Mastering Fundraising & Term Sheets: Strategies for Startup Growth
🌟 Wondering how to elevate your fundraising efforts and drive sustainable growth? How you can best navigate the complexities of term sheet negotiations? Join us for a deep dive into two critical aspects of startup growth and investment negotiations. 🌟
Session 1: Knowledge Session - Crafting Successful Fundraising Strategies
Navigating the complexities of fundraising from start to finish is essential for any growing startup. Join us as we explore:
Different types of financing available for startups and their implications
Strategies for identifying and approaching potential investors
Best practices in preparing comprehensive due diligence materials
Insights into negotiating term sheets and securing fair shareholder terms
Real-world anecdotes and lessons learned from Gagan Singh
Session 2: Panel Session - Establishing a Fair Middle Ground: Negotiating Term Sheets
Term sheets play a pivotal role in shaping investment agreements, influencing the trajectory of startups and investors alike. Join our panel of seasoned investors and experienced founders to delve into:
Understanding critical components of term sheets and their implications for both parties
Balancing investor demands with founder aspirations for sustainable growth & operational flexibility
Strategies for negotiating fair terms that build trust and alignment between stakeholders
Real-world case studies illustrating successful negotiation tactics and pitfalls to avoid
Legal considerations and best practices for drafting term sheets that protect the interests of all parties involved
Agenda
4.30pm - 5pm: Registration
5pm - 5.05pm: Opening Remarks by Aspire
5.05pm - 5.45pm: Knowledge Session on Crafting Successful Fundraising Strategies
5.45pm - 6.45pm: Panel Session on Term Sheets: Establishing A Fair Middle Ground
6.45pm - 7pm: Q&A
7pm - 8pm: Networking with refreshments
🤝 Join us for an evening filled with knowledge-sharing and networking. RSVP now to secure your spot!
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Meet the Speakers
About Ali Darwish
Ali is the Head of Corporate Development at Monk's Hill Ventures (MHV) an early-stage SEA tech venture capital fund. Ali has 11 years of corporate development experience focused on consumer, SaaS, and Tech working at both buy and sell-side firms with a total deal/transaction experience of ~US$1bn. Prior to MHV, Ali was an early employee and Head of Corporate Development at Circles.Life in Singapore. He built the team from the ground up, helping scale the Circles SaaS business globally to become one of Asia's fastest-growing unicorns (raising capital from marquee investors like Sequoia Capital, Warburg Pincus, Founders Fund, and Singapore Government). He started his career at a leading MENA VC fund (Sawari Ventures) setting up one of MENA's largest tech startup accelerators (Flat6Labs). He moved to Asia in 2013 to work for a global tech MNC based out of Singapore and spent some time in Jakarta working for a boutique private equity firm. Ali is originally from Egypt and graduated from Business School at Cairo University. He also earned his Master’s degree in SME Economics from the University of Bologna in Italy.
About Gagan Singh
Gagan Singh is a Founder and CEO of WOWS Global, a digital investment bank that assists startups across South-East Asia in their primary and secondary placements. Prior to building WOWS, Gagan was a part of the founding team of Deliveree, an on-demand tech logistics platform operating out of Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand and helped scale the company from Pre-Seed to Series C in the capacity of Group CFO. Gagan has also acted as a partner at Inspire Ventures, a USD 40 million dollars fund for early stage startups. Gagan was born and brought up in India and is a Chartered Accountant by qualification.
About Ruoyun Yang
Ruoyun is a highly accomplished investment and corporate finance professional with 10+ years of experience in debt and equity investment in North America and Asia Pacific. Currently serving as the Co-founder and CFO of Fluid, Ruoyun is mainly in charge of fundraising, corporate strategy, financial management and corporate governance. Prior to joining Fluid, she was the Head of Asia at Lendable, a leading debt finance provider to fintech companies across emerging markets globally, where she spearheaded the origination and execution of investment in Asia, growing fund AUM from $150 million to $300 million. Prior to Lendable, she worked at IFC, the private investment arm of the World Bank Group, managing debt and equity investments across the APAC region, focusing on fintech, B2B logistics and marketplaces.
About Dr Shravan Verma
Dr Shravan Verma, after graduating with a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) from Duke-NUS Medical School Singapore and undergraduate studies in Biomedical Engineering and Electrical Engineering from Duke University, USA, practiced as a physician in a number of public hospitals, where he frequently noticed patients waiting hours for treatment of minor conditions. Believing there was a way to bring hospital-level care into the home, he embarked on an entrepreneurial journey as the co-founder and CEO of Speedoc, one of the region's leading digital health startups on a mission to advance home medical care making the future of medicine more affordable, accessible and comfortable for patients. To date, Speedoc has raised a total of $34 million from notable investors such as Vertex Ventures, Shinhan Ventures, Bertelsmann Investments, SMRT Ventures, and other family offices to expand its virtual hospital programme.
About Tharin Sethi
Tharin Sethi is a fourth generation Thai-Indian entrepreneur deriving from a family enterprise with roots in textile trading and hospitality real estate investments. Today Tharin leads SethiG, a market expansion service firm with strategic investments across private equity, public equities, real estate and venture investments. He is also a founding investor at WOWS Global and is an active angel investor focusing on early stage allocations.
About Visa Kannan
Visa Kannan is the Managing Partner at Saison Capital. Visa comes with extensive experience scaling companies in the eCommerce industry, having been a zero-to-one operator at two unicorns: Grofers (now blinkit) and Lazada. She was most recently an SVP at Grofers (now blinkit), the largest quick commerce player in India. Prior to Grofers, she was a consultant at BCG and before that an M&A lawyer, which ensures she brings an additional eye for detail to her dealmaking. Visa is a champion for diversity in the venture and startup ecosystem. She holds weekly hours to connect, support and mentor female founders. Visa sees a distinct opportunity to bring more experts into the sector by identifying ways to include more women and minority groups.
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About the Organizers
Aspire
Aspire is the all-in-one finance platform for modern businesses, helping over 15,000 companies across Asia save time and money with international payments, expense management, payable management, and receivable management solutions - accessible via a single, user-friendly account
Headquartered in Singapore, Aspire has over 450+ employees across five countries and is backed by global top tier VCs, including Sequoia, Lightspeed, Y-Combinator, Tencent and Paypal. In 2023, Aspire closed an oversubscribed US$100M Series C round and announced that it has achieved profitability.
WOWS Global
Founded in 2022, WOWS Global is on a mission to build a digital ecosystem catered to private markets. Connecting investors and start-ups alike by consolidating all the tools required to help them navigate through each step of their financial journeys. WOWS Global seek to reduce the mortality rates of start-ups by streamlining the fundraising process while also increasing the liquidity of private equity. Simultaneously, we want to democratize access to start-up funding as well as give employees the freedom to sell their rightfully earned ESOPs in accordance to their preferences.