Finding investors for your business is crucial to your company's success — though this process is often easier said than done. It can be challenging to find investors who are the right fit for your business without spending too much time and effort pursuing unproductive leads. And with so much information to present, it's vital that you gather, organize, and manage your data effectively. With business-to-business (B2B) software as a service (SaaS) venture capital reporting tools, you can accomplish all of these things and more.
Investing in SaaS companies is easy with reporting tools from KPI Sense. It's our goal to help companies make sense of their financial data with guided expertise from our knowledgeable financial gurus.
Reporting to investors has never been easier with our venture capital reporting tools. We'll help you understand exactly what data and context investors want to see. That means no complex fundraising plans, no scrambling to collect data, and no wasting time pursuing investors who aren't right for you.
SaaS businesses are attractive to investors because once they've nailed down their product, they are effective business models to scale for increased returns on investment. The subscription model of SaaS companies provides opportunities to continually engage with existing customers which traditionally are more likely to repeat business. These existing customers also present opportunities to upsell or upgrade their existing service or product plans—a SaaS company can scale their product up alongside their customer's needs. Furthermore, SaaS companies are often in the position to aggregate a variety of informative data about their customer base, which allows for data-driven strategy for growth.
To fund a SaaS startup, you need to find investors and understand what they want to see to compel them to invest in your business. Investors will want to understand how you plan to use their money, what strategy you have for sales and marketing, and what kind of return they can expect from their investment. You'll need to prepare a pitch deck and reports that demonstrate your business' KPIs. We've created a startup checklist available for free that you can use to ensure you're ready to start speaking with investors!
Simply put, SaaS investors are looking for businesses that are going to provide an effective return on their investment. To attract investors, you need to show them that you have an effective business model and that you're able to compete and win in your industry vertical. You can best demonstrate this with effective reports and dashboards that track your B2B SaaS company's most important metrics. That's where KPI Sense comes in!
Angel investors are most often individuals who are providing their own personal finances to fund a startup business. In contrast, a venture capital (VC) investor is most likely operating on behalf of a risk capital company that is managing a portfolio of investors. As a B2B SaaS business, you'll need to provide financial reports to both of these investors, but you're most likely engaging with them at different stages of your business' growth. As such, the information you'll provide them will be very different.
Angel equity refers to the equity in your business you might give an investor in exchange for funding during the Seed funding phase. This is a common practice in B2B SaaS startup funding, as traditional means of equity financing are out of reach for most startups at this size and stage of growth. Because investors see investments in companies at this stage as a more risky endeavor, they often require a more significant exchange—such as equity in the company—to earn their investment.
There isn't a one-size-fits-all answer as to the ROI an investor is expecting to invest in your B2B SaaS company—you'll need to cater your pitch to the specific investor to help them see the opportunity. Investors expect to see some sort of data that indicates their investment will see a positive return, so any financial reports you are able to provide that demonstrate your company is successful and capable of future growth will help provide them confidence in the decision-making process.
There is no one answer to how many users you'll need to get funding from investors as a SaaS company. Investors are likely looking at how many customers you have, but they're doing so with the context of other related metrics, such as your customer churn rate, customer acquisition cost, and lifetime customer value. These and other important metrics help investors determine whether or not they're interested in funding your company.
Following seed funding, your B2B SaaS company will engage in further funding efforts. These rounds of funding are respectively referred to as Series A, Series B, and Series C funding, which represent the different stages of investment and require different types of financial reporting to attract investors.
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