Our Offer

Although the last few years have been characterized by a great deal of “disintermediation” in financial activities in general, allowing companies to have direct access to the financial markets without going through intermediaries, the same is not true of venture capital, development capital, and transmission capital, where the presence of an intermediary is still indispensable:

  • This is high-risk financing.
  • The analysis of projects and SME strategies remains a specialist matter
  • The financial engineering to be introduced is often complex
  • It is an alliance of capital and management assistance.

On the entrepreneur’s side, there are also fears related to the suspicion that venture capital firms will “steal their ideas” and/or take control of their businesses to meet their objectives at the expense of the well-being of the entrepreneurs and their projects.

Acting as a catalyst, Gesventure enables entrepreneurs (and their teams) to speed up the different stages they must overcome before they can get investors to finance their venture.

In this role of “Venture Catalyst,” Gesventure is the right partner to:

  • Analysis and “apport” of suggestions in the structuring of the respective Business Plan
  • Identifying and selecting potential investors who best suit the entrepreneur’s needs
  • Assisting and accompanying the entrepreneur in the negotiation process (presentations, financial structuring of the operation, articles of association, etc.)
  • Setting up professional management teams to facilitate compliance with the strategic and operational plan

These entrepreneurial support functions are all the more important because it is known that identifying equity investors is a long and challenging task, and for many, it is never achieved.

Not only because the investment dossier isn’t up to scratch (poorly described, unclear activity, insufficient ambition, a Business Plan that only focuses on technology and the product, or a Business Plan that only emphasizes the financial side, are usually reasons for rejection), but mainly because entrepreneurs don’t know how to identify (and locate) the most suitable investor.

It is important to note, however, that in addition to raising capital, Gesventure also has a pedagogical function. In fact, the most important support that Gesventure provides to entrepreneurs is helping them realize that even though the competition exists, they can win.

In other words, to make the entrepreneur imagine that he is playing a game of chess with a world champion on the other side of the board, having to guess how to achieve checkmate in fifteen moves and how to do it without the competition notice.

Gesventure’s raison d’être is to make entrepreneurs “think big” to create more value for their target market, which is those same entrepreneurs.

Fundraising

Since 1999, we have been helping dozens of entrepreneurs, startups, and companies raise capital to achieve their growth strategies by structuring financing operations – with financial and strategic investors in projects in the seed capital, Start-up, Capital development, and Management buy-out and buy-in phases.

These services are particularly important in the field of raising capital. Any process of raising capital must be seen as a true “ONE-SHOT” operation, i.e., an operation in which the entrepreneur must be able to interest investors from the outset; otherwise, raising money becomes very difficult.

This reality requires the entrepreneur to carry out important preparatory work, which must be part of an organized and planned process since raising capital is crucial for your company.

In this regard, it should be remembered that entrepreneurs should basically bear in mind four essential factors in the process of raising venture capital:

  •  Time – How do you manage your time between running the company and meeting with investors? Are you sufficiently and properly prepared to communicate with investors?
  • Good contacts – What kind of investors do you contact (Business Angels, Corporate Ventures, SCR) in Portugal and abroad?
  • A solid dossier – Are the assumptions in the Business Plan relevant? What is the company’s valuation? What level of capital increase is the most sensible?
  • The presentation – Is the speech well structured? Are the project’s strengths properly supported? Are the critical issues easily explained? Is there a Plan “B” or a contingency plan?

By adding knowledge capital to the projects presented to it by entrepreneurs – resulting from the “know-how”, the networks of national and international contacts, and, above all, the credibility it provides to the “Ideas” – Gesventure can play a fundamental role in the processes of raising capital that entrepreneurs have to go through in order to finance their projects, particularly those that are in the launch phase or entering new markets – as a result of the strong attraction and scalability that their services and/or products have shown.

Strategic Advisory

Our advisory services maximize the objectives of transactions and operations.

Drawing on our experience, we offer operational and financial analysis, recommend strategies that can add value to your business, and provide information on market trends and conditions.

Corporate Finance

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) with a focus on small and medium-sized transactions in the domestic market – supporting the purchase and sale processes of family businesses, advising industrial groups on the sale of non-strategic assets and businesses.

Medium-sized cross-border transactions focus on advising strategic and financial investors on the acquisition of Portuguese companies and Portuguese clients, the sale of assets to foreign investors, or the purchasing of assets or companies abroad (international expansion).

Check-list for Project Submission

You may think that your solution will solve a problem, but can the need you have identified be supported by market evidence?

We can support you in this process by developing actions with you that support the validation of your product/service and the identification of the target market/segments with the most suitable customers.

Any investor—business angels, venture capital companies, or venture capital funds—is looking for businesses with real market potential, i.e., revenue.

It is up to the entrepreneur to keep this basic requirement of investors in mind so that they can structure their project with evidence that the actions they intend to take will allow them to present attractive revenues and thus make the project appealing to investors.

Given our experience and networks of contacts with the business ecosystem, as well as our use of models and tools recognized as best practices in drawing up sales projections and defining the corresponding cost structure, we are a suitable partner for strengthening the conditions that allow investors to meet this critical requirement.

The revenue potential is interlinked with the possibility of large-scale growth. Is your product/service ready to reach new markets and/or go international?

With Gesventure’s support, you can clarify whether your project has the conditions to sustain this growth or whether you will have to look for alternative expansion opportunities.

Timing is essential.

Your idea/project could have been a success last year or it could be next year, but if the timing isn’t right, other alternatives will have to be sought.

Our management team will support you in answering questions such as the sector’s attractiveness or the added value of your solutions.

In the entrepreneurial ecosystem, it’s not just about what we know about the business, but above all about who will implement it.

You can count on Gesventure’s support in identifying key partners to guarantee the successful implementation and development of your project/company.

Today’s society is constantly evolving, especially regarding the development of new technologies.

The fact that your project/company has the right technology to drive growth may not be enough to gain a competitive advantage.

Our professionals will support you in this critical process of validating the technologies that support the development of your business idea, identifying partners with proven track records in implementing this type of solution, particularly in the corporate market or in B2B, B2C, B2B2C, B2G, D2C, M-Commerce, and/or XaaS markets.