Tag Archives: vc

How do VCs look for Success Stories?

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To help entrepreneurs get an idea on how VCs look for the next success stories, we approached two VC firms in Lebanon, Berytech and Leap Ventures.

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Berytech:
Berytech was established in 2001 and is the oldest firm in Lebanon to provide support to startups. It has since grown through the years to become an ecosystem of 3 incubators, 3 finds, 1 accelerator, and coworking support spaces.

Berytech is an exciting community of entrepreneurs who support each other and grow. They provide business support at the different growth stages of the startup, flexible worry-free hosting services where the startups can plug and play and expand flexibly.

When looking for success stories, Berytech believes that Lebanon is filled with lots of great human talent who are often hidden or worried to go through the risky entrepreneurial path. Berytech is there to help them figure out if the path is right for them and to support them every step of the way in terms of training and coaching.

Check their website to learn more.

Leap Ventures

Leap Ventures:
Leap Ventures was founded in 2014 as a venture capital firm specializing in investments in startups. The firm is based in Beirut and is also located in Dubai. It invests in the MENA region with a focus on Lebanon.

Leap ventures was formed by a team of serial entrepreneurs who have decades of startup experience under their belt. They can support entrepreneurs through funding, strategy training, providing operational resources, marketing expertise, global connections, and more.

To find the next success stories, they leverage their extensive entrepreneurial experience: engaging with promising entrepreneurs, providing fresh views and strategic opportunities, and planning for transformative growth.

Check their website to learn more.

Meet the Lebanese VCs

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As we’ve witnessed the rise in Lebanon’s startup ecosystem, we have witnessed the Lebanese venture capital market grow at an unprecedented pace in 2015.  Attributed to Banque du Liban’s initiative Circular 331 , which provides incentives to commercial banks to make equity investments in startups or venture capital funds, we have seen the VC scene flourish with several new players.

Below is a brief overview of the main VCs in Lebanon:

Berytech_Logo

Berytech
Berytech is the oldest firm in Lebanon to provide support to startups.Ever since its inception, Berytech has been driven by the will to create positive impactful initiatives.

Berytech was established in 2001 as an initiative from Saint Joseph University to provide an environment that startups and SMEs can be created and developed in through incubation, counseling, networking, funding, and company hosting.  It has since grown through the years to become an ecosystem of 3 incubators, 3 finds, 1 accelerator, and coworking support spaces.

Since its inception, Berytech has created over 90 startups, invested in over $6M in 15 ventures, and supported over 3000 entrepreneurs. Since BDL Circular 331, Berytech launched the Berytech Fund II, a $50 million Beirut based venture capital fund to invest in SMEs with high growth potential.  The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Berytech also announced in April 2015 the official launch of “Insure & Match Capital” (IM Capital), a new $15M Investment Fund under MENA Investment Initiative.

Speakers at BDL Accelerate 2015: Maroun N. Chammas, Chairman and CEO of Berytech, Dr. Nicolas Rouhana, Executive Director, Paul Chucrallah, Managing Director of Berytech fund2.

Workshop Sponsor

Leap Ventures
Leap Ventures was founded in 2014 as a venture capital firm specializing in investments in startups. The firm is based in Beirut and is also located in Dubai. It invests in the MENA region with a focus in Lebanon.  It considers investments between $3 million and $7 million and up to $12 million through partnerships with other firms. Leap Ventures closed off its first round at $71 million and is expected a second closing that would most likely increase the fund size to $80 million.

Leap Venture has 4 founding partners with over 70 years of combined experience in founding and exiting companies.  The partners are Henri Asseily, Hala Fadel, Herve Cuvilliez, and Noor Sweid, each with a wealth of experience as investors and entrepreneurs. The 4 have founded and scaled 8 companies leading to over $ 2 billion in exits, and have invested in a total of 47 startups to date.

mEVP

Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP)
Founded in 2010, MEVP is the region’s leading independent venture capital firm with over 25 investments since inception.  Conducting business across three offices in Beirut, Dubai, and Silicon Valley, MEVP’s assets under management have reached in excess of $100 million.

MEVP manages 4 funds:

–   MEVF I: Launched in 2010, Fund size $10M, sector: ICT companies with a focus on consumer services in MENA region, ticket size: $200k to $1M.

–     BBEF: Launched in 2013, Fund size $ 7.3M, sector: ICT companies with a focus on retail and F&B, ticket size range from $200K to $1M.

–     IMPACT: Launched in 2014, Fund size $70M, sector ICT companies and creative industries in Lebanon, ticket size range $1M to $5M.

–     MEVF II: Launch in 2015, Fund size: $15M first out of $30M, focus on ICT companies in MENA, ticket size range: $300k to $3M

MEVP has 3 managing partners; Walid Hanna, who has led more than 30 investments and has been active in venture capital and in new venture development for over 15 years; Walid Mansour, also has more than 15 years of experience in venture capital, strategy and corporate finance; and Ihsan Jawad, based in Dubai, an internet entrepreneur who had founded Zawya.com and co-founded HoneyBee Tech Ventures.

Guide: First VC Meeting

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Entrepreneurs often seek out venture capitalists (VCs) to seek early stage fundraising for their startup. The process of finding the right VC for their startup, getting through the door, and leaving an impression often proves challenging. Below is a set of guidelines to prepare every entrepreneur seeking funding:

Find the right VC: Do your research and focus on identifying firms who prefer to invest in your stage, industry and technology. Avoid presenting to investors who don’t understand your industry and technology.

Request a meeting: Send the VC an email requesting a meeting that includes your elevator pitch and your presentation attached. This gives the VC the chance to go through your decks and think of it and do the required research ahead of meeting you.

Who should attend: The CEO must attend the meeting and can be joined by a co-founder, if one exists, and one or 2 valuable team members provided that they are good with people and all have a role to play at the meeting.

Presentation: Make sure you have prepared a great deck and rehearsed your delivery as well as how to reply to potential questions before attending the meeting. Do not deliver an overly detailed and lengthy presentation. It is crucial to deliver the perfect pitch, with confidence, passion, and knowledge. Check our post on what your presentation should include and how to deliver the perfect pitch.

Experience: Highlight your relevant past experience and those of your key team members. This helps the VC to decide whether you and your team are capable of implementing the next steps.

Time management is critical. Spend a fraction of the time focused on your presentation and postpone all questions until afterwards. The remainder of the time would be used for discussions. If you are not prepared and focused, the VC will take over the pace of the meeting and lead the discussions.

Don’t expect to get funded: Don’t try to use the first meeting to get funded as soon as possible by throwing in all sorts of information during the initial meeting. What you should be looking for is a request for a next meeting. Usually, VCs would study your presentation and discuss it with their team and would then contact you for a follow-up meeting.

After the meeting: Email the VC after the meeting to thank them for the time and attention they gave you. Do not pester them by constantly calling afterwards. They would get back to you. You can politely call or email a week or two after your initial meeting to follow up.

The intent of a first meeting with a VC is for them to explore if the opportunity you offer is interesting enough for their firm to seriously consider as an investment opportunity. If you have left the meeting with the VC informed on what you do, how you do so, your customer base, your marketing strategy and financial overview, you would have succeeded. Remember, you might never get the chance to meet this VC again, be prepared!

For a better understanding on what VCs look for, read our post on How To Attract Investors.

The Rise in Lebanon’s Startup Ecosystem in 2015

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Recognizing the importance of remodeling the country’s economy into a knowledge-based one, Banque du Liban’s (BDL) aims to provide funding and support for startups. BDL’s monumental initiative, BDL Circular 331, has played a substantial role in instigating Lebanon’s start up ecosystem, which has been thriving since BDL Accelerate 2014. The momentum has been evident across all stages of the start up ecosystem with the rise of more start up companies, dedicated investors, accelerators, enablers, and more.

During 2015, due to BDL’s initiative, BDL Circular 331, we have witnessed the rise of 3 new VC firms: Leap Ventures, Y Ventures, and Saned Ventures who aim to nurture early stage startups. Also attributed to BDL Circular 331, 6 new funds were established and larger funds than the previous years have been created. For instance, Berytech and MEVP have each created a $50 million venture capital fund, whilst Leap Ventures introduced a $71 million venture capital fund, in addition to other funds that have been springing.

At BDL Accelerate 2014, former UK Ambassador, Tom Fletcher, announced the launch of a new accelerator, UK-Lebanon Tech Hub, which has since been operating. Flat6Labs announce that they will be establishing a startup accelerator in Lebanon aiming to accelerate 100 budding startup companies within the next 5 years. Speed, also a startup accelerator, has started accepting applications for its first round.

We also observed the emergence of co-working spaces, innovation labs, and entrepreneurship programs providing the infrastructure for creative new ideas to flourish and develop into successful new businesses: AltCity’s Startup Bootcamp will accelerate 100 start ups per year; Le Wagon, a 9-week coding bootcamp; Fab lab, a digital fabrication laboratory that also offers workshops and research support.

Additionally, 2 institutions have been founded to create links with other startup ecosystems: UK-Lebanon Tech Hub and Startup Megaphone. UKLTH creates bridges between the local startups and the ecosystem in London. Startup Megaphone organizes international events and activities in key cities to showcase startups, investors and support institutions from Lebanon.

The Start Up event series was launched with a boom in The Plaza in New York City earlier this year; it was followed by another event in Singapore during the F1 Grand Prix. Both events brought together Lebanese entrepreneurs and investors from around the world with high profile start up ecosystem stakeholders. The interactions resulted in knowledge exchange, relationship building and partnership formation.

There have been two success stories recently that prove that it is possible to found your startup, scale it and eventually exit in Lebanon. Japan’s Cookpad acquired local startup, Shahiya, who had originally accepted a $500,000 funding from MEVP, for a reported $13.5 million. The other exit was to a French company, when Webedia acquired the digital media company, Diwanee.

Rasheed El Tayeb, Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton added, “I believe that the next Alibaba or Google will come from the Middle East. Consumption of digital content per capita is among the highest in the world in parts of the MENA region. As our youngsters move from being tech savvy consumers to becoming producers, tech companies will increasingly emerge from this region.”

As seen in other emerging ecosystems, successful startups tend to give rise to multiple additional successful startups reinforcing the growth of the ecosystem. The Lebanese startup ecosystem has only started emerging and its future looks bright especially with the increase in amount of funding from $50 million to $200 million within one year.