Seed and 1st Round Financing
Seed financing is the stage an entrepreneur goes through when the product or service he is working on is still under development and, thus, a long way from earning consistent revenues. At this stage an entrepreneur usually needs financing in order develop a—so called—"Minimum Viable Product” (or “MVP”). 1st round financing (or “round A financing”) occurs once the entrepreneur has exited the inception and testing phases and a MVP is already available to customers. While the seed financing stage is usually overcome thanks to family’s and friends’ support (so called “love money”), resources can also be provided by—so called—“angel investors” or specialized venture capital firms (so called “smart money”). At IBEX VENTURES Ltd we specialize in seed and 1st round financing. The amount of funds we provide to a single venture goes up to CHF 100’000 for the seed financing stage and lies between CHF 100’000 and CHF 500’000 at the 1st round financing stage.
2nd Round Financing (“Round B”)
Once a Minimum Viable Product (or “MVP”) has been developed and tested and the company has accessed the market, 2nd round financing (also: “round B financing”) is all about taking the business to the “next level”. The business is usually already creating revenues, but is not yet fully established and profitable and, thus, is unable to stay in the market. This is when 2nd round financing occurs in order to allow the business to grow into the next development’s leg. At IBEX VENTURES Ltd we do provide promising start-ups with 2nd round financing and, as for businesses being financed at the 1st round financing stage, the amount of funds we provide usually lies between the CHF 100’000 and CHF 500’000 marks. Should the financing need lie above the CHF 500’000 mark, we usually do syndicate with IBEX FINANCE Ltd, as a business entity specialized in more capital-intensive “later stage financing” rounds, but we may also syndicate with other venture capital (VC) or private equity (PE) firms.