Selkie ‘Meet the Expert’ event – Raising Investment with GS Verde

This session in the Selkie Project’s Meet the Expert series focused on Raising Investment with Louise Santaana, Director of Verde, the Corporate Finance arm of the GS Verde Group.

As a fast-growing and highly innovative industry, the marine energy sector comprises of a vast number of small or medium sized enterprises (SMEs) requiring funding and investment opportunities. Raising investment and acquiring funding sources for these projects is therefore a vital aspect of progressing the industry.

In this session, Louise gave a fantastic presentation and Q&A session providing a high-level overview of various types of funding that can be acquired, in relation to the different stages in an organisation’s lifecycle where capital may be needed to be raised to support growth or exit.

After covering options for growth and exit funding, such as grants, crowdfunding, acquisitions and private equity, Louise also discussed a shortlist of important considerations to make sure companies are investor ready. This included the importance and criteria of a pitch deck as well as the necessity for clear and detailed financial actuals, forecasts and accurate valuation. It was highlighted that getting these elements wrong are some of the most common pitfalls for companies looking to raise investment and therefore a key takeaway was to ensure that sufficient time and resource is spent on these areas.

To view the presentation slides please click here.

Overall, the session provided an extremely useful introduction to raising investment for companies in the sector and participants were able to receive direct advice on some of their current projects and future outlook for their businesses through the interactive Q&A discussion.

As a corporate finance-led group, specialising in investment raising, acquisitions and business sales, GS Verde Group provide assistance to their clients in all stages of a company’s lifecycle. If you are interested in finding out more, please visit their website and get in touch here.

With another Meet the Expert session coming up at the end of September, there is still time to book your place for upcoming events. If you would like to register for these sessions, please view our scheduled events and register here.

For further information on the Selkie project and network, please get in touch with sophie@mentermon.com to find out how the Selkie project may be able to support your business in the marine energy industry.