Raising Series B funding is a key time for any growing business who wants to expand their business.

The money raised as well as gained contacts and mentorship from investors can help take your business global.

If you get your Series B funding it right it can lead to a profitable and shared vision between founders and investors that will create value for both parties.

What is Series B funding?

Raising Series B funding from venture capital investors and angel investors allows you to build on your current success so you can head into new markets, launch new ad campaigns and beef up your tech support capabilities and more.

It’s a key time for any growing business and if you align with investors correctly you could gain further funding and eventually an IPO.

There’s a host of factors to consider, from how much business you want to give away to what investors you want to and efficiently and can be a profitable as possible from making sure that you can retain control of the business.

Job Today, the Luxembourg-based mobile hiring app, raised $20 million in November 2016 and topped it up with a $16 million extension in September 2018. It has taken investment from New York-based 14W, which have supported Deliveroo.

Co-founder Polina Montano, who runs the business with former VC man Eugene Mizin, tells GrowthBusiness the key things you need to think about when you’re preparing your pitch deck.

Communicate the opportunity

‘Typically an investor for Series B funding will be looking for a company with a clear understanding of the total investment market. You really have to be able to articulate what the entire full-size of the opportunity is and what the opportunity looks like.  So just be very clear with your comms work so you can actually bring in some clients and demonstrate how big the total investment opportunity is. This is how funding works.’

Further reading on VC fundraising

• VC Interview: Ali Mitchell, Partner at EQT Ventures
• VC interview: Kjartan Rist and Denis Shafranik, Concentric
• The Craftory interview: Meet the counter-corporate anti-VCs

Show you can build and manage a team

‘The investor will be looking at the team and they will be looking at the execution capabilities of the management team. “Yes, you have a plan, or you have proven that it’s an interesting market, I see the opportunity,” they may say. But do you actually have a team to bring it home and to make it happen? How convinced am I about your ability to attract top talent or how impressed am I with the members of the team that you have already? Investors will look at how successful you have been in building this first team and bringing on board the first members of the management team.

A good investor will bring you more than just money, they’ll also support you with expertise and guidance of someone who has seen companies similar to ours growing and they’ll know the challenges we have to face. Because of this, they’ll be able to save you from some of the mistakes that can happen.

Consider diversity in your business

‘They will most likely be also looking at diversity profiles you have brought on board. Diversity always helps and to have really a mixed management team and to obviously have females in management positions as well. But when I think about diversity, I actually mean team members who have complementary backgrounds and skills, because that’s really what we need to have to make our business successful.’

Show them your track record

‘Investors will be looking at the track record of the business,’ says Montano. ‘So if you are going to investors you are going to explain what it is you want to build; and you articulate your vision and your strategy. And they will want to see, for series B, how fast are you able to actually grow your numbers? ‘Show us the traction you’ve been able to build so far’ they will say. We really need to see this traction picking up on key metrics, whatever key metrics you have.  I think these are the three elements generally speaking that the company should be.’

See the global Venture Capital trends below

In conclusion

‘It’s really important to have investors on board who share and support your vision long term. In our case, the long-term vision is to build the world’s most popular social hiring platform,’ says Montano. ‘The ambition has been global since day one, that’s why we are able to work with first-tier investors in our industry.

‘And it’s really important to have people who share our vision, once again, in the long term, in the future, and can support your long-term goals without sacrificing whatever it is you have to do for short-term tactical priorities.’