Get Investment

Getting your pitch on Crowdsphere

The first stage is to complete the Pitch Application process. We’ll review the information to make sure your idea is ready for the site and we’ll get back to you ASAP (usually within 72 hours). If you’re not quite ready, we’ll tell you why and what you could do to improve it so that you can re-apply.

If your application is approved, you’ll complete your Pitch Page by creating a project in your Dashboard.

Typically it takes around four weeks to get live on the site from approval. But if you read and follow the information below, it could be quicker. If you don’t have the information investors want, it could be longer.

 

How to get approved quickly:

Giving investors all the information they’ll need to make a decision is the quickest way to get your pitch activated and funded.

You’re asking them to make some big decisions so the more you can help them the better. Not only does it make you look more professional, and therefore more investable, it will save you running around getting information once the pitch is active when you want to be getting more investors on board.

As well as obvious information like your funding requirements and the term of your offer, we’ll need the information listed below to assess your pitch. It’s worth noting that all statements (e.g. market size or partnerships) made in your pitch must be fully referenced using a verifiable third-party source before it can go live. For example, if you say your market has annual sales of $5 billion per year you’ll need to provide something to back it up such as a link to a credible article or a publicly available report, not Wikipedia.

What you need to apply…

  • Investment summary: Around 200 words that outline the idea, the market and the people that will make the business a success.
  • Information Memorandum: A well prepared information memorandum that provides the detail about your business and why it is a compelling investment.
  • Financial forecasts: As a PDF that meets these requirements.
  • Business plan: As a PDF that follows this advice.
  • Video: We recommend to have a video to tell your story.
  • Corporate Documents: Your constitution and shareholders agreement.
  • AML/CFT form: A completed AML/CFT form completed by the directors and senior managers. Click here to download the form.

Why wouldn’t we approve your pitch?

We don’t want to turn pitches down, we really want you to succeed, so assuming you can provide all the information above, being declined is likely to be for one of the following reasons. Please note that if your application is declined, you can reapply when any recommendations have been addressed.

  • Valuation: Valuations need to be realistic so valuing a start-up with no track record, no market penetration and no experience at $10m isn’t going to work.
  • Detail: Experience has shown that the crowd will quickly point out any gaps in your pitch so we aim to pick them up first. If your pitch or financials are lacking in detail, they’ll be declined.
  • Idea: Investors want to see ideas that are genuinely novel and ground-breaking. If we can find examples of similar products, you’ll need to have a clear plan for differentiating yourself.
  • Scalability: Put simply, you need to be able to take the idea from start-up to a strong, successful business. Without this, investors are unlikely to get their money back and are therefore unlikely to invest.
  • Funding required: Whilst some pitches have raised more than $1 million, the majority are for between $100,000 and $500,000. If you’re looking for less than $50,000 or more than $500,000 and all of the other information is OK, we’ll contact you to discuss your plans.
  • Statements and references: We’re licenced by the FMA so all statements you make in your pitch need to be referenced. For example, if your pitch says that your market has sales of $5bn per year, you’ll need to include a reference so that we can check the claims before we can approve your pitch. If you don’t include references, unfortunately we will not be able to publish your pitch until you have done so (by references we mean reputable sources that we and investors can validate, for example, a report by a credible source, not Wikipedia). Likewise, if you mention contracts that you have won we’ll need to see evidence in the form of signed contracts or purchase orders so we can validate the claim. Please note that we won’t publish these documents on your pitch page if you don’t want to, we just need to validate them. When providing documents as references, it will speed up your pitch approval process significantly if you can tell us the page and the paragraph or table that backs up the claim. We conduct in-depth due diligence on all pitches and check every statement. If you can’t evidence your statements they will need to be removed before your pitch can be activated and it will delay your pitching going live.

 

Think you’re ready to go?

If you’ve got all the information and can tick all of the boxes, it’s now time to:

Submit your Pitch