.79 per unit from N79.68 per unit.
On the flip side, Nitrox Industrial Gases Plc crumbled by 32 Kobo to close at N21.09 per share compared with the N21.41 per share it closed at midweek, and Food Concepts Plc depreciated by 25 Kobo to N2.51 per unit from N2.76 per unit.
During the session, the value of securities traded by investors went down by 86.7 per cent to N10.9 million from the preceding session’s N82.9 million, and the volume of securities dropped 84.9 per cent to 10.9 million units from the previous 82.9 million, while the number of deals grew by 84.2 per cent to 35 deals from 19 deals.
At the close of trades, Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc remained the most traded stock by value on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units sold for N8.4 billion, trailed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc with 2.3 billion units valued at N6.5 billion, and CSCS Plc with 68.4 million units exchanged for N4.7 billion.
GNI Plc was also the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units worth N8.4 billion, followed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units traded for N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units transacted for N415.7 million.
By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited further suffered a 0.64 per cent decline on Thursday as the bears tightened their grip on the bourse.
For the second straight session, all the key sectors of Customs Street pointed south, with the energy counter down by 5.22 per cent. The insurance index slumped by 2.59 per cent, the banking space depreciated by 0.28 per cent, and the consumer goods segment moderated by 0.06 per cent, while the industrial goods sector was flat, though with a marginal fall.
As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) contracted by 1,493.71 points to 233,580.83 points from 235,074.54 points, and the market capitalisation retreated by N959 billion to N149.888 trillion from N150.847 trillion.
Investor sentiment remained weak after a negative market breadth index, as there were 21 price gainers and 34 price losers.
Aradel and Deap Capital went down by 10.00 per cent each to N1,575.00 and N4.05, respectively. Trans-Nationwide Express fell by 9.90 per cent to N3.64, Regency Alliance slipped by 9.57 per cent to N85 Kobo, and C&I Leasing dipped by 9.48 per cent to N28.12.
Conversely, Red Star Express grew by 9.60 per cent to N24.55, Legend Internet expanded by 9.09 per cent to N6.00, Neimeth appreciated by 7.10 per cent to N8.30, Abbey Mortgage Bank rose by 5.45 per cent to N8.70, and Ellah Lakes improved by 4.65 per cent to N9.00.
Yesterday, market participants traded 393.7 million equities valued at N19.2 billion in 45,813 deals compared with the 488.1 million equities worth N20.9 billion transacted in 46,239 deals recorded a day earlier, implying a shortfall in the trading volume, value, and number of deals by 19.34 per cent, 8.13 per cent, and 0.92 per cent, respectively.
The most active stock for the session was Access Holdings with a turnover of 39.1 million units worth N896.2 million, Chams traded 24.5 million units valued at N96.5 million, Fidelity Bank sold 24.1 million units for N436.9 million, Sterling Holdings exchanged 23.8 million units valued at N182.2 million, and Zenith Bank transacted 18.9 million units worth N2.1 billion.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira recorded a marginal gain of 43 Kobo or 0.03 per cent against the United States Dollar on Wednesday, June 25, in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) to sell for N1,380.11/$1 compared with the previous day’s N1,380.54/$1.
However, the Nigerian currency lost N3.21 against the Pound Sterling in the official market during the session to close at N1,818.84/£1, in contrast to Wednesday’s exchange rate of N1,815.63/£1, and against the Euro, it fell by N3.21 to trade at N1,566.84/€1 versus midweek’s value of N1,563.63/€1.
In the same vein, the Nigerian Naira depreciated against the Dollar at the GTBank FX deck yesterday by N3 to sell for N1,383/$1 compared with the preceding session’s value of N1,380/$1, and at the black market window, it remained unchanged at N1,395/$1.
Interbank FX turnover at the NFEM window surged by about 56 per cent day-on-day to close at $195.371 million from $125.588 million reported on Wednesday, according to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The Naira continues to feel the impact of rising FX payments and a strong US Dollar amid a sharp slowdown in forex market interventions by the central bank, with more than six weeks of no support for the local currency.
Nigeria’s foreign reserves increased further to $51.142 billion, while oil prices continue to be held in the $70 range by developments in the geopolitical scene.
Meanwhile, in the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin sank below $60,000 as more than $1 billion in crypto positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours, with longs accounting for $842 million of the damage. About 148,500 traders were wiped out. The largest single position was a $38 million bitcoin-dollar bet on Hyperliquid. It led at $489 million in liquidations and dropped 2.8 per cent to sell at $59,862.61.
Ethereum (ETH) crashed by 5.5 per cent to $1,554.57, Ripple (XRP) declined by 4.8 per cent to $1.03, Cardano (ADA) fell by 4.3 per cent to $0.1433, Dogecoin (DOGE) dropped 3.4 per cent to sell at $0.0745, TRON (TRX) slid 2.2 per cent to $0.3215, Binance Coin (BNB) slumped by 1.8 per cent to $561.34, and Solana (SOL) dipped by 0.3 per cent to $62.94, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) sold flat at $1.00 each.
-
Feature/OPED6 years agoDavos was Different this year
-
Travel/Tourism10 years ago
Lagos Seals Western Lodge Hotel In Ikorodu
-
Showbiz3 years agoEstranged Lover Releases Videos of Empress Njamah Bathing
-
Banking8 years agoSort Codes of GTBank Branches in Nigeria
-
Economy3 years agoSubsidy Removal: CNG at N130 Per Litre Cheaper Than Petrol—IPMAN
-
Banking3 years agoSort Codes of UBA Branches in Nigeria
-
Banking3 years agoFirst Bank Announces Planned Downtime
-
Sports3 years agoHighest Paid Nigerian Footballer – How Much Do Nigerian Footballers Earn