Customisations offer an excellent way to enhance the effectiveness of your AIP service, whether it be capital raising, business development or incubation and acceleration focused. Customisations can be delivered domestically and internationally as required. Note that customisations are significantly reduced in price for clients who have attended an AIP capital raising clinic. Click here for details.
Providing a selection of leading staff and contractor candidates ranging from senior executives and Non-Executive Directors through to intermediate and junior level staff
What? Through an exclusive relationship with DRS, a leading search and selection firm, AIP can provide our clients with a selection of leading staff and contractor candidates ranging from senior executives and Non-Executive Directors through to intermediate and junior level staff. Be it a new opening, a controlled succession, or an emergency placement, we have the resources and capability to deliver competitive advantage and lasting value.
Why? Our partner, DRS, has developed an international reputation for the provision of recruitment services across the technology, commodities and lifesciences sectors within industry, banking & finance, and professional services. Their team provides access to over 750,000 international cross-sector professionals. Whether you are looking for advice, or to fill a Board-level, senior or intermediate position, AIP can help you unlock new growth and value across your business.
Responding to prospective investors who contact our team once the capital introduction campaign has ended to keep you up to date on prospective investors in your business.
What? Passive investor marketing is an ongoing service provided into your business that follows the provision of a standard AIP capital introduction campaign. A passive investor marketing campaign usually consists of AIP responding to prospective investors who contact our team once the capital introduction campaign has ended. This may be days or even months after the campaign has concluded. Additionally, passive investor marketing can include contacting prospective investors who asked to be kept abreast of your investment opportunity (e.g. “fast followers”) but who at the time were not in a position to immediately invest or lead the deal.
Why? Passive investor marketing ensures that you never miss an investor interaction and actively follow up on passive leads. Investors will invariably contact AIP once a campaign has come to an end and it is important to capture and retain their interest. Also, some investors won’t invest immediately and it’s important to remain engaged with these groups so that when they are ready to invest, you are the recipient best prepared for their capital allocation.
Reviewing and critiquing your investment opportunity to provide objective views on the best way to position and present your opportunity to the investment market.
What? A carefully selected group of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs), Investment Managers, Research Analysts (Equity, Macro) and Investor Relations professionals can individually or collectively review and critique your investment opportunity and provide objective views on the best way to position and present your investment opportunity to the investment market.
Why? CFOs, Investment Managers, Research Analysts, and Investor Relations professionals invariably work on the buy-side or sell-side for corporates and investors and therefore regularly review potential investment opportunities for their employers – both on the public and private markets and for prospective investors (e.g. equity research analysts, fund managers). An AIP review by this group (or individually) can yield powerful insights into the best way to position your investment to different investor groups to deliver the optimal result.
Creating customised investment presentations from first principals that are expertly matched to your business brand.
What? AIP are highly experienced in creating professional company PowerPoint presentations. AIP will generate the presentation copy in liaison with your team and will create a custom theme matched to your business brand and identity. Company presentations typically range from 15-30 slides in length.
Why? A professional company presentation is a powerful and essential tool to provide to potential investors. A corporate presentation is often requested as part of an AIP delivered capital introduction campaign and whilst a company teaser and website can suffice, a corporate presentation is an excellent additional component of your capital raising armoury which can also be used at investor meetings and other business presentations.
Drafting Information Memorandums and Private Placement Memorandums for your private company or private equity fund capital raise.
What? A Private Placement Memorandum (PPM) or sometimes known as an Information Memorandum (IM) is the document that discloses everything an investor needs to know to make an informed investment decision to invest in your company or fund.
Why? Unlike a Business Plan, the PPM details the investment opportunity, disclaims legal liabilities and explains the risk of losses. It is often a 50-100 page document. A PPM is as much a pitch on your business as it is a protection if things don’t go the way you plan them to.
Providing customised investment presentation and private placement memorandum (IM/PPM) verification services required for your data room.
What? AIP have negotiated preferred rates for our clients to access our international network of lawyers who provide investment presentation and investment memorandum (IM/PPM) verification services.
Why? It is often a legal requirement that investment presentations and PPMs provided to prospective investors are verified by a registered lawyer to ensure that the information provided is factually correct and not misleading to the investment audience.
Creating bespoke business plans for your business that can be used to raise investment and secure new business partners.
What? Business plans are documents used for planning specific details about your business. They can range in size from a simple few sentences to more than 100 pages with formal sections, a table of contents and a title page. According to Entrepreneur Magazine, typical business plans average 15 to 20 pages. Comprehensive business plans have three sections - business concept, marketplace and financial--and these are broken down into seven components that include the overview or summary of the plan, a description of the business, market strategies, competition analysis, design and development, operations and management, and financial information. Even small one-page business plans have importance and purpose for the success of the business however. Business Plans are provided by AIP consultants and the process stewarded by your nominated AIP Partner.
Why? A business plan conveys the organisational structure of your business, including titles of directors or officers and their individual duties. It also acts as a management tool that can be referred to regularly to ensure the business is on course with meeting goals, sales targets or operational milestones. The development of a comprehensive business plan shows whether or not a business has the potential to make a profit. By putting statistics, facts, figures and detailed plans in writing, a new business has a better chance of attracting investors to provide the capital needed for getting started.
Helping to create term sheets which are essential for your capital raise before an investor can consider participation.
What? A term sheet is a nonbinding agreement that sets forth the basic terms and conditions under which an investment in your company, vehicle or asset may be made. The term sheet will be drafted by one of AIP’s legal team.
Why? A term sheet usually serves as a template from which investors decide to develop more detailed legal documents such as a Shareholders Agreement (investment in a company) or Limited Partners agreement (e.g. investment in a fund). It is an essential document to have prepared for an investor and should be available to interested parties immediately upon request.
Creating statement of intent documents that can be signed by investors and used to catalyse the investment process to break the first mover deadlock.
What? A Statement of Intent document specifies in legal, non-binding language the level of investment an interested party might be interested in allocating to your opportunity.
Why? Whilst a statement of intent does not translate to capital on account, it is an exceptionally powerful document to present to other prospective investors who might be wondering who else is participating in the transaction and who might be concerned that they will not be the only company/individual participating. The document helps to build consensus and break the chicken-and-egg situation, and demonstrates a willingness to invest subject to confirmatory due diligence.
Providing return models for your investment proposition, created by our sector economists and researchers.
What? A return model is typically an Excel spreadsheet document that lists the G&A costs for your business, capital and operating expenditure, and includes revenue or capital growth expectations generated by an investment to deliver an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) or Return on Investment (ROI) figure. AIP can create a return model for your investment from scratch, working in conjunction with experienced CFOs, Economists, and Investment Analysts who understand what information is required in the model and how to deliver accurate and defendable return projections.
Why? Every investor will want to know your projected CAEPX and OPEX, the level of investment required and what you believe the IRR and/or ROI will be and over what timeframe. These figures will naturally permeate into your teaser, investment presentation and information memorandum. You are advised not to start any capital introduction campaign without these figures either prepared by your own group or by AIP.
Creating, organising and managing online data rooms with customisable access for investors and other partners.
What? An online data room is a virtual repository of information that is used for storing and distributing documents. A data room is used to store large files that cannot easily be sent to a prospective investor by email such as PPMs, Return Models, Team Biographies, References, Supporting Documentation, Term Sheets and Verification documents.
Why? The mere creation and provision of a data room makes you appear organised and prepared for investment. As a tool, the data room allows investors to review a secure portal of all details relevant to your investment proposal. Moreover, the data room provided by AIP has a number of features such as client workflow management, state of the art encryption and device security, tracking folder-by-folder activity in an easy-to-view report (including email alerts), and folder Q&A which allows investors to pose to questions related to specific deal folders.
Helping our investment clients come to an informed view on a particular company, fund or asset opportunity.
What? The investment industry uses the term due diligence to describe what an investor does to evaluate a potential investment opportunity. Due diligence provided by AIP is a rigorous process that considers and drafts for the key concerns / facts investors will want verified before finalising an investment in your opportunity. Our process involves asking and answering a series of questions to evaluate the business and legal aspects of the opportunity. AIP will therefore assist in providing a due diligence report that covers 1) screening, 2) business and 3) legal due diligence.
Why? The due diligence process should select the potential winners, identify the key risks associated with the investment and develop a risk mitigation plan with company management as part of a potential investment. Once the process is complete, the investor may select to use the outcomes of AIP’s due diligence report to finalise their internal approval process and complete the investment. If the investor acts as a lead investor in a syndicate, then they may also share the outcome of this due diligence with other investors.
Providing access to specialist researchers who provide objective research reports for companies and funds.
What? Equity research primarily means analysing company financials, performing ratio analysis, financial modelling and exploring scenarios with the objective of making BUY/SELL investment recommendations. Macro research, as applies to AIP, refers to generating high-level insights and thematic trends across specific markets as well as timely commentary about political events in an ever-changing world. AIP can provide both objective (unregulated) research reports i.e. no recommendation to buy or sell (largely for private companies and funds) and can also provide access to our investment banking and stockbroking partners who provide regulated research reports (e.g. FCA/SEC) largely for publicly listed companies and funds.
Why? Investors invariably require insightful market commentary on a company, fund or specific macro theme. Preparing an equity or macro research report on your investment proposition is an excellent and highly proactive way to demonstrate knowledge of your sector.
Drafting expert resumes for C-level through to intermediate and early career staff which can be used for investment fundraising as part of a track record and data room review.
What? As part of an AIP led capital introduction process, investors will request the CVs of key management team members responsible for managing the capital or investment opportunity. Each CV will be carefully prepared by a member of DRS’s recruitment teams, which are companies partly owned by AIP.
Why? It is you and your team that will manage the investor’s funds and this is an investment of faith as well as capital. It is important to provide a CV that best represents your skills and experience to give you the best possible chance of securing capital for your investment opportunity.
AIP’s legal team can draft all manner of employment contracts with specific provisions often expected by investors, such as share vesting and key man clauses.
What? Through our general counsel, AIP can provide a variety of customised staff and consultant contracts for Funds, Limited Companies and Partnerships. Employment contracts can be fully customised to your specific requirements and can include partners, executives, non-executives and independent contractors.
Why? It is important to determine the right corporate and employment structure at the beginning of your business to ensure long term sustainability and to ensure you have appropriate engagements for your staff and business model.
Providing access to our business development team who can connect to your market to help you win and retain more business.
What? AIP offers a specialist marketing and business development service providing direct contact, strategic advice and hands-on operational support to help our clients win and retain more business. AIP can directly interface with your target market and deliver a short-list of prospective clients who could be approached with a particular offering. We will introduce your offering to the target market through carefully considered email and telephone communication and an offer of further dialogue / meeting with your company.
Why? Our Business Development services allows our clients to react quickly to a new market opportunity, focus business development on a specific geography, launch a new business development initiative to capture market share, test the market on a new strategy prior to adding headcount, or augment/reinvigorate your existing business development or marketing strategy.
Providing expert IR, PR and Corporate Communications for our clients.
What? Public Relation / Corporate Communications refers to the provision of financial calendar information, corporate reputation management, personal/company profile development, M&A advice, IPO advice, shareholder disputes and crisis management. This can combine any of AIP’s specialist financial, corporate, political, crisis and consumer communications skills (all underpinned by a strong digital expertise) to deliver visible and tangible results for our clients.
Why? Managing reputations through every communications medium is an essential requirement for modern companies and alongside our partners, AIP provide a truly integrated approach to modern communications, to ensure that we meet the needs and desires of our clients. We believe that your reputation should be a true and effective reflection of you, your brand, your business, organisation or country.
AIP’s video producer can create captivating commercial videos for fundraising, PR/IR or business development, narrated by our expert BBC narrator.
What? AIP can provide a 2-3 minute video that summarises your business, includes interviews with your key management, and even tours of your offices. The video will also be professionally graded and sound balanced. In addition, a professional narrator from the BBC can deliver the audio script to your audience. The delivered content will be a high resolution file (typically Flash .f4v or H.264 .mp4) transferred to your online or via hard copy DVD.
Why? It’s not possible to get in front of every potential investor for a face-face meeting and very often investors are based internationally. Video does what email and telephone can’t – it provides a visual and audio introduction to you and your team, your business, your operations, and the investment opportunity. Once produced, posting your videos on relevant investor-focused social media platforms won’t cost you anything further and the potential return can be enormous.
Creating bite sized introductions to your company/investment opportunity, summarised for prospective investors and clients of your business.
What? AIP can create a bespoke online (e.g. PDF) and/or hardcopy company teaser that captures your investment proposition succinctly within 2 pages of professionally delivered text and images. Our team will develop the copy, design the teaser and, if required, arrange for printing and delivery. In addition, within the online teaser, AIP can install an unlock feature which requires those investors attempting to review your PDF to enter their name, company, email, and other contact details. This information can then be sent to you automatically via email, which allows you to track interested parties and follow-up proactively.
Why? A teaser provides a bite sized introduction to your company/investment opportunity which allows prospective investors to analyse the offering and determine if this would be a fit for their portfolio.
AIP’s consultants create exceptional new websites that attract attention and drive users to direct interaction with your business.
What? AIP’s website development partners will create a brand new, bespoke, business-ready website that is fully customised to your corporate brand. Into your website we will build triggers to capture visitor/new investors interest and will fully integrate all relevant business and social media. The full design and hosting process is managed and delivered by AIP.
Why? The internet is constantly evolving and it’s not just necessary to have a website these days but to have a website that interacts with your visitor, captures their attention, and drives them to a commercial outcome or direct contact with your business.
Without SEO or SEM your product, service or investment opportunity will not be found. AIP’s technology consultants help solve that problem.
What? Since the inception of the internet, companies have been able to tap into a vast online market that was once out of reach. Traditional business strategies have been revolutionised and marketing has evolved. With this evolution, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) arose in order to channel online traffic in a way that effectively unites companies and searchers. AIP’s role in this process is ensuring that your company is positioned most effectively on the major search engines such as Google and Bing and only prioritises search criteria relevant to potential investors and clients finding your business online.
Why? Internet search engines have changed how we search for and buy services. With effective SEO and SEM, AIP can ensure your business appears on the major search engines in the top percentile for your offering and can even help customise pay per click campaigns (where every website visit received = small charge paid to Google).
Prospective investors and clients could be on your website right now but can you interact with them to capture that brief connection?
What? AIP can provide a website chat interface that integrates with your website that allows you to engage with every potential investor who visits your site, 24-7. The chat module can be programmed to appear on any webpage you specify and will prompt visitors with a customised message or question. Any visitor who is inclined to respond will immediately be directed to a real website consultant to begin a real-time chat. The chat can either be directed to your own staff or can be maintained by AIP’s consultants. The chat feature integrates with your web browser, Windows, Mac, iPad, iPhone and Android system so you can respond in real time and never miss a potential interaction with a new investor.
Why? There are investors waiting on your site right now. Wouldn’t it be great if every new or repeat visitor was greeted with a custom message or question asking them whether your team can assist with any mandate and if so, they can connect with you immediately? Live website representation seeks to capture every interaction helping you to win and retain more business.
AIP’s research team helps our client’s build customised contact directories, ranging from targeted investment leads through to new business development contacts.
What? AIP’s consultants can build a customised target contact directory for your firm from scratch that includes Company name, Contact name, Job title, Linked-In profile (if available), Email address, and Switchboard telephone number. Our research lists often include many thousands of potential investor contacts, leads and prospective clients.
Why? Building a prospective new investor/client list takes time and AIP already have access to over 750,000 contacts from the Commodities, Lifesciences and AI/ML-focused industry, investment, finance and professional services sectors and over 180,000 investor contacts. We can research and build your list quickly delivering a high quality directory which you can use independently or through the AIP email, telephone and appointment setting and marketing service.
AIP’s social media experts help to create, manage and deploy your social media strategy to help you win new clients and attract new investors and clients.
What? AIP can build and manage your business social media sites to identify and attract new investors. This includes a presence on sites such as Linked-In, Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites with important investor attraction applications. AIP’s consultants can also identify and connect you to key individuals on sites such as Linked-In, by managing your account, customising email invitations and sending carefully crafted InMail messages.
Why? Social Media is an essential tool in connecting to new investors. Business social media platforms offer a window into your company that helps to create connections with potential investors based on mutual contacts and business relationships and the opportunity to share and syndicate your investment opportunity.
AIP’s email iterator tests all email permutations for an investor or new business lead and delivers the right email to you every time.
What? An investor email iterator is a computer programme developed by AIP that takes the first name, surname and company URL of an individual, and creates over 40 possible permutations of their email address. These email addresses are then automatically checked for presence of MX records, presence of a SMTP server and then finally SMTP checked. The result is the most likely email address for the investor. AIP can either provide the full email iterator programme for your personal use or take a list of names and URLs (and/or create that list for you) and provide the verified email results. We can also include a check against Linked-In registered email addresses using a Rapportive tool.
Why? Our investor email iterator programme allows you to instantly build an investor contact directory that can then be further appended as required with Linked-In information, telephone numbers and other important details such as Assets Under Management (AUM), geographic preferences etc. What would normally take months and years to build now takes a matter of hours.
Technology makes the world a smaller place. Embrace the freedom of working from anywhere with AIP’s custom 24-7 telephone presence.
What? AIP and our partners can manage your 24-7 telephone presence providing you with a variety of international telephone numbers, answered by a professional receptionist, and routed to your mobile telephone or landline.
Why? A dedicated switchboard is expensive and requires a full time receptionist to manage your calls. For a fraction of the price we can create an international switchboard for your firm so that you never miss an important call and a prospective client always speaks with a representative of your business, answering the call in whatever manner you dictate.
Do you need a prestigious address in London, Abu Dhabi, New York or Beijing? AIP’s international network of service providers will provide a virtual presence at heavily discounted rates.
What? AIP work with a variety of international serviced office companies who can provide a virtual international presence for your business. Addresses are available in every major country and city and include full postal forwarding services.
Why? Potential investors often feel more comfortable doing business with company’s who have a presence in their country. A virtual office is a first step in creating that international presence inexpensively.
AIP’s stationery providers provide you with first-class logo, corporate branding and stationery design.
What? AIP provides our clients with access to high quality stationery designers and printers who can provide a full suite of business stationery that includes professional logo design, business cards, headed note paper, compliment slips and more. AIP’s team will manage the stationery design, revision, and production phases, creating the brand you require for your company.
Why? Your stationery says a lot about you and your business. For example, a business card may be retained by an investor or business contact for several years and whilst you are likely to have several changes of stationery by then, if your first run is of low quality, this may lead to creating a poor first impression by a future investor.
Integrate a custom HTML signature into your Outlook or Webmail to create a statement with every email you send.
What? A HTML email signature is used for email campaigns and can be loaded into your email client (e.g. Outlook) and email campaign tool. AIP will create, customise, revise and finalise the HTML signature, and provide instructions on how to upload to your email client or email campaign.
Why? A signature provides a lot of important information on your company and is an important tool in sharing your professional business information with everyone you contact via email. AIP will help integrate powerful business social media links and will ensure that your signature is coded with maximum email deliverability in mind.
Do you need a prestigious address in London, Abu Dhabi, New York or Beijing? AIP’s international network of service providers will provide a virtual presence at heavily discounted rates.
What? AIP work with a variety of international serviced office companies who can provide a virtual international presence for your business. Addresses are available in every major country and city and include full postal forwarding services.
Why? Potential investors often feel more comfortable doing business with company’s who have a presence in their country. A virtual office is a first step in creating that international presence inexpensively.