In order to grow rapidly, you need a healthy business, resource people to support and guide you, and investments to support your growth. Depending on the stage you are in, there are specific investment rounds, which you can learn about in this article.
As you have already learned from the previous materials, when you receive funding from an investment fund or business angels, there are a number of conditions that accompany the commitment - the assignment of a certain percentage of the company shares, the results that the company must achieve in a certain time period of time etc. Obviously, they vary from case to case. It's also important to know that not all startups follow this funding route (i.e. they don't get all these funding groups).
Here are the funding thresholds.
Pre-seed
This is the first funding threshold that a startup can access. The funds sometimes come from acquaintances or family, or from the co-founders' own funds.
For many companies, the first stage in their development is marked by bootstrapping - that is, they start out with their own funds and knowledge and make the most of the resources they have, so as not to turn to external funding too soon.
What concrete forms can it take? Here are some examples:
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team members fulfill several roles simultaneously – from marketing, to product management, development, sales, customer care, etc.
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the team is not remunerated directly, but each member receives shares in the company
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larger investments are postponed – choosing to work from home or a co-working space rather than renting an office, choosing to rent various machines instead of buying them, etc.
As the business grows and starts to have sell/decides to turn to external funding, the dynamics change and the need for bootstrapping decreases. This is a temporary solution, which has its advantages (postponing the moment when a part of the company is assigned, for example), but also disadvantages that must be taken into account.
Seed funds
When a business is close to reaching product-market fit (although this is not a general rule), Business Angels, investment funds, pitching competitions with prizes (such as Startarium PitchDay) or programs for startups (incubators or accelerators - usually in exchange for certain percentages of the company's shares) invest in its development.
The amounts invested on average in this stage, according to Investopedia - is up to 150,000 dollars.
A, B, C, etc. funding rounds
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Series A - this includes companies that have traction, are practically operational. Larger/international investment funds usually invest in this stage. The invested amounts are on average between 2 and 15 million dollars.
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Series B - this includes companies that are ready for the scale-up stage in general, and the average amount invested is $30 million, according to Investopedia.com.
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Series C - the companies that reach this level usually have massive development plans, new product ideas, expansion to other markets, etc. The amounts received by companies at this stage are on average around $50 million.
If you want to see how investments in Romania have evolved in recent years, you can consult Report made by the How To Web team .
