Attracting Investment

Readers will be aware that foreign direct investment (FDI) worldwide initially suffered from the COVID effect but bounced back last year. In Africa, investment in South Africa was not as active as in Egypt or Nigeria, which are now the FDI leaders on the continent (see article below). To attract investment, SA will be holding the 4th investment conference (SAIC) on March 24 in Johannesburg. The main recipients of investment have been FinTech which has been doing very well (globally fintech attracts $1 out of every $5 invested). Recently, I read an article that argued persuasively that investors will be attracted to the central infrastructural providers – like payment solutions – before moving to the consumer-facing sectors, like ecommerce. It is also easier to provide a good case for investing in mobile money, for example than for ecommerce at present due to the lack of independent data.

However, here are some ideas if you want to apply for investment in your ecommerce business, whether you are going for local investment or FDI, or whether you are searching for Angel investment, or from institutional investors, like banks. TechCrunch recently published an article on the laborious exercise of crafting a pitch deck to attract investment. The article pointed out that a convincing deck requires data-driven answers for these existential questions: can you lay out your plan for tripling revenue year-on-year? What is your ideal product use case? TechCrunch stressed that it is tempting to make overly sunny projections or copy what has worked for others. Your pitch is not meant to impress — it is supposed to show how well you understand the business you are building and the space in which you are operating. In other words – tell your company’s story in such a way that investors can see how they will benefit from their investment. TechCrunch pointed out that there are five aspects that need to be stressed: Go-to-market; Use case/audience; Total Available (or Addressable) Market; Possible outcomes; YourTeam. Get those right and you will have a powerful pitch deck to be proud of!