- What regulatory requirements must companies meet in order to be eligible for investment by BC Advantage Funds?
- What do you look for when making an investment in a company?
- What would be the typical size of investment by BC Advantage Funds?
- How can BC Advantage Funds help with the growth of my early stage company?
- What is the best way to make sure that my business idea gets the proper consideration that it deserves from the Advantage team?
What regulatory requirements must companies meet in order to be eligible for investment by BC Advantage Funds?
Investments by BC Advantage Funds are regulated by the BC Small Business Venture Capital Act (SBVCA). Hence, to be eligible for an investment, companies must maintain their principal place of business in British Columbia and comply with the requirements set forth in the Provincial government's guidelines for venture capital programs. Entrepreneurs should confirm with the Investment Capital Branch (the Administrator of the SBVCA) that they qualify under the program before approaching us for investment.
What do you look for when making an investment in a company?
Our investment team seeks promising early stage technology, life science and clean-tech companies with a unique value proposition. Selection criteria include the evaluation of the management team, technology foundation, growth plans, and market opportunity. However, we do not rule out an investment opportunity because of lack of management experience, market size or other resources. We work with companies to identify strong commercial opportunities and the resources needed to achieve financial success.
What would be the typical size of investment by BC Advantage Funds?
The Advantage Venture Fund and Advantage Life Sciece Fund II typically invest between $500,000 and $2.0 million in the first stage of investment into a company; however, we will invest more where we feel the opportunity warrants it. We are looking for opportunities where we can deploy $2.0 million to more than $5.0 million over multiple rounds of investment.
How can BC Advantage Funds help with the growth of my early stage company?
The Advantage team is built around a core of very successful entrepreneurs and early-stage investors. The Advantage team works with its companies to help them obtain the resources needed to achieve financial success. By providing investment capital, assisting with the development and execution of business plans and partnering strategies, as well as augmenting management teams and boards we help early stage technology companies grow. With respect to the latter, our unique Mentor Model helps developing companies increase their chances of becoming successful by harnessing the experience of successful entrepreneurs. We believe it is all about the people, and we draw extensively on our networks for the benefit of our companies.
What is the best way to make sure that my business idea gets the proper consideration that it deserves from the Advantage team?
Prospective investee companies who feel that they have a promising business opportunity should submit clear and concise executive summary and power point on their company to businessplans@bcadvantagefunds.com. We prefer to start with a five to seven page executive summary and power point slide deck of less than 20 slides for our initial review. We can respond faster to those documents than a full business plan which will take us much longer to respond to.
The executive summary should detail the Company’s technological strength, competitive advantages, business opportunity and management team’s experience. The information submitted should also cover existing customers, strategic alliances, or partnerships.
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