Deep pockets still available despite downturn

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Deep pockets still available despite downturn

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

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The Globe and Mail features I Love Rewards as an exemplary case study of how start-ups can attain capital in hard times. I Love Rewards raised $8.7 M in capital during the recession and offers some best practices to other start-ups on how to raise money.

What they said about I Love Rewards:

In May, Toronto firm, which specializes in Web-based employee rewards programs designed to boost staff retention and engagement, secured $5.7-million (U.S.) in funding from an investment group led by Wellesley, Mass.-based venture capital firm GrandBanks Capital.

“My vision is to build the most successful Web-based rewards company in the world … and capital is the fuel to grow,” Mr. Suleman explains.

Growth capital, although harder to acquire, is still available – and despite a difficult economic climate, many of the time-honoured tactics for securing it still apply.
Having already completed that series “A” round of venture capital funding, I Love Rewards, which boasts annualized revenue of $12-million and is predicting revenue growth of at least 200 per cent over the next two years, leveraged the contact list of those initial investors and used a networking opportunity in New York to cast a wider venture capital net.

“There’s credibility in who you take money from and that opens up a lot of doors,” Mr. Suleman says. “I got in front of V.C. [venture capital] firms that most Canadian entrepreneurs will never get the opportunity to present to.”

Click the link to read the full article, “Deep pockets still available despite downturn”