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Below is a general overview on raising venture capital from RBC Venture Partners. Every case is unique, but this outline provides a high-level description of the various stages involved in the process.
Step 1: Submitting Your Executive Summary
If you feel that RBC Venture Partners could be a partner for your organization, the first step is to submit your contact information and executive summary for a preliminary review. After receiving your submission, we will contact you within 10 business days to let you know if we'd like to schedule a meeting. This 30-minute "no harm, no foul" meeting will be a preliminary conversation about your idea or product and is meant to establish the merits of pursuing more detailed, serious discussions.
Please Note: Before submitting your executive summary, carefully review this site to confirm that your business fits our investment focus and criteria. Also note that receiving your executive summary in no way obligates RBC Venture Partners to enter into further discussions regarding your business plan.
Step 2: Request for Background Information
If Step 1 is successful, we will request a business plan and background material on your service or product and the market. In preparation for Step 3, we want to understand the market need you are addressing, target customer, market dynamics, business model and your unfair competitive advantage.
Step 3: Initial Face-to-Face Meeting
This meeting officially starts the process of raising capital from RBC Venture Partners. The goal of this meeting is to reach a clear and mutual understanding of your service or product and its potential. Standard questions we may ask at this stage include, but are not limited to:
- What is the product/service and what need does it fulfill?
- What is the business model?
- What is the size of the addressable market?
- What are the dynamics of this market?
- What are the key milestones to achieve with this financing?
- Which people will execute this plan?
- What keeps you up at night?
- What is your unfair competitive advantage?
Step 4: Development of Investment Thesis
We will analyze the results of the initial face-to-face meeting to create an investment thesis. We focus on several key criteria: the people, the product or service, the market, and a clear understanding of why this is an outstanding investment opportunity.
Step 5: Second Face-to-Face Meeting
If Step 4 results in a positive outcome, you and your full management team will be invited to present to the RBC Venture Partners team. This meeting is also an opportunity for a wide-ranging exchange of ideas and opinions. This can be a lengthy process depending on how prepared you are.
Step 6: Detailed Due Diligence
At this stage, RBC Venture Partners will request that you and your management team complete a detailed checklist. We will verify all facts about your business, perform reference checks and make customer calls, if applicable. This process also involves on-site meetings and interviews.
Step 7: The Term Sheet
Upon satisfactory completion of due diligence we will issue a term sheet. It will contain standard terms and match our discussions to date. A term sheet is a negotiable document and a major milestone in the funding process. In limited situations it is possible that we will issue a term sheet prior to completion of detailed due diligence.
Step 8: Legal Verification
The final step involves documentation and legal due diligence. You and your management team will be required to engage an independent legal advisor to review the terms and agreements on your behalf.
It is not unusual for this entire process to take 2 to 3 months, or longer, from our initial meeting.
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