For any business to flourish, there needs to be good investment and planning that will help the firm reach its target audience and go beyond! Here’s where the role of an investor comes into picture. An investor puts capital to use for long-term gains, while an entrepreneur seeks to generate profits by using those funds. Thus an investor is a crucial aspect for any startup, who typically generates returns by deploying capital. Investing in startups is a risky proposition. However, the low requirement for overhead capital along with high upside potential, makes it lucrative for the investors to put their bets on startups.
Basically, an investor is a person that allocates capital with the expectation of a future financial return or to gain an advantage. An investor can choose to invest in-equity, debt securities, real estate, currency, commodity, token, derivatives such as put and call options, futures, etc.
According to the official website of Startup India- startupindia.gov.in, investors particularly venture capitalists (VCs) add value to startups in a lot of ways. Some of them are listed below:
- Stakeholder Management: The investors are the ones who manage the company board and leadership to facilitate smooth operations of the startup. Moreover, their functional experience and domain knowledge of working and investing with startups imparts vision and direction to the company.
- Raise Funds: Investors are best guides for the startup as they help to raise subsequent rounds of funding on the basis of stage, maturity, sector focus etc. The investors aid in networking and connection for the founders to pitch their business to other investors.
- Recruiting The Best to Achieve Business Goals: Finding great talent and best-fit human capital is critical for startups, especially when it comes to recruiting senior executives to manage and drive business goals. The venture capitalists, with their extensive network can help bridge the talent gap by recruiting the right set of people at the right time.
- Proper Marketing of the product: The venture capitalists (VCs) assist with marketing strategy for your product/service.
- Merger and Acquisition (M&A) Activity: VCs have their eyes and ears open to merger and acquisition opportunities in the local entrepreneurial ecosystem to enable greater value addition to the business through inorganic growth.
- Organizational Restructuring:As a young startup grows to an established company, they help with the right organizational structuring and introduce processes to increase capital efficiency, lower costs and scale efficiently.