Apply for funding

The criteria

Location

• Your company must be based in the United Kingdom.

Market opportunity

• Your technologies should have target markets of at least £100m – this must be directly addressable by your product/service.
• You should be able to describe your product/service to potential buyers and explain why and when they would buy it, how it would be sold to customers and what would be needed to generate a market need for the product/service.
• You must identify if the potential customer is already using a similar product/service, how much they’re paying, and what the advantages/disadvantages of the current solution are.

Technical Innovation

• You must demonstrate that the technology is innovative, has intellectual property and is already developed – or can be – to meet the target market need.

Management

• You’ll need an experienced management team with a blend of technical and commercial experience to take the company to the next funding round.

Funding Requirement

• It is important you have a clear roadmap to the next funding round.
• Our target level first investment is around £250,000 which would be delivered in tranches to match the needs of your cash flow. The release of each tranche would be made on the achievement of agreed milestones. For first-time investments, the valuation we place on a company is typically below £1m.
• We often work with other investors to provide sufficient funding to enable a company to cross the “equity gap”. This may involve working with groups of investors to provide £1m or more. Therefore, you must demonstrate how our funding will enable you to make significant progress and improve your chances of further rounds of funding.

Generating an exit

• You must have a clear exit strategy and timeframes, which detail your valuation expectations at an exit and any comparable exits in the sector.
• Companies requiring several funding rounds must have the potential to generate a high enough exit capitalisation to provide all investors with a satisfactory return. Typically, we invest in companies where the potential sale value for a successful business is in excess of £50m.

Ethical Policy

• NESTA Investments is a responsible investor and seeks to support innovation whilst promoting responsible business standards in the business in which it invests. Therefore NESTA Investments will take into account ethical considerations when evaluation an investment.

If your company meets these criteria, find out how you can apply.