FAQs
What is Outward’s purpose?
Helping founders breakthrough is what gets us out of bed in the morning. With the early stage being the toughest stage for founders, the greatest value that Outward can add is making the early-stage experience easier.
Breakthroughs are about our founders and their businesses reaching their fullest potential, whether that’s multibillion or multinational success. There will be bumps and a million no’s. We back ourselves to back you.
What sector(s) does Outward invest in?
We invest in founders building new technology and platforms that operate at the intersection of financial services with healthcare, education, climate and other society-shifting challenges.
What stage(s) does Outward invest in?
We make our entry investment in pre-Series A funding rounds of up to £5m. This is the toughest stage for founders and we want to help founders breakthrough.
How much does Outward initially invest and what percentage ownership is preferred?
We make our entry investment in funding rounds of up to £5m. Our investment ticket usually represents at least 50% of the round. 10-20% ownership is preferred.
Does Outward lead, co-lead or participate?
As we usually invest at least 50% of the round, we often find ourselves playing a lead role including actively supporting founders in the closing of the round. This may involve round structuring and helping in discussions with co-investors. We are equally comfortable with co-leading or participating.
Do you invest in pre-revenue companies?
We do invest in pre-revenue companies but we prioritise post-revenue companies. Our focus is on quality over quantity of revenue.
Will Outward make follow-on investments in its portfolio companies?
Our intention is to support our portfolio companies with follow-on investments in at least two further funding rounds. Investment decisions will be made at the time considering funding needs, commercial progress, round composition and terms.
How does Outward discover or meet companies?
We have discovered thousands of founders and companies through a wide range of sources including our network of current and exited portfolio companies, co-investor friends, local communities and simply serendipity. A warm intro from a mutual contact is nice but certainly not required. We like to back underdogs. Other than that, we have no pre-conceived notions of what makes a successful founder. To reach us, please use the form on our website.
How do you help and support founders post-investment?
Post-investment, we listen and learn, then customise our support to the specific needs of our portfolio companies. No two companies are the same. We can support with hiring, commercial partnerships, board construction, strategy for the next funding round, marketing or simply act as a sounding board. To understand the needs of the business, we do ask for a board observer right. Before choosing us as your investor partner, we suggest you speak with our portfolio companies to understand our approach to adding value post-investment.
Who are your Limited Partners?
We are fortunate to have British Business Bank and several other institutions as our LPs, as well as a family offices and individuals. Many of our LPs are current or former founders and executives with deep domain expertise in banking, healthcare, insurance, investment management, legal services, real estate, robotic process automation, social media, software development and wealth management. We try to leverage as much of this experience as possible to help our portfolio companies.
What geographies do Outward invest in?
We like to build trusted relationships with our companies. We go ‘all in’ to help our companies post-investment. For that reason, we primarily invest in companies where the founders are based in the UK at the time we make our entry investment. Of course, we expect most, if not all, of our companies will become multi-national and the founders may relocate with their businesses.
Who will we interact with from Outward?
While our companies will each have a primary point of contact at Outward, we work as a collective. Outward has a flat structure where everyone has their say in a trust-filled and supportive environment. You can expect to interact with several, if not all, members of the Outward team.
How does Outward promote Diversity and Inclusion internally and externally?
Internally, the Outward team is built on and will continue to be built on strong, diverse foundations. Currently, our small team covers 9 nationalities and 6 languages. Naturally, diversity and inclusion is at the front of our minds externally. Knowing that progress takes action, we are taking specific initiatives to improve diversity and inclusion in the composition of our companies and founders.