We sat down with Tony Stout, founder of YACHTNEEDS, to talk about their recent funding round and lessons learnt during the process.
How much did you raise?
We raised €1,25M in 2022, split between 2 investors - a private investor and the F2IAM Fund in Monaco.
How long did it take you to raise the round?
It took around one month to close the first major investor (who committed €1M) and approximately 3 months to close the second investor. This was due to the second investor being an entity of Monaco’s government, and so this process was slightly longer.
How many investors did you approach?
We approached three investors, and onboarded two of those.
Who ultimately invested in the round?
The first investment came from a private Monegasque investor (and superyacht owner) with many success stories in the world of digital technology. The second investment came from the F2IAM Fund, a Monegasque Innovation Impact and Acceleration Fund, supported by the Monaco government.
What value do your investors bring other than the capital?
Our investors bring a network within the IT and yachting industries, and a series of entrepreneurial successes which we are able to leverage.
What were the biggest hurdles in raising the round?
The complexity of the bureaucracy. The amount of paperwork we had to submit was overwhelming…but we are glad we did it, as now things will be much easier. We were also in the process of converting the company to a S.A.M which added a level of complexity at the time of investment.
Any advice to founders raising a round in this space?
Have your documentation for the due diligence in order, keep it updated and ready to go. Have numbers and evidence to back up your assumptions. No matter a negative or positive outcome of each due diligence, take something positive away from every investor meeting which you can take to the next.
Are you planning to raise again in 2023?
Yes, we are planning to raise another round in early 2023 to allow for global expansion.
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