arc investors

We partner with founders who have experience and expertise in industrial automation, healthcare, and enterprise spaces and are building the next industry game changer. We invest in Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A companies anywhere in the United States and Canada. ‘VALUE ADD’ IS MORE THAN ASKING ‘HOW CAN WE BE HELPFUL’ Whether it’s customers and revenue, talent, partners, or investors, we help bring a variety of diverse perspectives to the table to help our companies succeed. Our CXO Network , consisting of 44 C-level executives from Global 1000 Corporates and other major institutions, consistently generates valuable insights and customer connections and has created many sources of revenue for our companies. THE DNA OF THE FUND IS ROOTED IN THE TEAM’S TECHNICAL AND ENTREPRENEURIAL BACKGROUND As former technical operators who have previously built and exited companies, we know what it takes to build successful enterprises and how to overcome challenges specific to those building technology startups.

We back companies building innovative B2B SaaS products. We’re always in search of entrepreneurs pursuing bold solutions to complex problems. Who we are Passionate about supporting business growth in emerging venture markets Since the fund’s launch in 2017, one of our guiding principles has been a desire to support entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds who often face unfair obstacles to obtaining institutional funding. Although only roughly 30% of US venture funding is allocated to companies based outside of California, Boston, and NYC each year, other cities contain no shortage of capable founders. When we began searching for talent in our own backyard, we learned that the best companies are often found where you might least expect. Silicon Valley no longer holds a monopoly over entrepreneurial talent. We know that startups thrive in commonly overlooked regions which provide access to untapped markets and lower operational costs. Our portfolio companies are based in a wide variety of fast-growing venture markets, including cities like Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Atlanta, and Toronto, among others. What we look for Strong, diverse teams building the future of B2B technology When evaluating new investment opportunities, there are several key elements we value most highly. We like to work with scrappy, self-aware teams who are open to receiving feedback and guidance. We prefer to see some level of product-market validation in the form of contracted recurring revenues. We invest broadly in the B2B SaaS space, with particular interest in verticals including digital health, IT/development tools, industrial, human resources, marketing technologies, and more. We weigh the merits of diverse leadership heavily when evaluating new investments. While we certainly always have room for improvement in our mission to support entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds, we’re proud that half of our current portfolio companies are led by female and/or nonwhite founders. We’re always eager to meet bold, driven teams who are creating disruptive technologies. Think that could be you? Please contact us. How we help A world-class Advisory Board and ongoing mentorship The Grand Ventures team is supported in our efforts by our extensive Board of Advisors. The board consists of over 50 of the fund’s LPs. Our advisors have extensive experience building successful tech companies - including the likes of US Robotics, Hagerty, Monster.com, and Facebook – and they are always eager to share their learned lessons with our portfolio CEOs. We get excited about supporting founders through the earliest, most challenging stages of building successful businesses. We often provide the first institutional check to companies and remain actively engaged as needed to promote growth and strategic focus. We’re ready to roll up our sleeves and help with everything from customer introductions to leadership coaching to sales and culture development. But don’t just take our word for it-- you can ask our CEOs.

Cocoon Capital is a leading, early-stage venture capital firm investing in Southeast Asian enterprise and deep tech startups. We engage deeply with our portfolio companies, acting as trusted advisors. We strive to give founders the necessary resources to accelerate their businesses and personal growth in a holistic environment. How do we work with you? As an active, early-stage investor, we allocate substantial time to each new company post-investment by only doing 6 new deals each year. We act as your trusted advisors supporting you in all aspects of running a business. To help you grow, we put special emphasis on your and your co-founders’ personal development. We enjoy that you are proactive and clearly state what you need from us; in return we will work relentlessly to deliver. We always seek to build long-term partnerships so that we can support you in both good and bad times. How do we source deals? Always on the lookout for the best founders in Southeast Asia, you can find us at events, conferences, demo days and at our monthly mentoring sessions that we do around Southeast Asia. We look for resilient and focused founders who are not afraid to fail forward. Our own founding experience has taught us that a seed-stage startup is a work in progress, so we are more interested in where you are going than where you are at right now. What are we looking for?Strong teams: The best teams have the right mix of deep knowledge & the ability to hustle their way through.And they enjoy working together, understand that success takes time, and can manage risk and stress. Real commitment: We are relaxed and informal but we can also be pretty straight shooters if required. As hands-on investors, we enjoy working committed teams who are ready to listen, learn and test. Exit potential: We generally invest in companies where we believe an exit could happen in 6 to 8 years. This means your market size has to be large enough and that there has to be potential buyers of your business. Scalability: Whether a copycat or an original idea, your business needs to be scalable in a sufficiently large market and be able to reach critical mass within the next 5 years. Enterprise focus: We believe investors do a better job if they stay focused. Therefore, we primarily target enterprise & deep tech companies. We believe these verticals have the largest chance of success in the current market environment. Singapore holding: While we invest in startups across Southeast Asia, companies have to agree to incorporating a holding company in Singapore before we close the deal. How does it work?Apply: We only consider applicants that have gone through our online registration system. Investment amount: We typically invest from S$500k to S$1m, depending on how much your company needs for an 18-month runway. Time frame: If your pitch deck interests us, you’ll be contacted for a follow-up meeting. We will then do due diligence on all the information provided and if everything goes well, we will sign a term sheet. The process then typically takes 8 to 10 weeks until the investment is completed. Keeping it confidential: We commit to keeping your application and all information shared with us confidential. However, we only sign non-disclosure terms as part of our term sheet and will not sign a separate NDA (Non-disclosure agreement) prior to that. This is standard practice across most institutional investors. What are the terms? Ownership stake: We don’t have any strict ownership requirements but we usually target to own more than 20% of the business after the first round of investment. Leading the round: We invest in a limited number of start-ups each year with a high degree of involvement in leading and coaching the teams. We therefore prefer to lead the seed rounds we participate in. Board seat: We always require at least one board seat for all our seed investments. However, we still find that most of our work with our portfolio companies happens outside the board room.

Walter Ventures is the early-stage investment platform of the Walter Group. We identify and support emerging, scalable, impactful innovations led by visionary entrepreneurs. Our growing team is motivated to invest in exceptional, mission-driven founders who lead technology-enabled companies. We focus on Series A enterprise software companies tackling core value creation for established industries, and believe in projects that enable sustainable socio-economic development. Walter Ventures launched in 2017 in Canada and continued its global growth by relocating its team and main operations to Europe in 2019.

We back tech that powers the future states of industries. Ascend partners with founders to provide support both financially and operationally, collaborating in the storied journey toward scale. How Ascend InvestsCriteria ACTIVE PROTOTYPE MULTIPLIER EFFECT ADVANTAGED PRICING EXCEPTIONAL OUTCOMES MASSIVE GROWTH POTENTIAL Strategy PREEMINENT CAPITAL PARTNERS MILESTONE-BASED INVESTING ENCYCLOPEDIC DEALFLOW OPERATIONAL GUIDANCE LEAD OR FOLLOW Themes FIRST MOVERS NETWORK EFFECTS PERSISTENT TRENDS DATA-CENTRIC TRANSITIONS SUPPLY-INHIBITED ECOSYSTEMS

We focus on founders building technologies that are redefining legacy industries Long-Term Capital We invest for the long-term; we’ve guided many of our portfolio companies to IPO or acquisition - and beyond. Concentrated Portfolio Making just four to five investments per year, we run a concentrated portfolio to ensure every company we back receives the resources it requires. Value-Add Partner We leverage our Global 2000 network, extensive experience, and operational expertise to drive value. Target Investment Criteria We've been partnering with founders of industry-disrupting, fast-growing tech businesses since 2006, working with companies that have strong product-market fit and generate $5 million to $100 million-plus in annual sales. We typically take minority stakes, investing between $20 million to $100 million. Investment Size $20 million to $100 million Company CharacteristicsEstablished product-market fit Substantial customers & a large TAM Strong teams with shareholder alignment 20%-100%+ growth Generally recurring or reoccuring revenue High customer retention Strong market position, with competitive moats Solid unit economics Structuring ApproachWe support without seeking control. We are minority investors, with a lead investor mindset who take board representation. We provide capital for growth/expansion, acquisition financing, optimizing capital structure and shareholder liquidity needs.