Food and fibre capital raising programme launched
Planning for and securing capital for small-medium sized (SMEs) food and fibre businesses just got easier with the launch of Investment Ready – a twelve-week capital-raising preparation programme offering one-to-one and group capability building sessions.
Investment Ready is designed to equip food and fibre businesses with the tools to prepare for and successfully raise investment capital for business growth. It’s funded by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and delivered by Palmerston North innovation development business, The Factory.
The programme targets food and fibre businesses with established revenue streams that are no longer able to make tremendous growth through external investment.
“Raising investment is a necessary avenue for many growth-stage businesses who have large outgoings and development costs. It is seen less in established businesses that have traditional revenue sources,” says Nick Gain, The Factory CEO.
“Many food and fibre businesses have amazing growth plans but are unable to raise enough capital to turn these plans into action. This is where Investment Ready will play a vital role. It’s an exciting opportunity for The Factory team and its wider network to be partnering with MPI to deliver this programme to help enable growth in New Zealand’s food and fibre sector.”
Investment Ready provides dedicated support, knowledge, mentorship, investor connections and vital investment documentation to successful applicants.
MPI Agriculture and Investment Services Commercial Manager Andrew Clark says, “The Investment Ready programme closely aligns with the Government and sector roadmap Fit for a Better World, in particular its goal of creating an additional $44b in food and fibre sector export revenue over the next 10 years. It also aligns with MPI’s Opportunity Grows Here campaign aimed at boosting the number of people working in the sector across the country.
“The Investment Ready programme and subsequent planned investment will contribute to these goals by boosting the number of food and fibre sector entities with capital raising capability. This will lead to business growth, while helping to improve social and environmental outcomes.”
Investment Ready kicked off 18 months ago with a successful pilot programme that prepared four food and fibre sector businesses to become investment ready and then collectively pitched for over $60m of investment capital.
Investment Ready Pilot graduate Ramesh Naran of HospoConnect says, “The team at The Factory have provided amazing guidance on the documentation we needed to produce, the financial model and pitch preparedness for getting in shape to raise capital.
“I really liked that they tailored the advice specifically based on our experience and our company stage. They showed genuine care and passion in helping us. We were able to fast-track our investment readiness and have a set of documents and level of preparedness we wouldn’t have had if we hadn’t been part of the programme.”
Investment Ready is open to New Zealand food and fibre sector agribusinesses wanting to upscale through raising capital. The programme will be run twice a year, with the first programme starting in February 2023. The Factory is accepting applications from now until January 2023, with the first cohort starting in February 2023.
Head to www.investmentready.nz for further information or to apply.
Insights from the team at The factory.
